Dusk

As the retro FPS establishes itself as a genre and many examples come out that are decidedly less than the sum of their influences, Dusk's confident, coherent and elegant design is all the more remarkable, wearing its lineage proudly, but definitely impressive outside of it. If anything, the way the game was promoted as a Quake/Blood/Half-Life homage rather undersells it; in many ways, it's a refinement of those titles' formulas, and as singular in its qualities as any of them.

After trying a handful of modern boomer shooters, I had been convinced that the genre simply wasn't my bag. Dusk obliterated that notion (and Cultic too but I'm still working on that one). Excellent on every level from the combat to the music to the art direction, and especially the top-tier level design. The two games that have blown me away the most so far this year were both made by David Szymanski — what a dev, and highly aspirational considering the tiny teams behind this and Gloomwood.