Maybe it’s Call of Duty’s fault. Perhaps we wouldn’t have a boomer shooter revival right now if the biggest franchise in modern FPS games hadn’t spent so much time prompting us to ‘press X to pay respects’, throwing us out of yet another helicopter or having us shoot another crimelord amidst an exploding space station in zero gravity. Sometimes you’ve just got to keep it simple.
That’s what the boomer shooter movement speaks to, really: a shedding of unnecessary frills from the shooter. There’s you, there’s a room full of enemies, and here’s a weapon that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. Go make some jelly. This was the dominant school of thought during the ‘90s, when id Software was just throwing out banger after banger and we got to experience the life-affirming shift from 2D to 3D graphics, and it’s this purity of experience, together with nostalgic visuals and ironic tone, that boomer shooters promise.
Is it a bit of an ageist term? Sure. We wouldn’t presume that a younger gamer wouldn’t enjoy Dusk, in the same way we wouldn’t presume a gamer in their sixties would get nothing out of Overwatch. But as with walking sims, you can’t hold a good niche genre down by slapping a pejorative label on it.
Here, then, are ten shooters that bring back the glory days, various visions thereof. There’s blood, there’s sprites, and there’s very little to no battle passes, NFT helmets or collectibles.
Dusk
Much like the cocktail bar of the same name where this writer used to work, there’s an overwhelming feeling that something isn’t quite right in David Szymanski’s Dusk. It’s that marriage of genuinely skin-crawling atmosphere and inch-perfect mechanical splendor that elevates it well above the ranks of mere nostalgia fodder.
It does nostalgia expertly though, you understand. Right from the fake DOS boot window when you launch it, complete with Win95 beep, to the granular levels of pixelation and retro-ness that you’re able to tweak in the graphics.
Its greatest achievement, though, is its ability to have you totally engaged in what’s an outrageously satisfying and quick shooter, laughing at the onslaught of dogs in wooden cages it’s throwing at you… and also genuinely freaked out by them.
Graven
The name alone conjures similarly nonsensical ‘90s puzzlers Myst and Riven, and indeed it’s puzzles you’ll get here in Graven. Most boomer shooters strip away newfangled layers found on modern shooters like story, inventories and… absolutely everything else besides shooting burly men. Slipgate Ironworks’ approach is maximalist by contrast, using the ‘90s-inspired visuals as a jumping off point tonally and delivering on the fast-paced, instant gratification combat (shout out to the Bulletstorm-style kicking people into spikes), but then taking the player deeper into a convincing plague-addled world. Currently in Early Access and planned for a 2022 release, it features one of three planned hubs in its current state, and that in itself feels pretty shareware. So retro.
PowerSlave Exhumed
Set in a comic-book depiction of ancient Egypt and originally released in 1996 – a period during which all non-id shooters were sucked into the gravitational pull of Doom and Quake, never to be remembered on their own terms – PowerSlave is back. In Exhumed form, no less.
Whereas most boomer shooters cherry-pick period elements and daub them in post-irony, this is a Nightdive remaster of a game from the very era the others on this list are paying tribute to. As such, there’s no fourth wall-breaking meta-commentary from the creator. Just pure, sprite-based shooting with tremendous pace and a unique setting. Seriously – why haven’t more games plundered ancient Egypt for material?
Strafe
It might have the dubious honor of being better remembered for its incredible (and shockingly violent) live-action promo trailers than the game itself, but that’s only because those trailers were so good. Strafe’s a roguelike with Quake sensibilities, urging you ever-deeper into sci-fi facilities where every panel might be a hidden monster closet – or a game-changing power-up.
Released back in 2017 when pop culture’s nostalgic gaze was fixed on Stranger Things rather than id’s ‘90s output, Strafe was ahead of the curve. And it had some fresh ideas too, not content with just replicating an old experience but mashing it up with nu-school sensibilities. Worth a try for anyone looking for a real challenge as well as a yesteryear hit.
Aleph One
Before Halo, Washington state-based Bungie was the studio behind Marathon. It didn’t quite break through into the mainstream in ‘96 like its Xbox launch title progeny, but it’s fondly remembered by those who played it in situ and those who discovered it many years later alike.
Ordinarily it’d be as difficult to run now as any PC game released in 1996, but thanks to an impressive community effort the game engine lives on in open-source form. That means all three Marathon titles are playable on modern PCs and Macs. It’s a fascinating bit of game archeology, and shows Bungie’s unwavering fascination for sci-fi worlds. And guns.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
Sounds like a metal festival, is in fact a Quake-inspired FPS. Wrath: Aeon of Ruin isn’t going to sit you down and guide you through hours of exposition or have NPCs wander up to you with lore-building things to say. It tells its story through the appearance of its grotesque monsters and the twisted nightmare landscapes they live on.
Currently in Early Access, it was slated for a summer 2021 release but things have gone dark since then. Right now you get 25% of the game levels and over half the arsenal of weapons.
Amid Evil
For a moment there in the ‘90s, shooters got very interested in witchcraft and staffs. Heretic and Hexen showed a different mode of FPS action, all wizardy names and orbs of energy instead of bullets. And while looking back I don’t think any of us were fooled for a second by the fact those staffs and magical orbs were just incredibly powerful guns by any other name, truthfully we didn’t care much.
Amid Evil is a direct callback to those days. A curious mix of modern fidelity – it’s running on Unreal Engine 4 – and retro perfunctory environments, it sets the atmosphere nicely and then lets loose a particularly savage pack of AI monsters on you. There’s even ray tracing support now, if you really can’t decide if you want it to be the ‘90s or not.
Selaco
Ok, look – this one isn’t out yet. Its current release date is August 25, 2255, so in a way it feels a bit early to be bringing it up. But Selaco looks great.
There’s something about the sparseness of its weapon animations – like something from sprite-based shooters, but in a 3D environment – that tells you this is the work of creators who’ve really considered the details of what makes a retro shooter feel right. Running on GZDoom, an advanced source port of the Doom engine, it’s promising self-aware AI that works together to hunt you down in groups, a rare story-driven campaign that doesn’t take the story part lightly, and a F.E.A.R.-like vibe. Just when we all thought they were done scaring us with little girls. Great.
(We’re pretty sure that release date is a joke on the developer’s part. Pretty sure…)
Prodeus
If Brutal Doom no longer had any tether in the original Doom, you’d get this. Dark sci-fi facilities stuffed with scowling assailants like it’s rush hour and they use this base to commute, brought to life with a mix of modern and retro rendering techniques that you just can’t stop looking at, and preposterously adrenaline-pumping, Prodeus knows how to ply a trade in boomer shooters. In Early Access like several other list entrants, it’s expected out in 2022 and will bring a full solo campaign, level creation tools and sharing facilities.
Ion Fury
3D Realms is at the heart of the boomer shooter revival, publishing titles created on its Build Engine that also birthed Duke Nukem 3D in the early 1800s. Ion Fury (previously Ion Maiden before the lawyers got involved) is just such a game. It looks like the Duke Nukem Forever in our dreams circa 1997, still just about recognizable for its engine but teeming with impossible levels of detail and keeping a constantly high bar of destructive spectacle.
A quick disclaimer: employees at developer Voidpoint were found to have used transphobic language in a Discord conversation, for which 3D Realms apologized and stated the developers in question were to be disciplined. Further investigation revealed some homophobic material within the game, such as a slur written in an inaccessible area of one level, and some soap dispensers bearing homophobic names.
Written by Phil Iwaniuk on behalf of GLHF.
