After a number of years in game review, you develop a sort of pseudo-scientific method for determining whether a new game will be a hit. Take a look at the developer. You mentally compare it to other similar games that have come and gone in the past. There is a process. But other times you don’t even have to think, you just know. Between Twitter, YouTube, and now Steam, every time I watch Out of Action, a new multiplayer FPS game with hints of Cyberpunk 2077, Max Payne, CSGO, Call of Duty, and even old favorites like XIII and FEAR, it’s is obvious: this one is going to be great.
Developed by single-player studio Doku Games, Out of Action is a brutally bloody and fast-paced multiplayer shooter with a bullet-time, cel-shadowed Matrix-style anime aesthetic. For me, in terms of one-sentence elevator talk, it’s right up there with “time moves when you move” by Superhot. Just look.
It’s Fast, It’s Vicious Ball time feels incredibly fluid, letting you jump through the air, slide across the ground, and dash around corners to knock your opponents down.
Slow motion in multiplayer has always been a tricky prospect – if one player presses the slow motion button, how does it work for everyone else? But Out of Action seems to have figured it out somehow. Combined with excellent sound design and a cel-shaded brutalist style, it sounds like a certifiable explosion.
While a release date has yet to be confirmed, Doku Games outlines team and single player modes for Out of Action, along with customizable loadouts that will include weapon attachments and bio-boosts. You can expect to see a lot more Out of Action in the future, but for now, you can list the indie game right now on Steam.
You can also check out some of the other best games coming in 2023, or perhaps the best multiplayer games available to play right now.