I’m nearly dead. Health is basically zero. I need help. So I step past a demonic dog and enter a dark, ominous bathroom. I quickly knock on the lone stall inside. It creaks open, I hear…something inside and then a single soda can rolls out. Instead of drinking it, however, I gamble, and knock again. And once again it rolls me a soda. I don’t press my luck, instead returning to the aforementioned evil dog and giving it one of my soda pops. It chugs it and, in exchange, lets me reload my weapons faster.
After that, it’s right back to the action of running for my life from a pixelated burning apartment while fighting cultists using a revolver, melee items, and my foot. It’s all very weird, but it’s also a blast, and I keep returning to play more Cruel, even though I keep dying over and over.
Over the last few years we’ve seen the rise of the boomer shooter subgenre of FPS games. Stuff like Cultic, Dusk, Fashion Police Squad, and 40K Boltgun all look like older shooters from the ‘90s, but often leverage new technology and decades of game design to create shooters that feel retro, but fresh. The latest of these boomer shooters to catch my attention with its fast-paced, roguelike action is Cruel, out now on Steam.
In Cruel, you play as someone trapped in a building that is burning floor by floor. Like any good character from a ‘90s-era FPS you are always running, which is helpful in this case as the fire will kill you quick if you linger. Each floor of the building is filled with cultists, evil ghosts, and soda machines. These machines will heal you if you need it, or you can use the soda to upgrade your character between floors.
And you’ll need those upgrades, as each floor gets harder and introduces new enemies with better weapons. And if you drink all your soda, well, you can always gamble in the bathroom and hope the evil monster in there gives you a soda and doesn’t jumpscare you and kill you where you stand. Like I said, it’s a weird experience.
But Cruel’s oddball setup isn’t what keeps me coming back to the game death after death. Instead, it’s the game’s crisp, responsive, and retro-inspired FPS combat. Guns are loud. Enemies pop when you get that perfect headshot. And one mistake can end a perfect run. Then again, if you use all the tools Cruel provides you with—slides, kicks, and melee weapons—you can often improvise your way out of a bad situation.
Cruel reminds me of last year’s Anger Foot, but with better combat and a crunchier, more boomer shooter-inspired aesthetic. The soundtrack is a banger to boot. Oh, and if you click the reload button when your gun has full ammo, your character flips it in the area. 10 out of 10. Love it!
At only $10 and under 400MB, Cruel is a perfect bite-sized FPS to kick the new year off with, just don’t gamble too much in the bathroom. Trust me.
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