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 (stylized in all caps as ULTRAKILL) is a first-person shooter platformer video game developed by Arsi "Hakita" Patala^[1] and published by New Blood Interactive. It was released through Early Access on Steam for Microsoft Windows on September 3, 2020.^[2] The game uses retro-style graphics and movement capabilities similar to those of 1990s first-person shooters such as Quake and Doom.^[2]

Gameplay

Ultrakill is a first-person shooter which 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, with the prelude containing one area (called a layer) with five levels, the final level being a major boss fight. Each proceeding act contains three layers, with the first two having a total of four levels, the last of each layer being a major boss level, and the third having only two levels, the second being a major boss fight against the Archangel Gabriel.^[3]

The player has access to six base weapons: a revolver, shotgun, nailgun, railcannon, rocket launcher, and their arm. Each of these weapons has multiple variants, and some have alternate forms (such as turning the nailgun into a sawblade launcher). The player can perform combos or do other stylish actions in order to build a style meter through eight ranks: Destructive, Chaotic, Brutal, Anarchic, Supreme, SSadistic, SSShitstorm and ULTRAKILL, while earning style points, similar to games such as Devil May Cry.^[4] Destructive is the easiest style to achieve, and ULTRAKILL is the hardest due to the constant accession of style points required.^[5]

A key game mechanic in Ultrakill is the ability for the player to regain lost health by absorbing the fresh blood of damaged enemies, done by damaging or killing enemies while near them or performing a parry on certain enemy attacks with the Feedbacker arm or a precise shotgun blast to the enemy's torso. However, certain other mechanics can prevent or affect this, such as enemies covered in sand not bleeding, or water diluting blood when an enemy is killed underwater, making said blood easier to pick up, but reducing the amount healed. The recovery of health can also be diminished by taking too much of what is referred to as "hard damage", which temporarily reduces the maximum amount of health the player can have. The duration lasted for "hard damage" can be reduced when the player is playing stylishly (i.e., they have a style rank of Supreme or greater).^[6]

At the end of each level, the player will earn a letter grade rank from D to S in various categories (time, enemies killed, and total style points), which are then 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. This is the highest possible rank that can be achieved.^[7]

Each level of Ultrakill contains hidden collectibles in the form of soul orbs and includes a challenge. Completing the challenge, finding all soul orbs, and getting a P rank, sometimes also referred to as a "P-rank", will reward the player by making the level appear gold in the level select menu. Upon full completion of an entire layer or act, their respective background will become gold as well.^[3]

Ultrakill also has secret levels. These levels can be found on certain layers through secret exits. These levels deviate from the traditional Ultrakill gameplay and opt for a spin or riff on other video games and video game genres, namely horror games, puzzle games, dating sims, Crash Bandicoot, and fishing.^[3]

Getting a P rank on every level within an act and prelude and locating a secret entrance will allow the player to enter the act's Prime Sanctum, with the next sequential Prime Sanctum needing the previous one to be cleared beforehand. Each Prime Sanctum contains a "Prime Soul", a soul whose sheer willpower and prominence gave them a physical form that does not require a Husk to manifest. These Prime Souls are contained in a type of organic prison needing to be fought beforehand to fight the Prime Soul. These prisons are created by angels to trap these souls for fear of their extreme strength. Obtaining a P rank on the Prime Sanctums is not required to progress to the next one. Prime Sanctums contain one or more bosses that are a drastic step up in difficulty compared to the other levels within the act, with the second Prime Sanctum additionally containing a gauntlet of enemies before the bosses, contrary to the first exclusively containing two bosses for the player to fight.^[3]

Ultrakill also features an endless mode called "The Cyber Grind", where the player fights randomized waves of enemies over a floating arena that transforms after each wave. This mode awards the player points upon completion, which can be used to purchase weapon mods and custom colors at yellow terminals. The Cyber Grind's arena patterns, textures, skybox, and music can be altered by the player. After clearing a set amount of waves, players can set the Cyber Grind to begin at a designated wave instead of starting over from the beginning (for example, clearing wave 20 allows the player to start at wave 10).^[8]

Plot

In the universe of Ultrakill, God has suddenly disappeared. This results in The Council taking over Heaven in God's stead as an emergency reaction to the chaos spreading across Heaven. In addition, humanity has been rendered extinct an unknown amount of time after the end of a major war named The Final War and the beginning of The New Peace. New technologies allowed the creation of machines able to use blood as a fuel due to the abundance of blood during times of war. The player takes the place of V1, a machine that remained in its prototyping stages with the unique ability to absorb blood through contact, contrary to other machines needing to refuel manually.^[9]

V1 descends through the layers of Hell in order to harvest the blood of the various creatures living there. Along the way, V1 encounters demons, other machines also looking for blood, sinners (referred to as "husks"), and angels. V1 periodically duels a multitude of bosses including its successor and rival named V2, extremely powerful "Prime Souls" such as Minos (voiced by Stephan Weyte) and Sisyphus (voiced by Lenval Brown) responsible for the initial rebellions against the Council, and Archangel Gabriel (voiced by Gianni Matragrano), proclaimed as the "Judge of Hell" sent by the Holy Council to stop the machine invasion and attempt to keep control over Hell.^[9]

After his loss against V1, Gabriel is severed of his Holy Light as punishment by the Council for a perceived lack of devotion, he will be given back the Holy Light under the condition of proving himself by killing V1. If Gabriel is unable to kill it, the absence of the Holy Light will kill him after 24 hours. Gabriel, now titled the "Apostate of Hate", faces V1 at the end of Act 2 but is defeated once again, experiencing an epiphany as to the nature of his faith, and leaving V1 with the promise of another rematch. With only hours left to live, he decides to kill all of the Council's members to send a message to the people of Heaven. Act 2 concludes with Gabriel displaying the severed head of the last Council member to Heaven's occupants. The story is yet to be concluded in Act 3.^[10]

Reception

As of 29 September 2023^[update], Ultrakill has received 77,084 Steam reviews, with a score of 96.56%, making it the 14th highest-rated game on Steam.^[11] The game was praised for its movement mechanics and authenticity towards earlier arena shooters and first-person shooters.^[4] Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer described Ultrakill as faster and "even more metal than Doom Eternal" and commended the game for its verticality.^[12]

References