INCISION

A gritty, grimy, bloody boomer shooter. It's all rusted metal and blood in the best way. Almost all great weapons, great level design, soundtrack really fires up after episode one. Good boss fights. The life system without checkpoints is odd, especially given how long some of the levels can be but it didn't ruin the fun.

Great atmosphere and level design.

Однозначно один из лучших бумер-шутеров

Hello, SmoothBrainDev. May I call you Smooth? Please, sit down. We're going to have ourselves a [i]pleasant[/i] conversation about what you consider easy mode.

peak

Ultraviolent, megabrutal, unforgiving (yet fair) old-school FPS, that will really test your movement and shooting skills. Saying it right away: this game is for more experienced FPS players, new blood is not welcome here, go play something else. It starts hard, and keeps going hard. Overall, the game is pretty solid: the guns are fun, each enemy requires unique approach, good level variety (balanced mixing of closed/open spaces and good pacing). On the surface, the game looks quite similar to Dusk and Turbo Overkill: there is a weird cult, doing weird things with flesh/blood under the city with a weird cult leader (Dusk), except the flesh can grow into metal, augmenting creatures and the consuming flesh has it's own kind of consciousness (Turbo Overkill). There are no big reveals, yet it works well and the world feels fresh (I think they nailed old PS vibes). Anyway, the story is not the point in this kind of games as there is not a lot of lore; major part of the plot can be only accessed after beating the whole game, in the bestiary (don't forget to check it out, wish more games had this!). The next point I want to discuss is "no checkpoints" feature. Instead, you will find 1-UPs, which resurrect you right in the middle of battle when you run out of health (giving short slow motion and invincibility). I think it's a fair and good system: makes secret hunting more valuable, works with falling out of the map and other instakills (usually by your own hands, shooting rockets up close is a bad idea!). Replaying entire levels (when you run out of lifes) may suck, but you can save more 1-UPs in earlier segments to make up for harder ones. The levels are not that long anyway (boss fights are always separate levels, don't worry!), about 20-30 minutes long when playing for the first time. There is no armor, you die pretty fast (100 to 0 in <5 hits), health is limited, so you will need those 1-UPs quite often. Difficulty context: I played on harder difficulty (3rd option), found it pretty balanced and challenging for veteran players like myself (100% completed ULTRAKILL, DUSK, Turbo Overkill on hard difficulties prior to this). Had to replay a few levels, but it's fine... except 1 bs boss fight in the Ep. 3, where the boss shoots fast homing explosive rockets (I HATE IT, though it only required like 5 restarts). Fun fact: I only realized you can sprint in the mid of Ep. 2... it may even be not that hard, assuming you can face tank some bosses (and some homing enemies) without dodging properly (and not really dying, lol)! Speaking of sprint and movement: I think I don't quite like it, it could have been better to remove sprinting altogether and increase normal speed a bit, imo. Also jumping feels a bit weird as you keep levitating in the air at the same height for a brief moment, I prefer other games here. But it makes dodging easier, I guess? About weapons: overall, pretty good arsenal in terms of fun and variety (10 guns + each has alternative fire). Revolver and rocket launchers are my goats! There is enough ammo on average, but ammo limit is quite low so you have to switch weapons often, which makes the gameplay more varied. However, I feel like shotguns are underwhelming: they are too inaccurate, only usable very close (compared to the games mentioned before), especially supershotgun, it's sooooo hit or miss, because of very short range with enemies and you moving so fast (alt fire is epic though). Music is also underwhelming, nowhere close to games I mentioned earlier. It sets the tone and fits the game narrative, but does not really have any identity aside from weird sound choices. Though you gotta respect the fact that each level can have like 5 or more (sometimes completely different) music pieces for no reason as you move through different sections. Overall, I think it's a decent old-school shooter with solid movement and gunplay, that can challenge even experienced FPS players. I would definitely not recommend this as an introduction to this genre. Otherwise, it's a good option if you are looking for some hardcore boomer shooter to play through in a few evenings.