It’s been five years since David Szymanski and New Blood Interactive’s critically acclaimed retro FPS Dusk first emerged – effectively heralding start of the ‘boomer shooter’ resurgence as it did so – and to celebrate the occasion, a special “HD remaster” has been released as free DLC.
Dusk, with its furiously paced action and unapologetically chunky polygons, draws inspiration from the first-person shooter legends of the mid-90s – Quake being an obvious influence – taking players on a hellish Lovecraftian adventure deep beneath the Earth’s surface. It’s got cultists, a metal soundtrack, three campaign episodes, and a varied arsenal ranging from shotguns to crossbows and swords. It is a good time!
And now, five years after its release, Dusk is ready to careen into the modern era (assuming that modern era is circa the early 2000s) with an HD remaster that features remade assets for all existing visual elements – including enemy and weapon models – alongside a few new ones.
Dusk HD is free to download as DLC if you already own the base game – if you don’t, it’s currently discounted by 66 percent on Steam, bringing the price down to £5.09 – and it arrives alongside official Steam Workshop support for the game. A full Dusk Development Kit is also being prepared but is still a “few weeks away”.
Digital Foundry’s John Linneman took a look at the Switch version of Dusk back in 2021, calling it a “a beautifully nightmarish modern retro shooter”.