There is that, but then look at the first levels of, errr, retro FPSes like Quake and Quake 2. Basic weapons, limited enemy types, and design / architecture / theme / atmosphere / exploration wise that would piss all over the last few games from such a great height it would leave dents in the typical New Blood shill's brainless head.

Ultrakill has a minimum introduction, 2 weapons with alt-fire and upgrades, 3 different enemies, 2 bosses, and an aesthetic tone that gets me hurrying to be underneath the piss waterfall so it can wash my retinas back to normal. 

Gloomwood demo.

Texture fidelity that makes Id1 look refined. Engine quality that makes Quakespasm look like Frostbite. Character and weapon models that barely deserve the term model...

...and yet it has a sense of place, atmosphere, and purposeful theme to it than warrants a place at the top the pissfall for design alone. If you can cope with the engine and model limitations (I probably can't), this demo really sets a good tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcFfnHrtNxU 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJVH8Ft5d5M A short one thing. Arguably not short enough. 

not really a Quake mod or TC? It looks 100% like one, even the assets.

As a mod as it says in the video it would be decent to good, with some fixes to the AI.

Also, could you provide a link for it? I cannot find a single thing, neither as a mod or as a commercial videogame. 

really looks like a Quake TC with a custom engine.

As rough as the graphics and audio are, I would rather play these quake-inspired maps than the wolf3d-inspired maps from your other recent videos. There are actual outdoor areas with room to circle strafe instead of endless linear box corridors everywhere.

and the steam page says they have "flushable toilets" 

HROT definitely requires a certain sensibility to the "eastern bloc oppressiveness" vibes.

The original Quake has a similar appeal, in a way I am unable to describe. 

Google HROT?

Also re: Queak inspiration, watch the last 20 seconds of the vid.... 

Did it, and found nothing, because in the video it is written HORT, not HROT. With Hrot it is easy. 

Queak inspiration, watch the last 20 seconds of the vid....

Yeah, the looks are different from iD maps, but the textures look 100% percent that they come from a Quake custom map. More than inspired, copied from a .wad found somewhere. 

https://youtu.be/1v_X2v255W0

RetroFPS REAL TALK and final Ultrashill thoughts. I'm done with this for now. 

My two cents about retro games in 2020:

3D Realms is doing a great job with Wrath, Graven and Ion Fury. Recruiting veteran mappers to do what they do best.

New Blood, apart from Gloomwood (made by a veteran Thief custom-mapper), all other games in their catalog feels more like a satire of old-school games, they remind me of those joke-wads from Doom community. I don't like it. 

Gloomwood looks cool. More like a Thief-style stealth game than a true FPS. But it's surprising the janky model/animation quality doesnt seem to have improved at all since Dusk. I know its still a one-man or at least very limited team, but you'd think they could hire or commission a modeler with the money from Dusk. 

Ion Fury....I wouldn't get on with the build engine and sprites, but definitely got a strong theme and purpose.

This...

New Blood, apart from Gloomwood (made by a veteran Thief custom-mapper), all other games in their catalog feels more like a satire of old-school games, they remind me of those joke-wads from Doom community. I don't like it.

...is spot on too. I got the same feeling scrolling through 90% of the Realms Deep stuff on Steam. 

A request please:

If anyone does find any properly good / inspiring retro FPSes that are of the ilk that Tribal listed above, please do still link them with shots and gameplay footage etc. The concept is still valid... Thanks. 

If you're looking to get really fucking mad, look up Effigy, Endless Hunger and Perilous Warp. Utter fucking tart that people DROOL over, it makes me seriously wonder what these people get out of these games. Do they just hear buzzwords and dribble out a gleeful response? It's baffling. 

And see further down the Effigy comments list.... 

let's hope it is an alpha and the brushwork simple blockout and not something which seems to be even worse than Dusk. Also, i think someone linked a video to it here before. 

One of the 0.5% of RetroFPSes to actually show some potential including an aesthetic "theme" and some actual "design" is in Early Access...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/964800/Prodeus/

Cheers vigil for linking it on Discord. 

https://twitter.com/tdDaz/status/1326638392361226240

Gotta say, those shots show things like "theme" "atmosphere" "architecture" "harmony of aesthetics" and other such rarities. Even the hud is pretty tasteful. 

I've decided that Hard Reset, as minor and limited as it is, is a true retro-FPS.

Does it blend old skool simple / fast gameplay with modern production values??

Does it actually have a theme, purpose, design, satisfying weapons and a decent bestiary??

Yes to both.

It has many issues: Movement is a bit sluggish, enemies are a bit bullet-spongey, almost all the cool architecture is a pure un-visitable backdrop, it's very arenay in places and quite 2-D in others, and if you care about such things the inter-mission story / dialogue is beyond terrible, it's also pretty damn short including the DLC.

But I had fun with it. The double weapons and their plethoric upgrades are actually nicely done and fun, the enemies at least have a theme, the backdrops are really cool and the overall graphics are good.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/407810/Hard_Reset_Redux/ 

it's dirty cheap now on gog: https://www.gog.com/game/hard_reset_redux 

Here's some utter TURD that has been ruining poor viewers' eyes on Discord recently:

https://youtu.be/BIOJ6QURT5k

Nail And Crescent aka we have one torch model and one SNG ripped off from Quake Chumps or somewhere and think that a load of box rooms and plain pillars are enough to make a game BECAUSE RTX. Minecraft HD-textured box-cow ahoy!


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9F6I4gpeaEGcPDIvFC82pA/videos

Psymmetry aka all the effects and none of the level design whatsoever. Snapmap ahoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/807900/Hellver/

Hellver aka a pre-alpha test for devil fucking daggers being played on the gameboy or a pocket fucking calculator. Eye prolapse of horror ahoy! 

Nail and Crescent is claiming to be still WIP and really just a pack of content to make quake1-style levels in Quake2RTX. So, it makes sense that they don't have much content to show yet and also that they don't have any real level design. Maybe it's not ready to make a whole trailer, though. 

And maybe they should just port quakespasm to RTX. 

They need a third party audit on all that goddamn specularity on every surface.