DUSK Nintendo Switch Review

Retro first-person shooters are making a huge return and DUSK is another prime example of bringing retro gaming to modern audiences. A dark bloody adventure full of challenges, mysteries, and bloodthirsty demons DUSK continues to surprise well until the credits roll. If you are a fan of first-person shooters you're doing yourself a disservice not to play DUSK.

DUSK is separated into 3 episodes and you can play any of them in any order but you should go in order. Players take control of the Treasure Hunter, a nameless person seeking riches but are captured by the town after sneaking in. Unknown to him the town is under demonic possession. After escaping the Treasure Hunter brutalizes his way through the cultists and finds out that it's not just the town, the military has arrived and has fallen victim to whatever is happening here. In order to escape the sealed town, the nameless protagonist must defeat whatever is causing this havoc.

Each episode has a distinct theme and multiple stages. The first bring The Foothills focuses on large farms and underground passages. The second episode The Facilities combines both military strongholds and supernatural areas and the final goes full Lovecraftian with ancient ruins. Each stage is well designed with retro visuals and complements that speedy run and gun formula fans love.

This is a classic FPS so expect to locate color-coded key cards, uncovering secret rooms, and wondering where you have to go. Older gamers familiar with Quake, Duke Nukem, and DOOM will have the mindset required for navigating these stages but modern gamers unfamiliar with these systems will have to adapt. The game does try to generally put you on the right path but during the semi-open areas, you can get lost since there's no map.

Weapon selection is plentiful and all of them are viable options. You have shotguns, an assault rifle, mortars, a crossbow, and many more. You can quickly swap between weapons using the weapon wheel and with a press of a button can switch back to your melee sickles for those pesky rats. Shooting is impactful and mobility is just as important. You're fast and there's no fall damage so making sure you can move to avoid damage is just as important as dealing. Especially when you go against DUSK's impressive boss fights. Unfortunately, the player loses access to all weapons during the start of each episode.

There are no checkpoints so if you die, you start at the beginning of the level. The game does offer quicksaves and 3 save slots for any part of the game. So if you're having trouble with a boss fight, like MAMA, you can save before the fight and keep trying. Each stage ends with a complete list of everything you accomplished and you quickly move on to the next with short load times.

DUSK keeps the player guessing well throughout the 3 episodes. At first, you're facing the same chainsaw lunatics and KKK-like figures but then suddenly you're facing scarecrows, then scarecrow mages, invisible cow demons, and it just gets crazier from there. When you think you know what's going on the game changes dramatically and during the end, after exploding hundreds the game gives you one last hooray.

DUSK is made for the Switch thanks to its short stage design. The game performed extremely well in docked and handheld, with me playing through the entire game in both modes with no issues. The only problem is the thumbstick, they're not great for FPS games in general. If you wish to take on DUSK on harder difficulties you'll need to invest in a pro controller.

DUSK is a brilliant first-person shooter that perfectly captures all of the best elements of a retro FPS. It doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel but that the concepts that work and use them well here. The distinct art style, fantastic boss fights, and constant introduction of distinct layouts and enemies ensure the player doesn't expect what is going to happen. DUSK is unforgiving but incredible, an FPS game that goes hard and doesn't stop.

Review Copy Provided

Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed