Glowy Death Abounds In Daedalus - No Escape

Lasers, glistening biceps, and corrugated labyrinths, oh my! Is there any way to make space marine-driven arena shooters better? If you were Daedalus - No Escape, you'd say something like, "Of course! By turning it into a top-down affair, naturally." Out now on Steam, Daedalus looks like a slick, violent conflagration where only the best can reign from the top of the leader boards. No feelings, declares the trailer. No crying out for your mommy. None of that rot at all.

Instead, it sings with plasma, with fluid camera angles, with copious amounts of blood sloshing everywhere. Daedalus draws inspiration from Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena, with a dose of Alien Breed in terms of its gritty moodiness. You can play alone, or you can play with your friends. It's up to you. The standard game modes are all here. Capture the Flag? Death Match? Shoot to kill? Yup. In case you ever get bored with blasting things in the face, there's a map editor that will let you engineer new death traps to cavort in.

I like how Daedalus - No Escape is so audaciously open about the fact it's not trying to remake the genre. It's supposed to be Quake 3, except from a top-down perspective, and it is proud to strut it across the Internet, something that more games should be bold enough to brandish. Steam tells me that you can buy the game for £8.99. Four-packs cost £26.99, which sound like the infinitely better bargain if you can find enough people to chip in.