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Now this is exciting if you like retro-themed first-person shooters, or what people are now calling boomer shooters. Brutal Fate has been announced from the dev of Brutal Doom.

This is not a mod, not a spin-off or anything like that. It's a proper standalone game and it looks awesome. Brutal Fate is inspired by 80's and 90's sci-fi movies. It blends the best features of classic shooters such as non-linear level design, a huge arsenal, and large enemy variety with some modern aspects, making it quite a unique mix that tries to not cling directly to nostalgia but be something of its own.

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Some highlights:

  • This game features a huge arsenal of weapons that may require to use all your keyboard numbers to scroll through it. We got battle rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, smart missiles, laser rifles, nukes, knives, sharp sticks, you name it.
  • Fight an entire circus of monstrosities, carnivorous demons, zombie-like cultists, shuffling supernatural incomprehensible abominations from beyond, and corporate henchmen that wants to make sure you won't leave this haunted colony alive after seeing everything you just did. Just like in classic fps style, each enemy type acts like a piece of chess made to compensate the weakness of another. Gib them into delicious meat pieces, burn them to ashes, almost every enemy features locational damage and dozens of death animations, including different deaths for different weapons used.
  • Explore huge non-linear levels, look for secrets to find special rare alternative ammo types for your weapons, health and armor upgrades, and much more. No "procedural generated levels", no faux-retro arena level design, just handcrafted levels by somebody with over 10 years in experience of classic game level design. Feel like you are exploring a believable location, fight enemies in many different scenarios, scripted or not, pick them alone or in small groups, and sometimes try to come up with a strategy to fight up to 50 enemies at once.
  • Command your fellow marines out of this hell. Your character's rank as a Staff Sergeant isn't only for show. Find any survivors of this disastrous operation and they will follow you. And they have an acceptable AI that will actually follow your commands, won't block your movement, and will actually kill enemies for you. Magnificent, isn't?

Know what else is going to be great about this? They're building it on the tried and tested, open source and cross-platform GZDoom game engine. Their plan is to keep the modding community close, with a message to "mod it until it breaks". So you can add in custom weapons, enemies, levels, and entire new user-made campaigns.

On top of that, the developer has confirmed on Twitter that they do plan to put up a Linux build too along with multiple store support like Steam and GOG.

For now you can follow Brutal Fate on Steam.


Update: after posting this article, many accusations directed at the developer came to light. Some of them pretty uncomfortable, none of which we were aware of when posting. It's not entirely clear exactly what is true and what is not especially as some of these issues seem to have happened multiple years ago. Even a most basic Google search shows a lot of accusations being thrown around over the course of many years. 

The developer made this post on the Doomworld forum back in June to counter some of what was raised, and apologised for some of it - like racist jokes. We're noting this now in the open, after initially removing the article and now deciding to keep the article live so you're fully informed.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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24 comments
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Solitary Sep 7, 2020
Quoting: Nezchan
Quoting: LinasI'd rather judge a man by his work, than some inconsiderate thing he may have said years ago. Cancel culture ruins lives.

CALLED IT!

Don't be arrogant.
Shmerl Sep 8, 2020
Quoting: Liam DawePublisher said Windows only.

QuoteThe game will be published on Windows only. It hasn’t been determined yet if it will support Linux (or Mac).

At least they didn't say they won't make it, but it sounds like a regular non answer. What engine are they going to use? If it's something portable to Linux like with Ion Fury, then it would be a shame if they won't release it.
zimplex1 Sep 8, 2020
Game looks good, I've been been keeping an eye on it for a while now, and it's nice to now have a release date to it (even though it's for EA).
As for the unnecessary article update... I'm perfectly happy to let the politically over-sensitive cry in a corner and miss out.
scaine Sep 8, 2020
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Quoting: zimplex1As for the unnecessary article update... I'm perfectly happy to let the politically over-sensitive cry in a corner and miss out.

Political? When someone is a horrible arsehole, they're just a horrible arsehole... it's not political. People's basic human rights aren't political. There's no need to smugly condescend to those who don't want to fund muppets like this guy.

There are plenty more devs out there able to make games without being like this guy. I'll throw my money at them. Somehow they manage to do their jobs without controversy, and for that, I'm thankful.
zimplex1 Sep 8, 2020
Quoting: scainePolitical? When someone is a horrible arsehole, they're just a horrible arsehole... it's not political. People's basic human rights aren't political. There's no need to smugly condescend to those who don't want to fund muppets like this guy.

There are plenty more devs out there able to make games without being like this guy. I'll throw my money at them. Somehow they manage to do their jobs without controversy, and for that, I'm thankful.
I would obviously never tell you how to spend your money, or who or who not to support. The dev also isn't doing anything controversial, he's literally just making a game.
The only thing going on here is a handful of folks crying about some alleged "mean" or "concerning" internet comments made years and years ago. These folks that cry and complain could simply ignore the dev/game and move along, but that's not good enough for them, they feel the need to ruin other people.
scaine Sep 8, 2020
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Quoting: Patola
Quoting: scaine
Quoting: zimplex1As for the unnecessary article update... I'm perfectly happy to let the politically over-sensitive cry in a corner and miss out.

Political? When someone is a horrible arsehole, they're just a horrible arsehole... it's not political. People's basic human rights aren't political. There's no need to smugly condescend to those who don't want to fund muppets like this guy.
Yes, political. You know, this extreme willingness to judge the private (or even moderately public) lives of other people and cry for boycotting their creations tells a lot about you, rather than about them, scaine. You realize that one of the main reasons the justice system is needed is for people not to judge causes based on what they find about other people's personalities? Do you realize that in order to enjoy a game (or any product or creation, actually) we don't have to like its creator or agree with any of his positions? This witch hunt you insist on doing on selected people is distressing. I am glad at least this time Liam kept the game article, although with the unnecessary observation.

Where are you getting this?

Private lives? He spoke in public forums.

Political? Again - human rights and basic respect isn't political. It's simply the very minimum I expect from an interaction with another person. This guy can't manage it. There's no politics here. He's just not a nice person.

Justice is needed so that we don't judge people by their actions? What? Er... what?? Are you... are you comparing anti-discrimanatory laws to boycotting an unlikable numpty who spouts racial abuse? I hope not because that would be faintly ridiculous, but I might be jumping to conclusions here.

Witch hunt? No, I'm not particularly going after the guy, I'm just not giving him my money. Why do you find that "distressing"? I wouldn't have commented on this at all if Zimplex1 hadn't tried to imply that there was political motivation for not buying this game.

As for enjoying someone's work despite the author/artist/developer being a bit of an arsehole? Sure, of course you can. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. But would you buy their work/art/game if you knew beforehand they were a bit of an arsehole? Would you support that arsehole directly?

Fine if you do. Just don't condescend and try to turn it all political when you discover some people won't.
scaine Sep 8, 2020
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Quoting: zimplex1
Quoting: scainePolitical? When someone is a horrible arsehole, they're just a horrible arsehole... it's not political. People's basic human rights aren't political. There's no need to smugly condescend to those who don't want to fund muppets like this guy.

There are plenty more devs out there able to make games without being like this guy. I'll throw my money at them. Somehow they manage to do their jobs without controversy, and for that, I'm thankful.
I would obviously never tell you how to spend your money, or who or who not to support. The dev also isn't doing anything controversial, he's literally just making a game.
The only thing going on here is a handful of folks crying about some alleged "mean" or "concerning" internet comments made years and years ago. These folks that cry and complain could simply ignore the dev/game and move along, but that's not good enough for them, they feel the need to ruin other people.

Huh. So the dev gets to ruin other people (and has done so quite a few times by multiple accounts), but we're not allowed to let that behaviour influence our decision to buy the game? Gotcha.

Sarcasm aside - he is controversial. Multiple threads discuss his arrogance, his racism and "edgy" humour. He certainly is literally making a game, but he's definitely doing so controversially.
scaine Sep 8, 2020
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Quoting: Patola
Quoting: scainePolitical? Again - human rights and basic respect isn't political. It's simply the very minimum I expect from an interaction with another person. This guy can't manage it. There's no politics here. He's just not a nice person.
That's your judgment on his personality. Exactly what I criticized you for doing. You get into that state of extreme combativeness, like that guy does not have the right to trade with other people because you judge him negatively. You likely don't know him personally, but from internet excerpts you feel competent enough to judge his character and maybe even his psyche. Did you know that strong emotions impair critical thinking?

Of course, I have to repeat it again, even if somehow they are objectively monsters in personality, that's absolutely unrelated to their creations. Fortunately with the dire consequences of these internet persecutions and witch hunts people have becoming increasingly aware of how harmful they are, and are giving less and less credit to them. Cancel culture is finally suffering a deserved backlash.

Knock it off, persecuting your personal imaginary enemies (because I doubt they even know you) on this forum is not productive.

Patola, I'm super-confused here. Of course that's my judgment. I didn't claim otherwise. You seem to be implying that I... shouldn't use my judgment? It's based on what I've read about him, and from many, many other people's opinions on the guy. I don't need to judge his "psyche". He's is demonstrably not a nice person, based on multiple accounts.

And I'll say it again, since you're not hearing it. I don't care about this guy. This isn't a witch hunt. I only replied because someone equated "noting that someone is a horrible person" to "being political".

You didn't listen to my point about horrible people making good stuff either. I can't be bothered repeating myself on that.

But I have to quote this bit again in all its glory:

Quoting: PatolaKnock it off, persecuting your personal imaginary enemies (because I doubt they even know you) on this forum is not productive.

Excuse me?

- Personal? Nope, I don't care about this guy.
- Imaginary? Nope, he's real.
- Enemies? Are you hearing yourself?

This is honestly a bizarre attack from you, Patola. I have no skin in this game beyond the political point I've made now three times. You're seeing things that aren't there.
nate Sep 8, 2020
Interesting. It definitely looks a lot like Brutal Doom. I wonder if the developer is actually using the GZDoom engine to make it. The engine has already been used to create a few other games, like Sonic Robo Blast 2 and Total Chaos.
Nezchan Sep 8, 2020
Quoting: Solitary
Quoting: Nezchan
Quoting: LinasI'd rather judge a man by his work, than some inconsiderate thing he may have said years ago. Cancel culture ruins lives.

CALLED IT!

Don't be arrogant.

You're just jealous.
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