As anyone who has read my steaming pile of crap humble blog may know, I absolutely adore retro FPS games, as well as the throwback games that honor them. Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, they are all classics. As a fan of these titles I'm so glad that we're living in an age of resurgence for the genre. And so I turn my attention to Viscerafest, the debut title from Acid Man Games and Fire Plant Games. Recently released into early access, Viscerafest has utterly opened a can of whoopass on the indie gaming scene, and shows no signs of stopping.
I've played and mastered a lot of hard games over the years, and Viscerafest ranks among the most ass-kickingest of them. It's an experience that doesn't bother to hold your hand, but instead drops you straight into the fray and lets you git gud by trying over and over again. I never felt the game was being unfair, it just takes a fair degree of skill to get through. With practice anyone can get through the levels, even with my dominant hand being bandaged up after surgery I managed to make a go of it. The tight controls and powerful melee attacks certainly helped.
A lot of fps games over the years have been dull brown affairs, with scenery and enemies just blending together into a bland mush. Viscerafest kicks that trope square in the cojones. Everything is vibrant and stands out from the backgrounds, which quickly get painted in multiple colors by the gore of your foes. Despite being on the Unity engine, Viscerafest looks and feels like a classic 90's fps, with the gorgeous spritework, level design, and soundtrack to back it up. The only thing that doesn't feel like the games it plays tribute to is the save system, which requires you to save up single use items to create a checkpoint. Though it does make you think carefully and plan ahead, it would still be nice to have the option to save-scum through the levels for more causal playthroughs.
All in all Viscerafest is a great experience with a unique story that I don't want to spoil here, and I'm looking forward to see what comes next in the second chapter! If you love massively retro and/or balls-to-the-wall ultraviolence, you should definitely grab it ASAP!
