In recent times we have repeatedly told you about how the tools provided to developers by Epic Games with its Unreal Engine 5 are about to revolutionize the way games are forged, especially in those more contained development teams. Although the fruits of the work done by the creators of Fortnite will only begin to ripen in a few years, something positive is already being glimpsed in smaller productions. One of these is ExeKiller, a first-person shooter with very interesting ideas and whose recent gameplay footage has inevitably attracted our attention.
Far west retrofuturistico
What makes ExeKiller a captivating product even at a fleeting glance is certainly its setting, given that Paradark Studio has decided to play a winning card, creating a mix between two genres highly appreciated by the public: western and cyberpunk. The result is a first-person shooter set in a retrofuturistic far west in which the cowboys are armed with technological revolvers and instead of steeds they move aboard very fast flying cars (yes, the ones that everyone would have liked in the CD Projekt Red game , as stated in our review of Cyberpunk 2077).
And it is on the saddle of the Appaloosa, the fastest car in the west, that the short adventure shown in the latest gameplay trailer of the FPS begins. The video opens with our bounty hunter speeding in his transport in the middle of nowhere until he reaches a small abandoned area where a rundown motel and gas station are located.
While not explicit, the ExeKiller’s goal in this mission is to collect the SOULS from the corpses of deceased people: these are chips produced by a megacorporation that contain information of great value and which, therefore, are objects particularly sought after by bounty hunters as the protagonist.
Having got off the Appaloosa and put on his hat, the future cowboy reaches the motel first, highlighting how it is possible to interact with the various elements of the scenario to collect loot of all kinds.
From resources to key mission items, loot is hiding everywhere and this seems to be a good enough incentive to explore all corners of the map. Unfortunately there are no survivors around and, after collecting ammunition and consumables from their remains, the protagonist discovers he is not alone. The absence of humans is filled by disturbing automatons with a very similar appearance to those seen in Alien Isolation, which, alerted by the noises emitted during the exploration of the motel, head towards the hunter and try to put him out of action. Unfortunately for them, our hero is fully armed and with a revolver equipped with tamarrissimi bullets with red leds, he takes out the first threats in a flash. When the situation seems to calm down, another group of cyborgs moves towards the motel, forcing the man with the bionic arm to do his best to get out without broken bones.
This is how it looks at a car battery, which is hit hard so that it reaches the first opponent and explodes on impact. Once the skull of another enemy is riddled with bullets, the weapon begins to thirst for bullets and, lacking the time necessary for a reload, it becomes necessary to use another instrument of death that can cope with the mighty wrench in hand from the last automaton.
We therefore discover that an electric baton is also hidden in the bounty hunter’s backpack: with what appears to be a special ability, the protagonist performs a very agile lateral dodge in order not to suffer damage from the enemy attack and then lunges at him to finish it off with batons.
Silenced even the last hostile robot, the man looks at the car behind him and discovers that a man’s body is hidden under it, who was crushed by the car: it is right in his pockets that we find the SOULS that he was looking for. Although a passage can be glimpsed that allows you to go down to the area below the service station, the ExeKiller decides to keep himself safe and uses a sort of large smartphone to summon the Appaloosa and speed off at full speed towards new horizons.
The touch of Unreal Engine 5
In just 4 minutes, Paradark Studio has managed to perfectly understand what are the central elements of ExeKiller’s gameplay, which seemed to us to be a product with solid playful foundations. The combat system seems sufficiently varied and alternates both clashes with white weapons and outbursts with guns, not to mention the presence of good feedback from the shots on the bodies of the enemies which is by no means to be underestimated.
Regardless of the type of killing tool used, the automatons react believably to the attacks they receive and shooting a bullet in the chest causes them to flinch or have a moment of uncertainty. If on the one hand we found the elements shown on the screen more than convincing, on the other we must underline how much of the game features promised by the developers are not evident in the trailer.
We are still talking about a single player shooter which, according to the software house, offers a focus on narrative with the possibility of choosing how to behave and influence the course of history. Unfortunately we have not been able to see any of this and we hope that the next presentations will also reveal the other side of the production.
From a technical point of view, however, ExeKiller navigates between ups and downs. The glance, also thanks to the help of the Unreal Engine 5 and a color rendering tending towards orange, is more than pleasant and most of the elements on the screen seem to enjoy a decent level of detail. Even the animations
of the protagonist are remarkable for a production that certainly does not have stellar budgets. The only comment must be made to the lack of dynamism of the scenario, given that with the exception of some billboards in the background and the tufts of grass that follow the wind, everything appears too static at the moment. While it is true that the game will implement dynamic weather with sandstorms in addition to the day-night cycle, we hope in the future to see something more of this that can provide more personality to the environment. On the artistic side, the title Paradark Studio hits the mark thanks to the unusual mix between the typical elements of cyberpunk and western works with a touch of retrofuturism. Of course, perhaps we would have liked a little more character in the creation of weapons and enemies, but at the moment we are sincerely curious to discover other places, other guns and other characters in this world.
In conclusion, this ExeKiller still has a lot to prove, but it is undeniable that the material shown in the last few hours is more than enough to make it one of the projects worth focusing your attention on. In any case, we remind you that the game does not yet have a release date or a generic launch window and that the only reference platform is currently the PC.
