This past weekend, what I affectionally refer to as 'E3 for spree killers' took place, the third annual Realms Deep. Hosted by 3D Realms, its a showcase for all things 'boomer shooter' - the somewhat daft but ultimately fitting term for FPS games influenced by the classic games released during the 90s - your Quakes, Dooms and Duke Nukems, to name a few. Last year's event was a mammoth FOUR AND A HALF HOURS and with over ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY games showcased, 2022's event was significantly pared back. Two hours and with a much greater focus on quality over quantity. A few games have had demos released and many games are expected to be released within the next twelve months.

Here's my pick of ten games I think you should check out from Realms Deep 2022.

Realms Deep 2022: My Picks.

PHANTOM FURY

A sort-of sequel to Ion Fury, one of the very best FPS games of the last few years and one of the three pillars of the 'boomer shooter' revival (alongside DUSK and Amid Evil), Phantom Fury looks to take a pretty risky change in direction for Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison. With a full 3D engine, chunky 8th/9th console gen visuals, loads of set pieces, interactable elements and vehicle sections, this appears to the 'Forever' to Ion Fury's '3D', if you catch my drift?

It's quite the departure and, well, we all know what happened with the Duke Nukem's sequel that had an incredible trailer, as well as being made by a company other than Voidpoint, so there's definitely a few reasons to be cautious about this one but there's something about how ballsy it is to actively go after the vibe set by that famous Duke Forever 2001 E3 trailer and perhaps deliver on the action-packed promise in a way that the original 3D Realms simply couldn't.

LABYRINTH OF THE DEMON KING

A J-Horror inspired survival horror title that is made up of a LOT of different things I really, really love. Obviously, there's a lot of Silent Hill, SIREN and Kuon on show here - it looks grim, gritty and makes you itch, the whole thing has the colour palette of a long discarded used bandage. It's apparently very heavily influenced by From Software's King's Field games, with some slow, methodical combat and a focus on exploration.

Sticking a door opening 'loading screen' at the end of the trailer shows that the developer knows EXACTLY what sort of game they're making and who they're making it for. This is a homage to a very specific period of horror games and one that clearly strives for authenticity. A lot of titles try to do the "PSX aesthetic" and end up feeling a bit fraudulent because there's far, far more to it than a bunch of wobbly textures and low-poly models. This looks like it NAILS it. Check out developer J. R. Hudepohl's YouTube channel for a few extra looks at the combat and some of the horrors you'll be encountering throughout the game (and a few videos of his cat).

77P EGG: EGGWIFE

The truly bizarre 77p Egg: Eggwife plays like the demented offspring of Postal 2 and that shite South Park FPS on the N64. Set in deepest, darkest Sheffield, you are tasked with getting our hero his titular Eggwife. You know this game is operating on a very specific level when you realise that you have a shit meter and you can use this shit meter to perform double jumps but don't get too hop happy because your shit also doubles up as ammo for the double barrelled shitgun. If you've smirked at that, then Eggwife is FOR YOU in the same way that it is for me.

Anyway, I think the content warning on the game's Steam page does a pretty good job of reviewing the experience and you should check out the demo of this immediately.

77p egg: Eggwife contains blood and gore, intense violence, cannibalism, nudity, very strong language, drug use, cartoon depictions of consensual sex, cartoon depictions of death caused by sexual mishap, excessive excrement including vomit and semen, animal cruelty, presence of sex toys.

HYPERVIOLENT

Despite the name evoking a much more balls-to-the-wall action game, Hyperviolent kind of plays like System Shock 2: Arcade Edition. Fast paced, aggressive DOOM style combat blends with some simple but compelling puzzles, exploration and inventory management to deliver a game that sits between the boomer shooter and ImmSim worlds - never committing too hard into either but never feeling like it is lacking in either department. It's a nice mix and one that feels quite fresh.

You can dual wield anything that can be held in one hand - two pistols, a gun and a melee weapon or even a weapon and a tool, like a torch - allowing for a lot of creativity in the combat and how you approach the incredibly aggressive enemies. There's also some quite clever puzzles involving data pads/terminals that go a bit above the usual "find passwords written down and use them" that keep you thinking and make it worth your while actually exploring, finding and actually reading the data pads - something that I hope is expanded on further in the full release.

CHASM: THE RIFT - REMASTERED

A remaster that has been willed into existence by Civvie 11, I am telling you. Chasm: The Rift is a Ukrainian developed FPS from 1997 that has a proper cult following - a cult following within this genre of games with cult followings - and can count the developers of DUSK and HROT among its fans. Despite being released to little fanfare and disappearing into abandonware hell for the best part of 25 years, Chasm: The Rift - somehow - managed to have a degree of influence on the current retro FPS revival.

It's a game that has you cutting about various time periods throughout history, blowing off enemy limbs (yes, in 1997) in levels full of really cool, atmosphere adding dynamic effects like weather and impact sparks (again, in 1997) and with a really cool arsenal of weapons which includes the Chasm trademark BLADE GUN. Perhaps due to the popularity of Civvie's video on it, it's being remastered, easily playable on modern systems and with 4K visuals - but crucially maintaining the look of the original release. A proper relic, this, and one worthy of another crack at something resembling success.

AMID EVIL: THE BLACK LABYRINTH

As mentioned earlier, Amid Evil is one of the absolute best of the resurgent boomer shooter genre. A combination of brilliant levels, weapons and enemy design and absolutely no fat whatsoever - everything in Amid Evil is there to serve a purpose and that purpose is to deliver a top, top tier FPS experience. It's packed to the gills with some of the best action you'll ever play and yet, it still leaves you wanting more, so when this expansion was announced a few years back, it has been at the top of a lot of 'most wanted' lists ever since.

How do you improve on a weapon that plucks planets from orbit and lets you fire them at your enemies? Perhaps a scythe that can rip the fabric of time and space will do the job? Or, fuck it, how about things just get stripped back to nothing more than your fists wearing a pair of spiked gauntlets like you're the Fighter in Hexen and have even THOSE appear to be more satisfying to use than 90% of other games entire arsenal? This one is a tap in, it is simply more of one of the best FPS games of the last decade.

ALDER CHOKE

A bit of a surprise, this one. A 2D shooter boss rush that has you trying to battle really, really tough enemies that kill you in one shot. There's a weird, fever dream vibe to it all - a creepy intensity underpinning everything you see - and a map screen to traverse between fights which seems to indicate that there will be some extra-curricular things to do but Alder Choke is really all about this hardcore battles against extremely tough opposition. The first boss kills you if he touches the floor, so you're not only dodging their projectiles but also trying to juggle them in the air with your bullets, like some kind of demonic version of PANG. Satanic Pang-ic? Sorry.

There's a touch of black humour to the constant, inevitable death. In fact, it's that humour that is going to tell you if this game is for you or not. If dying, due to a slight mix up, and failing to land the final hit on a boss is going to get a grin from you, as opposed to flinging your keyboard out of the fucking window, then absolutely give Alder Choke a go. As the game says 'press RIGHT buttons at the RIGHT time, don't press WRONG buttons at the WRONG time'. Simple, right?

COMPOUND FRACTURE

First appearing during last year's show and instantly making a huge impact, due to its extremely authentic PS1 look and, well, the fact that it looks like a first-person Dino Crisis revival, it was nice to get another look at Compound Fracture and see how much has been added to the game in the last twelve months. A lot, it seems - there's a lot more variety in the locales and the dinosaur enemies and that shotgun looks like it feels PERFECT, which as we all know is always the most crucial thing to get right when you're making an FPS.

Much like Labyrinth of the Demon King, this is a game that absolutely NAILS the PS1 3D aesthetic and very specifically the 3D shooters that appeared on the platform. The polygon shudder gives this the vibe of Alien Resurrection or the miraculous PS1 port of Quake 2. A slightly slower pace to the action makes Compound Fracture leans more towards a survival horror title than a boomer shooter, which definitely suits the style a lot more - the PS1 was hardly known for its fast-paced FPS games. I imagine a few big name publishers might have their eye on this as it looks a guaranteed winner. Let's see where this one ends up.

TENEBRIS SOMNIA

A 2D pixel art point and click adventure game with real life cutscenes, this one looks like an interesting mix and stood out a mile on the Realms Deep 2022 showcase. A quick look at developer Andrés Borghi's YouTube channel seems to reveal that this kind of short form indie horror is very much something he's done before, so how it is going to attach to a game is intriguing.

The point and click aspect is giving me very strong vibes of Maniac Mansion, which is an obvious plus point, but the way the creeping dread is emphasised by the jump to real actors dealing with, I assume, a real horror monster is an idea far too cool to ignore. There's not a great deal more to go on with this one but the concept is a banger. Can't wait to see more.

FORTUNE'S RUN

You know all that brilliant fucking Star Wars stuff from the decades of books and comics and games and all sorts of other places that Disney scooped up and shoved into a great big bin marked 'Legends' as soon as they came aboard? That's what Fortune's Run is like. It's like good Star Wars. Remember good Star Wars? With the world-building and atmosphere and awesome characters that existed in small corners of this massive galaxy far, far away that in turn made the original movies seem even better - THAT Star Wars. Fortune's Run remembers it too.

It plays like a hybrid of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight and an ImmSim like Deus Ex. You've got a lot of movement and combat options at your fingertips at all times - an almost overwhelming amount - and this allows you to approach missions and the situations that occur within them with your own personal touch. There's loads of little details in the world, be they flavour text found on a terminal or simply the perfect amount of mood lighting for a gritty off-world nightclub where the galaxy's worst scum and villainy hide out, that make the world of Fortune's Run seem real and lived in. It's a world I can't wait to explore and the full release of the first act can't come soon enough because the demo has very much left me wanting to see what other scrapes you can get into.

THANKS FOR READING.

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