In the run up to DOOM: The Dark Ages, I have been revisiting some of my fave indie/AA/AAA "Boomer Shooters" and checking out some new ones (like Gravelord) to get myself back in the vibe.

I'm a huge fan of the genre and played them religiously back in the 90's. Some of my faves from the modern day boom of...well, Boomer Shooters include: Turbo Overkill, Amid Evil, Cultic, Wrath and Dusk. Here are my early thoughts on Gravelord for which I will update once I have completed the first episode (and again when 1.0 is released):

This is right up there with the above mentioned games. Fantastic level design, art-style, gameplay, character design, etc.
It's closest to the classics Quake and Blood with a bit of Duke Nukem thrown in for good measure.

I played on a RTX 4090 and, as expected, it plays completely smooth with super high, triple digit frame rates, max settings at 4K. Not one hiccup (outside of a slight stutter every time it auto saves) and not a single bug! And you're telling me this is Early Access? Very good work on the Devs part.

The Card system is superb as it allows each player to customise how they want to play. I'm about speed and power, so rate of fire, fast ability cool downs, etc were my bag. But if you want something different ala setting enemies ablaze with your bullets, killed enemies dropping Armour Shards, etc...you can choose this stuff also. I look forward to seeing what else the full game has.

The game has all the Boomer Shooter hallmarks, such as intricate level design with multiple locked doors with coloured Keys you need to find in order to unlock (this applies to coloured, locked switches also), Enemies strategically placed around the map waiting to ambush you (even in classic trap form, such as when picking up a Key, for example), secrets to find, etc.

Each Map that I have played so far perfectly weaves this stuff together in a very professional way, meaning that you can tell the dev/s have a lot of experience and/or skill when it comes to game design. This is not amateur made in any sense.

The only "negative" I have so far is that there can be some high difficulty spikes at times. I played on Medium, which I always do for any game for the first time, and I did have some trouble as certain levels went on and I would say I am pretty good at these kinds of games. I would say from the end of level 3 onwards, you can expect a decently sized difficulty spike.

I am very excited to see what's next for this game and I hope the Devs have full encouragement designing the rest of the game. I am also looking forward to trying out the level editor. I love these kinds of things and I wish more games had the ability to get creative in this sense.

These are my early thoughts of Gravelord. Bottom line: if you have any sort of interest in this genre of game, you NEED to pick this game up. It's a superb example of the genre...and here's a big boost to the Dev's ego...I think I may have had more fun here than with the recent DOOM: The Dark Ages, which seems to be a mixed bag for me at this time.

Keep at it Devs! Denying us more of this would be a...GRAVE mistake...ahaha...ha....ha....