Who did you expect at the end of all this? God? The Devil, perhaps... ?

No... It's just... me...

Take a look at some of my other reviews, and you'll quickly notice that it is rare that I have nothing I can say negative about a game. But DUSK... DUSK is one of those games that makes me struggle to avoid using the word "perfect" when describing it.

So instead, I'll say this: First we had Carmack and Romero. Then we had Ken Silverman, who brought us the Build engine. And now, we have David Szymanski. And he damn well deserves to be named among them.

Boomer shooters on Steam are a dime-a-dozen, and I'd go so far as to say that while many of them are perfectly serviceable or even good games, at best many of them merely ape the classics, often without understanding what made those games great. The creators of DUSK ABSOLUTELY understand what made those games great, and they built on the carefully designed levels, the effortlessly smooth controls, the satisfying guns (OH, the guns!), the campy horror-laden aesthetic, the crafty and varied enemies, all of it... to build a game that is both a love letter to the classics and a game that is truly, with no exaggeration, worthy to be named among them.

Everything about DUSK is intentionally designed, down to the smallest detail, the craftiest secret, the silliest joke (yes, I'm talking about the soap). They thought of everything, and tuned everything towards one singular end--making the game fun.

DUSK does not waste your time or overstay its welcome. It offers no cheap traps. It never copy-pastes, from itself or from other games. It never says, "No, you can't do that, because I want you to play my game THIS way."

The very fact that the game is still receiving support, with an upcoming free SDK and "HD" version releasing to the Steam Workshop (completely optional, for those who don't want it!), solely for the purpose of supporting modders and adding even more customization options (to a game that is already the most visually customizable game I have ever played), should speak for itself. DUSK is a labor of love, by absolute masters of the genre, made for people who love the genre.

If you grew up playing DOOM, Heretic, HeXen, Duke Nukem, Blood, Quake, Shadow Warrior, or any of the other classics or near-classics of boomer shooter yesteryear, then with all the excitement and joy I can muster, let me say...

Do I EVER have a game to recommend to you!