As a twisted, contorted blend of genres, Ultrakill shouldn’t work. It infuses Devil May Cry’s style-focused system with classic Doom-style aesthetics, forcing you to pull off combos and constantly vary your attacks as you make your way through a story wrapped in dark, ultraviolent themes. The result is one of Steam’s best FPS games, and in this bundle, it’s under $2 – a massive 93% off its typical price.
Despite the absolutely chaotic mixture of genres at play, Ultrakill somehow nails the balance. You can play it as straight as possible – switching between various guns, walking around the different levels, and defeating the enemies before moving on to the next step. The game doesn’t penalize you for this; it’s a fair way to do your first playthrough. However, the more you familiarise yourself with Ultrakill’s mechanics and find ways to carve out your own path, the better it is, and later runs will see you focus on speedrunning levels while scoring that coveted P-rank.
You play as V1, a surprisingly acrobatic and well-armed machine that is forced to go into the depths of Hell. ‘Why?’ I hear you asking (or perhaps that’s in my head). Well, humanity is extinct, and the machines run on blood, so to sustain yourself, you need to power through hordes of demons. Of course, it’s not as simple as feasting on the rivers of blood in Hell, and that’s all I’ll say about it. You should discover the story for yourself.
Ultrakill’s story is pretty great, but the gameplay is what makes it deserving of ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ on Steam. From parrying your own shotgun bullets to increase their velocity to a well-placed and accurate blast on your pistol, the variety that Ultrakill grants you makes every level feel fluid and fun. The goal always remains getting those high ranks at the end of levels, but in reality, even receiving a poor rank isn’t disappointing – it just gives you another reason to play it all again.
This is one of those well-respected indies that I always recommend to family and friends who enjoy FPS games. You can tell it was made with a lot of love, and as a fan of character action games, it’s a match made in Hell (in a good way). It’s not finished yet, either. The game is currently in early access, and we’re waiting for the Fraud layer to finally release, which is the penultimate set of levels for the game’s narrative. That means you’re coming in at a perfect time – you won’t have to wait too long for Layer 8, and before you know it, Layer 9 will give you another reason to return.
Right now, you can get Ultrakill as part of the Decked Out Collection at Humble Bundle, giving you seven games for just $12 / £10.71. That’s actually below Steam’s lowest price for the game anyway, but with six other games to enjoy, they drop to just below $2 / £2 each, meaning you’re getting it for 93% off the retail price. However, Ultrakill isn’t the only worthy purchase in this bundle, as the rest of the games are equally impressive. The games included are:
- Ultrakill
- Haste
- Vampire Survivors
- Creatures of Ava
- Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands
- Backpack Hero
- Nidhogg 2
So, if you’ve been waiting for an excuse to give Ultrakill a try (or any of the other games on this list), this Humble Bundle isn’t one to miss out on. Fortunately, they’re all Steam keys too, so no need to download another launcher. We all know how frustrating that would be.
