ULTRAKILL Review

Instructions

Hit flag to hear peak as you read Sorry, Pizza Tower, but you've been de-throned as my favorite game of all time. I've been wanting to review this one for a while, so now is the time. I just REALLY want to share my opinions on this game. So, if you have been living under a rock, ULTRAKILL is a boomer-shooter similar to DOOM, but implements lots of more advanced movement technology and a tiny smidge of some platforming elements. You're a machine rampaging through Hell itself in order to find blood (which is your fuel) to stay alive. A very simple story, yes, but the lore behind Hell and it's story and characters go extraordinarily deep. And I want to say that I believe ULTRAKILL has the best depiction of Hell I have ever seen in any media EVER. It goes much further than "big red scary place with creepy demons." It is structured like Dante's Inferno, except every layer is a entire civilization that you're trying to ANNIHILATE. Layer 1 is like a peaceful, grassy plains type area with lots of white columns and a beautiful blue sky, with very calming music. But later in the level, it goes into flames and the music gets much more menacing as the demons desperately try to stop your rampage. Then you go into Layer 2, which is a beautiful city of neon purples and blues, with towers and buildings of all kinds surrounding you. Every layer is completely unique, with many secrets to uncover to help you understand the things that happened to make the layer what it is. And as you uncover the lore and stories of these layers, a more depressing story starts to arise. Hell only has so many demons, and you're destroying everything built down there just so you can stay alive a little longer, even though you know you'll run out of fuel eventually. So much pain and suffering just for your own temporary personal gain. The theme of blood as fuel also aligns with the gameplay, because to heal, you need to shower yourself in the blood of your enemies. And rather than trying to dodge stuff to keep health, you sacrifice your health and cycle through healing it as you destroy enemies in the coolest ways imaginable. And since we're on the topic of gameplay, I want to mention that this game has the most fun gameplay I have ever witnessed. It makes you feel EXTREMELY powerful, but it's never mindless. You could pour hundreds of hours into this game, and you would STILL be getting better at it at all times. There is lots of weapon variety, which makes the player be constantly switching their weapon, this way things never get stale. ULTRAKILL isn't a game where you can equip the default pistol and just shoot stuff. You need to be creative with combining the stage layout and your abundant amount of moves to defeat your foes, whilst constantly switching your weapons to deal the maximum amount of damage. Parrying is also a big element of ULTRAKILL, as every time you punch a bullet it goes flying back at someone and does crazy damage. The mechanic takes time to master, but it's incredibly satisfying to do and is very useful for boss fights. I also want to talk about the level design, which I think is perfect for V1's moves etc. They are pretty damn linear, but there's an abundance of secrets and esster eggs to uncover, as well as a challenge for each level. And despite the linear design, I somehow find these levels to be super replayable and each one is fun in it's own way. I hear a lot of people gripe about the lack of enemy variety, but I think there's plenty and if there were any more enemies it would probably become a little but too much and would make a fast paced game much slower and confusing to learn a ton of more enemy attack patterns. So I think it's perfect, but if you disagree with that, I won't argue about it. The game is... quite unaccessible, I have to admit. It's very difficult, even from the start, but once you learn it, it'll all be worth it and be a boatload of fun. I also want to talk about how cinematic ULTRAKILL is. Even though it has very few cutscene sequences, the levels themselves feel like you're watching a movie at points. Layer 6 is a good representation of this, as the level starts out dark with no music and some eerie coffins hanging from chains on the ceiling. But once you find a red skull and put it on a podium, you go into an area surrounded by thick red fog and surreal structures as a guitar blasts through your ears that sounds like it's crying as the title of the level drops. Like... what?? How could they evoke so many emotions through a single couple seconds of gameplay without even showing a SINGLE piece of dialogue or even a cutscene? Every level has epic crap like this, too. Don't get me STARTED on 8-3. Oh, right, and speaking of boss fights, I should probably talk about those. Some of these guys belong in FromSoft games. They're all very unique, but VERY, VERY challenging. The first encounter with V2 has to be one of the craziest difficulty spikes I've ever seen in a game, and it's awesome. (Cont. Below)