Games like 'Dusk', 'Amid Evil', and 'Into the Pit' are shining examples of a new FPS subgenre: the "boomer shooter" inspired by games like 'Doom' and 'Quake'.
“Boomer shooter” is the latest term to follow the likes of “Roguelike” or “Soulslike” in the realm of hyperspecific gaming subgenres. It applies to first-person shooters that intentionally harken back to the classic PC games of the late ‘90s like Doom and Quake.
Dusk is fucking awesome, that’s where the boomer shooter revival truly began. Dusk was so good that many other devs looked at it and went “hey, we gotta make an awesome game like that as well!”. And then came Amid Evil, then Ion Fury, then Project Warlock… and the rest is history.
And now they are making successors to other classic games like Half-Life and F.E.A.R. And also retro inspired but very much original titles like Ultrakill.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin was made with the Quake engine. If you like Quake, Wrath pushes the engine to unbelievable. I’d highly recommend checking the Steam store to see if there’s a free demo to D/L. I keep going back to this one and am pretty sure you will too.
Hyperboles man. But in general I just hate the term don’t subcategorize shooters based off of the era it’s designed around. It’s just stupid subcategorize off of different things
Competetion is also far more fierce. There are only a handful of AAA publishers and they all do the same stuff. Liveservice multiplayer looter or open world single player movie-like stuff.
An environment where games like Undertale, Hollow Knight, Celeste, Dusk, Stardew Valley and Ion Fury rein supreme encourages making a stand out game far more than an environment that is more concerned with the in game store, cinematography of cutscenes and photorealistic graphics.
For sure. It’s easier and more accessible to put out titles in genres that have relatively little development overhead, while it’s also a much lower risked investment for titles with particularly unusual mechanics or gimmicks.
Excellent observation. I mentioned that in another comment. Not only are dev costs low, but risks can be taken. An example:
Blood West
I’m sure you guessed with a name like that it’s a Western flavored FPS. And it is. It has more story than usual. The downside is that during the first hour of game play you will have fired all of six rounds. Also, initially your character is a marshmallow. You die a LOT!
AFTER that period you start getting in to the story and have better weapons and armor starts being a thing.
The game is not my favorite, however, it is a welcome break from frenetic blasting. I hope in the next incarnation they figure out a better balance at the beginning of the game.
Great article! All to say that if it wasn’t for indie devs, genres like this one would have stayed dead. I’m glad they brought it back. If there’s a market for it, they should make the game. AAA studios only want the highest ROI so they were always unlikely to take the risk on something like this.
What an awful, awful name for the genre. I’ve always hated “Metroidvania,” but I’ll embrace it with open arms if I never have to hear or read “boomer shooter” ever again.
Millennials? No way. The oldest millennials were 11 when Doom came out.
It is most definitely a Gen X game. It has all the hallmarks of mid 90s GenX culture: unapologetically rebellious, anti-establishment, edgy and violent. The developers are also all oldish GenX-ers (Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, John Romero, Dave Taylor) or young Boomers (Sandy Petersen and Tom Hall)
A lot of us older Millennials still grew up playing these games as they came out.
Of course. Especially the ones that came after Doom I guess. I listened to a lot of older music at the time too (like 80s new wave or 70s hard rock and punk), but that doesn’t make it “GenX” music.
But you’re right, they are thoroughly a product of '90s Gen-X culture.
Yeah, Doom, Quake, Duke et al are like ‘90s GenX culture personified for me. Millennials’ era (and this is sort of in the name) is ca. 2000 and afterwards, and gaming had already shifted to something else by quite a bit by then.
Somehow I had 1991 in my mind for Doom’s release date, but it’s 1993. That’s my mistake.
In any case, if you were 13 when Doom came out, you were born in 1980 or 1979, so you’re still not a millennial, but GenX. The cut-off point for millennials is usually put around 1981-1982.
Even so, Doom’s target audience at the time, with all the satanic and gore content, was most definitely not 13 year olds although it’s possible you played it on your Boomer or GenX dad’s PC of course.
I’m a GenX-er from 1975 by the way, so I was “there” when all this happened.
I completely agree with the generational… “faux pas” in the naming. But it SOUNDS good…
boomer shooter…
I’ve also heard retroFPS.
I wasn’t a fan when these originally came out. I was too busy with more “complex” hoity-toity puzzlers and “deep” rpg’s…
Now that I’m almost 50, I enjoy the HELL out of Boltgun. If you buy ONE game… I HIGHLY recommend it. It starts with the pedal to the metal and then hits turbo at some point (you’re too busy to notice).
REALLY… give it a try.
Quake III is an arena shooter, Quake I and II definitely are not. Yes Unreal Tournament is an arena shooter but Forgive Me Father, Blood West, Wrath, Deadlink, and Boltgun definitely are not…
Good to hear thanks! I’m taking a breather from fast paced fps to get into a hoity toity puzzler now (outer wilds is awesome) but I have reminded myself how nice it is to take a mindless break and destroy Nazis and demons so I’ll be back to the dizzingly fast violence trough soon enough
If you like Outer Wilds, take a look at Call of Cthulhu or Superliminal. Superliminal will bend your perception. Call of Cthulhu is a fun romp through the Lovecraftian universe. And both have an extra helping of hoity.
That’s my thought as well. The only game my boomer dad ever played on our old Windows 3.11 Acer PC was some golf game. It was my gen x future brother-in-law that introduced me to shooters like Doom and Quake.
Doom is still incredible. It has it’s faults, but fantastic nonetheless. I highly recommend you try out some of the sick mods community made for it, like Heartland (it requires the Eternity Engine).
It’s also kind of ironic to call them boomer games since they were hell bent to censor or cancel games like those or pretty much any video game in general.
OG doom is so awesome. It basically fathered the FPS genre and speedrunning. There’s still so much development and so much being done. Even artistically there’s a lot happening. Have you seen myhouse.wad? That’s just brilliant meta storytelling.
If you’re not going to play myhouse.wad there’s a great (albeit long) video essay on it.
The internet loves roasting “boomers,” the shorthand term for the Baby Boomer generation born in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Admittedly, most boomer shooter fans are likely Gen-Xers and Millennials, but they’re still co-opting the term in a sarcastic but positive way that conveys the old-school nature of this niche genre.
It all comes down to it rolling off your tongue better.
I agree, those are very arcade-y, but in relative terms they do aim for realism. ARMA obviously isnt an option for people that want a fun 20 minute game and alternatives like Destiny aim for far less realism. In the range of “very realistic” to “completely absurdly impossible”, CoD and Battlefield are more to the left.
Edit: ugh, just had to think of the endless “realism” debates when battlefield V came out and people insisted women characters were breaking the “immersion”.
I hear what you’re saying. Boomer doesn’t JUST mean Baby Boomer Generation. It is also used as “the old generation.” There was a meme/song that was popular for a while called “Ok Boomer…”
The other thing to consider is that most of the “Boomer” shooters have grenades.
They go “BOOM.”
So maybe let’s not hang up on the name so much? If you don’t like it I might recommend “retroFPS.”
I’m not here to argue with you. That’s great that’s what YOU want the definition to be. When OTHER people talk about Boomer Shooters they’re talking about games released recently BASED ON elements of FPS games released in previous decades.
I hope that genre is the next to return. I think that people are mostly split between warfare simulators and these older shooters. On the one hand you have a heavy tactical simulation, and on the other you have a fast paced, low development overhead game that costs 25% of what the AAA warfare simulator runs.
Arena shooters are in the middle, and most people that play them just jump up to warfare simulators.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying it’s hard to find enough people that didn’t go one way or the other to make arena game development worth it.
Arena Shooters also had extremely high skill ceilings and steep learning curves. Good aim was only a small part of the game. Knowing the map, i.e. where and when power weapons and power ups spawn, controlling both item spawns as well as enemy spawn points; that’s what distinguished a good player from a bad one.
If you wanted to git gud you had to suffer through countless hours of getting destroyed. I don’t know if today’s gamer is still up for that. However, games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends are more popular than ever and those are definitely not easy to get into.
You bring up a good point. The typical cost/benefit analysis. I agree with your assessment of Arena shooters. There’s a LOT of VERY nuanced stuff to have to learn. I think that’s why on one side you’ll see people doing simpler FPS and on the other side you’ll see full investment into tactical warfare simulation. I think the space in between doesn’t provide enough return (as compared to tactical warfare sim) and it has too high of a cost (as opposed to retroFPS). Again this is just the ramblings of an old know-nothing. I’m nobody special when it comes to this subject, so I may be completely wrong.
We got several. We got Toxxik, Xonotic, Diabotical and Quake Champions. The thing is, most people don’t want those games anymore. Skill ceiling is way too high, the games are fundamentally not beginner friendly, they are super punishing games that are very difficult to master. Quake didn’t even allow you to walk and strafe normally, you needed to learn to bunny hop and rocket jump to be competitive. Most people naturally don’t want it back. Those that do seem to end up sticking to Quake III and UT.
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DOOM and Quake are awesome games. My friend recommends DUSK on Steam, haven’t tried it yet but it looks like old school quake.
Despite the fact that there was nothing to track time played in that era I am certain that I have more hours in Quake 1 than any other game, ever.
Prodeus. Fantastic game with a great dev team behind it.
I’ve heard good things about Ultrakill too.
Dusk is fucking awesome, that’s where the boomer shooter revival truly began. Dusk was so good that many other devs looked at it and went “hey, we gotta make an awesome game like that as well!”. And then came Amid Evil, then Ion Fury, then Project Warlock… and the rest is history.
And now they are making successors to other classic games like Half-Life and F.E.A.R. And also retro inspired but very much original titles like Ultrakill.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin was made with the Quake engine. If you like Quake, Wrath pushes the engine to unbelievable. I’d highly recommend checking the Steam store to see if there’s a free demo to D/L. I keep going back to this one and am pretty sure you will too.
I’m going to murder someone if I hear any of my friends call them. I swear if this becomes a widespread term
It’s been used for a couple years now. Seems like a pretty small thing to get so worked up over.
Hyperboles man. But in general I just hate the term don’t subcategorize shooters based off of the era it’s designed around. It’s just stupid subcategorize off of different things
I feel like a lot of games work better for the indie market because development costs are so low.
Competetion is also far more fierce. There are only a handful of AAA publishers and they all do the same stuff. Liveservice multiplayer looter or open world single player movie-like stuff.
An environment where games like Undertale, Hollow Knight, Celeste, Dusk, Stardew Valley and Ion Fury rein supreme encourages making a stand out game far more than an environment that is more concerned with the in game store, cinematography of cutscenes and photorealistic graphics.
For sure. It’s easier and more accessible to put out titles in genres that have relatively little development overhead, while it’s also a much lower risked investment for titles with particularly unusual mechanics or gimmicks.
Excellent observation. I mentioned that in another comment. Not only are dev costs low, but risks can be taken. An example: Blood West I’m sure you guessed with a name like that it’s a Western flavored FPS. And it is. It has more story than usual. The downside is that during the first hour of game play you will have fired all of six rounds. Also, initially your character is a marshmallow. You die a LOT! AFTER that period you start getting in to the story and have better weapons and armor starts being a thing. The game is not my favorite, however, it is a welcome break from frenetic blasting. I hope in the next incarnation they figure out a better balance at the beginning of the game.
Great article! All to say that if it wasn’t for indie devs, genres like this one would have stayed dead. I’m glad they brought it back. If there’s a market for it, they should make the game. AAA studios only want the highest ROI so they were always unlikely to take the risk on something like this.
What an awful, awful name for the genre. I’ve always hated “Metroidvania,” but I’ll embrace it with open arms if I never have to hear or read “boomer shooter” ever again.
Also. How much of the intentionality due to those engines being free to mod???
These are millenial shooters dangit, boomers were too old for doom. Gen X at most.
More seriously though I just replayed the OG doom and it still slaps, nice to see some folks are trying to recapture that. I should check these out.
Millennials? No way. The oldest millennials were 11 when Doom came out.
It is most definitely a Gen X game. It has all the hallmarks of mid 90s GenX culture: unapologetically rebellious, anti-establishment, edgy and violent. The developers are also all oldish GenX-ers (Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, John Romero, Dave Taylor) or young Boomers (Sandy Petersen and Tom Hall)
A lot of us older Millennials still grew up playing these games as they came out.
But you’re right, they are thoroughly a product of '90s Gen-X culture.
Of course. Especially the ones that came after Doom I guess. I listened to a lot of older music at the time too (like 80s new wave or 70s hard rock and punk), but that doesn’t make it “GenX” music.
Yeah, Doom, Quake, Duke et al are like ‘90s GenX culture personified for me. Millennials’ era (and this is sort of in the name) is ca. 2000 and afterwards, and gaming had already shifted to something else by quite a bit by then.
I am a millennial who was 13 when Doom came out but go off
Somehow I had 1991 in my mind for Doom’s release date, but it’s 1993. That’s my mistake.
In any case, if you were 13 when Doom came out, you were born in 1980 or 1979, so you’re still not a millennial, but GenX. The cut-off point for millennials is usually put around 1981-1982.
Even so, Doom’s target audience at the time, with all the satanic and gore content, was most definitely not 13 year olds although it’s possible you played it on your Boomer or GenX dad’s PC of course.
I’m a GenX-er from 1975 by the way, so I was “there” when all this happened.
I completely agree with the generational… “faux pas” in the naming. But it SOUNDS good… boomer shooter… I’ve also heard retroFPS. I wasn’t a fan when these originally came out. I was too busy with more “complex” hoity-toity puzzlers and “deep” rpg’s… Now that I’m almost 50, I enjoy the HELL out of Boltgun. If you buy ONE game… I HIGHLY recommend it. It starts with the pedal to the metal and then hits turbo at some point (you’re too busy to notice). REALLY… give it a try.
It’s a bit silly because at least with like quake and unreal tournament, they are referred to as arena shooters already
Quake III is an arena shooter, Quake I and II definitely are not. Yes Unreal Tournament is an arena shooter but Forgive Me Father, Blood West, Wrath, Deadlink, and Boltgun definitely are not…
Good to hear thanks! I’m taking a breather from fast paced fps to get into a hoity toity puzzler now (outer wilds is awesome) but I have reminded myself how nice it is to take a mindless break and destroy Nazis and demons so I’ll be back to the dizzingly fast violence trough soon enough
If you like Outer Wilds, take a look at Call of Cthulhu or Superliminal. Superliminal will bend your perception. Call of Cthulhu is a fun romp through the Lovecraftian universe. And both have an extra helping of hoity.
I found superluminal just made me miss portal unfortunately. It wasn’t bad but not as strong. Might take a look at coc though!
That’s my thought as well. The only game my boomer dad ever played on our old Windows 3.11 Acer PC was some golf game. It was my gen x future brother-in-law that introduced me to shooters like Doom and Quake.
Doom is still incredible. It has it’s faults, but fantastic nonetheless. I highly recommend you try out some of the sick mods community made for it, like Heartland (it requires the Eternity Engine).
It’s also kind of ironic to call them boomer games since they were hell bent to censor or cancel games like those or pretty much any video game in general.
OG doom is so awesome. It basically fathered the FPS genre and speedrunning. There’s still so much development and so much being done. Even artistically there’s a lot happening. Have you seen myhouse.wad? That’s just brilliant meta storytelling.
If you’re not going to play myhouse.wad there’s a great (albeit long) video essay on it.
aa
Asteroids was my dad’s boomer shooter.
It’s a great game though. Can’t blame him at all
Galaga was my dad’s boomer shooter.
Farmville on Facebook might be up there, too.
Pinball on an Apple IIe was honestly slick.
John Carmack is 52. Gen X can comfortably work.
The article did address this:
It all comes down to it rolling off your tongue better.
I was making a joke my friend :)
I know I know. Just thought it was interesting that they had the same thought process in the article too. 😄
What version of reality does this author live in, anyway?
I agree, those are very arcade-y, but in relative terms they do aim for realism. ARMA obviously isnt an option for people that want a fun 20 minute game and alternatives like Destiny aim for far less realism. In the range of “very realistic” to “completely absurdly impossible”, CoD and Battlefield are more to the left.
Edit: ugh, just had to think of the endless “realism” debates when battlefield V came out and people insisted women characters were breaking the “immersion”.
I assume by “realism” they’re talking about setting, not that those games are simulations of what it’s like to get shot at.
my brother is a young boomer and not many of his gen played video games. This should likely be XerShooter or something.
I hear what you’re saying. Boomer doesn’t JUST mean Baby Boomer Generation. It is also used as “the old generation.” There was a meme/song that was popular for a while called “Ok Boomer…” The other thing to consider is that most of the “Boomer” shooters have grenades. They go “BOOM.” So maybe let’s not hang up on the name so much? If you don’t like it I might recommend “retroFPS.”
Doom and Doom II are boomer shooters. No grenades. Just a rocket launcher and a Big Fucking Gun.
Boomer shooters are basically shooters from the 90’s. Between like ~94-98, depending on what you count.
Once you hit Quake and Half-Life you’re out of the boom shoot era. And I wouldn’t call Wolf3D boom shoot.
I’m not here to argue with you. That’s great that’s what YOU want the definition to be. When OTHER people talk about Boomer Shooters they’re talking about games released recently BASED ON elements of FPS games released in previous decades.
so conversely does zoomer include millenials? Or are millenials boomers too? Are they old? They might be getting over 40 so can’t trust them.
I wish we had decent Arena Shooters like UT99. Splitgate was close.
you might like xonotic
I hope that genre is the next to return. I think that people are mostly split between warfare simulators and these older shooters. On the one hand you have a heavy tactical simulation, and on the other you have a fast paced, low development overhead game that costs 25% of what the AAA warfare simulator runs. Arena shooters are in the middle, and most people that play them just jump up to warfare simulators. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying it’s hard to find enough people that didn’t go one way or the other to make arena game development worth it.
Arena Shooters also had extremely high skill ceilings and steep learning curves. Good aim was only a small part of the game. Knowing the map, i.e. where and when power weapons and power ups spawn, controlling both item spawns as well as enemy spawn points; that’s what distinguished a good player from a bad one.
If you wanted to git gud you had to suffer through countless hours of getting destroyed. I don’t know if today’s gamer is still up for that. However, games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends are more popular than ever and those are definitely not easy to get into.
You bring up a good point. The typical cost/benefit analysis. I agree with your assessment of Arena shooters. There’s a LOT of VERY nuanced stuff to have to learn. I think that’s why on one side you’ll see people doing simpler FPS and on the other side you’ll see full investment into tactical warfare simulation. I think the space in between doesn’t provide enough return (as compared to tactical warfare sim) and it has too high of a cost (as opposed to retroFPS). Again this is just the ramblings of an old know-nothing. I’m nobody special when it comes to this subject, so I may be completely wrong.
They need to give Unreal Tournament the Rocket League treatment. It’d work perfectly.
Then there’s tf2 the middle group youre looking for
We got several. We got Toxxik, Xonotic, Diabotical and Quake Champions. The thing is, most people don’t want those games anymore. Skill ceiling is way too high, the games are fundamentally not beginner friendly, they are super punishing games that are very difficult to master. Quake didn’t even allow you to walk and strafe normally, you needed to learn to bunny hop and rocket jump to be competitive. Most people naturally don’t want it back. Those that do seem to end up sticking to Quake III and UT.