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Ultrakill

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Ultrakill
Movie poster-style video game cover, featuring a robot
DeveloperArsi "Hakita" Patala
PublisherNew Blood Interactive
ProducerDave Oshry
DesignerArsi "Hakita" Patala
Programmers
  • Arsi "Hakita" Patala
  • Heckteck
  • PITR
Artists
  • Andrei Mishchenko
  • BigRockBMP
  • Francis Xie
  • Victoria Holland
Writers
  • Arsi "Hakita" Patala
  • Jacob H.H.R.
Composers
Engine
PlatformWindows
Release3 September 2020 (early access)
GenreFirst-person shooter
ModeSingle-player

Ultrakill is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by Arsi "Hakita" Patala and published by New Blood Interactive. It was released on Steam through early access for Microsoft Windows on 3 September 2020.[1] The game uses retro-style graphics reminiscent of video games from the early PlayStation consoles and combines modern movement mechanics like those of Titanfall and Doom Eternal with gameplay elements from action games like Devil May Cry.[2][3]

Gameplay

The style meter (to the right) dictates how stylishly the player defeats enemies. Certain "style bonuses" can be awarded for specific actions (like parrying).

Ultrakill is a fast-paced first-person shooter with an emphasis on movement and stylish techniques. The player must make their way through an interpretation of Dante's layers of Hell, with three acts each made up of three layers being divided into multiple levels. As of September 2026, only Act I and Act II have been fully released, with only the first two layers of Act III being available.[4]

The player battles enemies using an arsenal of weapons,[5] having a primary and alternate attack, and various robotic arms.[6] These have unique interactions with each other, evoking the combination attacks of games like Devil May Cry.[2] Many of the advanced techniques in the game are a result of combining various elements of the player's arsenal.[6] To encourage aggressive gameplay, the player can heal by absorbing the blood of enemies[2] through close-range combat[3][5] or parrying enemy attacks. The player's performance is judged by a "style meter",[6] similar to games such as Devil May Cry.[5] The style meter rewards the player for performing advanced and flashy moves, as well as encouraging aerial maneuvering and quickly swapping between weapons.[3][6]

At the end of each level, the player's style ranking is combined with time taken and number of kills to determine a letter grade for that run. Achieving an S rank in all three categories without dying throughout that run will earn the player a P (Perfect) rank, the highest possible rank for a level.

In addition to the main campaign, Ultrakill provides various secret levels[7] parodying other video game genres. The game has an endless survival mode called "The Cyber Grind" where players can compete against other players' high scores, and a sandbox mode in which the player can spawn enemies and various objects. Achieving a P rank in all levels of an act allows the player to access the act's "prime sanctum", each containing a secret boss fight.

Plot

Long before the events of the game, God created humanity, hoping they would follow his word as law. However, he couldn’t create a mind without free will, wasting countless cycles trying. In a fit of anger toward his creation, god made Hell, but once he realized what he had done, it was irreversible. Wracked with guilt and regret, he eventually disappeared, leaving Heaven without a ruler.

Far into the future, humanity became extinct from unknown causes after a centuries-long conflict known as the Final War, followed by a brief period called the New Peace. The Final War triggered an arms race that led to the development of blood-powered machines for soldiers and caused a climate disaster that blotted out the Sun, ending the war and depriving humanity of resources. During the New Peace, humans discovered Hell and began expeditions to seek new resources, continuing until their extinction.

With Earth's blood supplies exhausted, several blood-powered machines descended into Hell in search of sustenance. Among them was V1, a prototype built shortly before the end of the Final War, capable of repairing itself by absorbing blood during combat.

On its journey, V1 fought husks—physical forms of damned souls—along with demons, angels, and rival machines as it ventured deeper into Hell’s layers. In the Limbo layer, V1 fights V2, another prototype designed during the New Peace with stronger armor instead of blood absorption, who escapes after being defeated. After vanquishing the husk of King Minos in the Lust layer, the first act culminates in a fight in Gluttony against the archangel Gabriel, the newly appointed Judge of Hell. Defeated by V1, Gabriel was declared a traitor by the Council of Heaven, who ruled in God’s absence, stripping him of his holy light and giving him only 24 hours to destroy V1.

V1 continues its descent into Hell, having a rematch with V2 in the Greed layer that ends in V2's death, and killing the Leviathan in the Wrath layer. Gabriel returns at the end of the second act in the Heresy, enraged by his earlier defeat. This time, though he is beaten again, Gabriel feels relief rather than anger, recognizing V1 as his first true challenge. Reflecting on his losses, he concludes that the Council of Heaven had strayed in God’s absence, manipulating him for their own ends. Resolute in his independence, he slaughters the council members and displays one of their heads to Heaven’s citizens, knowingly sealing his fate.

V1 continues its massacre in the Violence layer, where it defeats the Minotaur, clashing with the Guttermen— first blood-powered war machines—and their rivals, the Guttertanks, whose rivalry ignited the machine arms race, and eventually destroys the Earthmover, a massive war machine from the Final War’s end that triggered the climate catastrophe. After that, V1 enters the Fraud layer, where it faces Providences (akin to Seraphs) and Powers, angels venturing into Hell in search of Gabriel after his massacre of the Council of Heaven. During its time in Fraud, Hell distorts V1’s perception and fear of death, most vividly through the Mirror Reaper, a husk lurking in mirrors that briefly imitates V1 before being destroyed. Ultimately, V1 slays the winged demon Geryon, before awakening inside a theater, with all of the demons and angels as props backstage before leaving.

Development

Arsi Patala, who goes by the name Hakita, began development in February 2018. An early demo of Ultrakill was released in August 2019, with the game being picked up by New Blood Interactive in May 2020. It released through early access in September of that year.[8]

On 24 February 2025, the game received a near-complete overhaul in the "ULTRA_REVAMP" update, featuring new graphics for most layers, technical improvements, new "Encore" levels featuring different themes for each layer (such as the industrial setting of the Prelude having been frozen over), and music from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The technical updates were done in preparation for the development of the Fraud layer, with the developers stating in a Steam blog post that "much of ULTRAKILL's codebase was very messy, especially the enemy behaviors. So much so that not only would it make it harder for us (and modders) to work on the game in the future, but even for us to do some of the new things we wanted to do in Layer 8".[9][10]

Reception

Ultrakill was praised for its movement mechanics and authenticity towards earlier arena shooters and first-person shooters.[5] Christopher Livingston of PC Gamer described Ultrakill as faster and "even more metal than Doom Eternal" and commended the game for its verticality.[11] It was also described as "[moving] like turbo Doom Eternal", in another PC Gamer article by Dominic Tarason, who noted that it "looks like a PSX game".[3] It was also reviewed by Peter Glasgowski of TheGamer, who wrote that "...Ultrakill ticked off every box for me."[2] On 15 May 2024, the game had achieved 100,000 Steam reviews with a 98% approval rating.[12]

On 8 December 2022, Ultrakill gained official controller rumble support, under the guise of being sex toy support. Its developer released an official mod called UKbutt, adding support for a plugin called buttplug.io. The mod was created by Ultrakill programmer PITR and buttplug.io lead Kyle "qDot" Machulis.[13] New Blood CEO Dave Oshry remarked that "at no point when originally testing or discussing the game with Hakita or anyone at [New Blood] were any of us like 'they're gonna want sex'." The mod was met with positive user reviews.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Mitra, Ritwik (20 October 2019). "28 Brutal Games Like Doom You Need To Play". Game Rant. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Glasgowski, Peter (13 June 2020). "Ultrakill Preview - Devil May Quake". TheGamer. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Tarason, Dominic (31 August 2019). "Ultrakill looks like a PSX game and moves like turbo Doom Eternal in this free demo". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  4. ↑ Litchfield, Ted. "High flying FPS Ultrakill will finally reach the 8th layer of Hell next week: 'Skip school. Call out sick from work. It's finally happening. And we're not lying'". PC Gamer. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Walker, Alex (18 February 2021). "ULTRAKILL Is The Best Game You Should Definitely Be Playing". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Gordon, Ronald (14 March 2023). "The Insight: In ULTRAKILL, A Potent Mix Of Nuance And A Nod To History Make For A Perfect Experience". New York Videogame Critics Circle. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  7. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (22 December 2023). "One of our favorite early access shooters is approaching the finish line with the release of its creepiest chapter yet". PC Gamer. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  8. ↑ Patala, Arsi "Hakita" (24 March 2025). Some Things That I've Learned About Game Development While Making ULTRAKILL So Far (Talk/Slideshow) (Video). Retrieved 24 March 2025 – via YouTube.
  9. ↑ Gugelmin, Felipe (25 February 2025). "Ultrakill ganha remasterização visual antes de sair do Acesso Antecipado". Adrenaline (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  10. ↑ Galekovic, Filip (25 February 2025). "ULTRAKILL gets a massive technical and visual revamp in new update". Destructoid. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  11. ↑ Livingston, Christopher (13 June 2020). "Intense retro shooter Ultrakill is even more metal than Doom". PC Gamer. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  12. ↑ Smith, Ed (15 May 2024). "After four years and more than 100,000 reviews, one Steam FPS game still has a 98% positive rating". PCGamesN. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  13. ↑ Innes, Ruby (8 December 2022). "Ultrakill Has Buttplug Support Now, If That's Of Any Interest To You". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  14. ↑ Wilde, Tyler (8 December 2022). "Retro shooter Ultrakill now has official sex toy support". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
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