Ultrakill

Ultrakill
Developer(s)	Arsi "Hakita" Patala
Publisher(s)	New Blood Interactive
Producer(s)	Dave Oshry
Designer(s)	Arsi "Hakita" Patala
Programmer(s)	Arsi "Hakita" Patala PITR
Artist(s)	Andrei Mishchenko Francis Xie Victoria Holland
Writer(s)	Arsi "Hakita" Patala
Composer(s)	Arsi "Hakita" Patala meganeko Keygen Church Health
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	September 3, 2020 (early access)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Ultrakill is a first-person shooter video game developed by Arsi "Hakita" Patala and published by New Blood Interactive. It was released on Steam through Early Access for Microsoft Windows on September 3, 2020. It can also be played as a free demo. The game uses retro-style graphics and movement capabilities reminiscent of 1990s first-person shooters such as Quake and Doom.

Gameplay

Ultrakill's gameplay takes place in a series of levels heavily inspired by Dante's layers of Hell. The game is divided into a prelude and three acts. The main antagonist and boss in the last level of every act thus far is the Archangel Gabriel.

The player has access to six weapons: a revolver, shotgun, nailgun, railcannon, rocket launcher, and an arm, each having multiple variants. The player can build a style meter through several ranks, similar to games such as Devil May Cry.

A key game mechanic is the ability to regain health by absorbing the fresh blood of enemies through close range combat. The recovery of health can be diminished by taking "hard damage", which temporarily reduces the maximum amount of health the player can have.

At the end of each level, the player will be ranked in various categories (time, kills, and style), averaged to give an overall level rank. Completing a level without dying or reloading back to a checkpoint, and with an S rank in all three categories, will award the player with a P rank, which is the highest.

Ultrakill also has secret levels, which deviate from the usual gameplay and opt for a spin or riff on other video game genres, such as horror or dating sims.

It also features an endless mode called "The Cyber Grind", where the player fights randomized waves of enemies, awarding the player points upon completion, which can be used to get weapons and skins.

Plot

In the future, humanity has been rendered extinct by unknown causes, and the Christian god has disappeared, leaving Heaven without a ruler. Due to the exhaustion of blood sources on Earth, several blood-fueled machines, among them the player character V1, have gone to Hell in search for blood. V1 fights husks (manifestations of the souls of the damned), demons (statue-like creatures made to guard Hell), competing machines, and angels (manifestations of the souls of the virtuous, or beings created to serve Heaven) while going down the layers of Hell, culminating in a fight against the archangel Gabriel. Following his defeat at V1's hands, the council of Heaven, who have begun to rule Heaven in God's absence, strip Gabriel of his holy light, leaving him with 24 hours to live, and order him to fight it again.

Reception

The game was praised for its movement mechanics and authenticity towards earlier arena shooters and first-person shooters. Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer described Ultrakill as faster and "even more metal than Doom Eternal" and commended the game for its verticality. It was also described as "[moving] like turbo Doom Eternal",in another PC Gamer article by Dominic Tarason, who noted that it "looks like a PSX game". It was also reviewed by Peter Glasgowski of TheGamer, who wrote that "...Ultrakill ticked off every box for me."

On December 8, 2022, Ultrakill gained official controller rumble support, under the guise of being sex toy support. Its developer released an official mod called UKbutt, adding support for a plugin called buttplug.io. The mod was created by Ultrakill programmer PITR and buttplug.io lead Kyle "qDot" Machulis. New Blood CEO Dave Oshry remarked that "at no point when originally testing or discussing the game with Hakita or anyone at [New Blood] were any of us like 'they're gonna want sex'." The mod was met with a wave of positive user reviews.