DUSK, the 90s throwback first-person shooter, has been a pre-order game for the past few months, and it was promised to be released by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the game will be delayed until next year, but starting on January 11, DUSK will officially enter Steam Early Access in order to keep its current momentum going.
DUSK is an FPS game that is reminiscent of Quake and DOOM, sporting old-style 3D graphics, macabre enemies, heavy-metal-inspired music, and fast-paced gameplay. The game, at the time of pre-order, has two of its three promised episodes available for play, endless arena 1 and 2, and the DUSKWorld Multiplayer Open Beta. The episodes act as the single-player campaign, endless arena has the player fighting off endless waves of enemies, and DUSKWorld is the multiplayer aspect of the game where players can fight against one another. Although DUSKWorld is still in beta, it currently has a stable version, but it will not leave beta until DUSK‘s full release. Once DUSK enters early access, players will be able to access all of the title’s available content with ease.
DUSK has about 7,500 users have already purchased the game, and 30,000 users have the game on their wishlist. The developers claim that “by opening the game up to more people in Early Access – we’ll be able to get all the DUSKWorld testing we need on a larger scale, give you Episode 2 sooner than later (why not) and also finally allow DUSK to start being seen on the Steam store as a purchasable game with user reviews plus possibly get promotion from Valve – all of which is super important for an indie game.”
Although disappointing to some, many are grateful that the developers are keeping their fans updated as well as being transparent with their choices moving forward. Once DUSK enters into Steam Early Access, and as a sign of good faith, owners of a pre-order will be automatically upgraded to the $30 DUSK Digital Collector’s Edition for free. The collector’s edition comes with the 40-page DUSK digital comic and the official DUSK soundtrack. DUSK will remain at $20 for its life, and the Digital Collector’s Edition will be $30.
DUSK still does not have an official release date, but the developers hope to have the fully released with episode 3, endless arena 3, DUSKWorld multiplayer v1.0, achievements, and trading cards. In addition, the team will be working towards Steam Workshop integration, co-op, a Mac and Linux port, and DAWN SDK, so the team has a busy year ahead of them.