In order to spice thing up a bit with some sweet retro FPS fast paced action, I tried out ULTRAKILL. At first glance, I thought that ULTRAKILL was some kind of anime, judging by the name. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it is a unique one-of-a-kind FPS made by dev Hakita. This review is oriented around Act 1 that came out with the release of the base game in 2020. (act 2 & 3 reviews are in wip so stay tuned for that. coming soon in t-minus 4 hours)
In this game, you play as a blood-fueled robot called V1. Upon loading into the game, I was greeted by the infamous catch-phrase that sneaks itself everywhere, even where the sun don’t shine, and it goes something like this: “MANKIND IS DEAD, BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL.”. This is because, you can gain HP by drenching yourself in blood
"no i WAS NOT lying about the blood part"
"yeah yeah catch-phrase or whatever"
The prelude levels are a great introduction to each one of the unique mechanics. You can parry (as seen in other titles I’ve played before such as Pizza Tower and Cuphead) using your weapon of choice. Speaking of weapons, ULTRAKILL does not disappoint. Your 5 weapons of choice are: Revolver, Shotgun, Nailgun, Railcannon and your arms (believe it or not, your arms are bionic in the 3rd chapter, and you can upgrade them and deal lots of close range damage with them), with each weapon having 3 upgrade tiers. They definitely spice the game up and make the overall gameplay feel buttery smooth!
"is this a pizza tower reference????"
At 0-1 (Into The Fire), the first boss encounter awaits. It’s called the “Malicious Face”, and it is a… well… malicious face that shoots out orange fireballs. As a first-time player, it’s quite challenging, but the horror begins at 0-4 (One-Machine Army), where the boss is, singe-handedly, encountered as a normal enemy. This is, apparently, a very ULTRAKILL thing, because every boss in the game, no matter the difficulty, is a regular encounter later on in the game.
"wow this is very malicious -Hexarvenia"
"well hello again friend..."
And honestly? This mechanic/quirk is not even that bad! Definitely adds a bit of a challenge, and overall acts as a "contrast", in which you can tell how much you've improved since you've last defeated the encountered boss. Bosses in ULTRAKILL as a whole, can either be sick af robots, or absolute Undertale True Lab-style nightmare fuel. Take for example, V2, a cool robot with a sick design, and Hideous Mass, an insanely weird amalgamation of a scorpion and a cyborg that gives even skilled players a challenge later on in the game..
"take me back back home"
