Set within the confines of a small cottage on the coast of Britain, The Outcast Lovers is a somber follow-up to the tragic events of The Night Fisherman. After sheltering the boy who has found his way into their custody, the couple now face a crisis of conscience as they debate what to do next. Should they turn him over to the authorities, or do they take him in as their own son despite their commitment to never have children of their own?
It is almost certain at this point that New Blood Interactive’s creative output is going to quickly dwarf our capacity for keeping up, expanding inevitably until the entire universe is wholly subsumed by New Blood Interactive games and domain names. The newest entry in this growing existential threat to our reality is Hakita’s brilliant ‘Devil May Quake’ action romp, ULTRAKILL, a wonderful FPS that feels like a distinct throwback to the less-than-tasteful BULLETSTORM with its elaborate combo mechanics and incentive to stylishly gore enemies in the most imaginative ways possible.
Where ULTRAKILL truly succeeds is in the way it incentivizes the high octane violence on display. Rushing through the bloody showers of monstrous destruction is the only way you regain health- there’s no medkits or edible wheels of cheese here, only your determination to keep it as close & personal as possible with your foes and foe accessories. Waging cosmic warfare has never been so satisfying as it is in ULTRAKILL, and the straightforward gunplay gives way to a staggering depth of technique and modular fire modes to increase its depths outside of its literal blood opera acrobatics. Oh, did I mention, there’s wall jumping, sliding, dashes, ground pounds and double-jumps, giving the player an incredible degree of movement expression that will leave enemies’ heads spinning for days, were they to ever live that long, then again their heads will just as likely spin without them.
What do you get when you throw plague doctors into a blender with turn of the century penny dreadful pulp-novels? A lot of noise that attracts all the guards, seriously, might as well use the shotgun at that point.
New Blood Interactive‘s Gloomwood is a love letter to the first person sneak’em’up genre, demonstrating the team’s impeccable ability to zero in what makes beloved cult-classics tick and incorporate those creative influences into something wholly new. It’s hard to decide if the works they produce are remixes, spiritual successors, or homages to the titles they have reverence for, but I do know one thing: they’re incredibly fun and polished to an incredibly high degree.