Retro shooter Selaco perfectly pitches itself as F.E.A.R. meets Doom
It even uses the GZDoom engine
A lunchtime Twitter scroll brought Selaco to my attention, a sci-fi FPS that’s heavily influenced by F.E.A.R. and built in the GZDoom engine. I clicked on the clip expecting to be underwhelmed, but I was delighted to be proven wrong. There’s better action in the 20 seconds below than any of F.E.A.R’s sequels.
Players are the lone security expert in Selaco, an underground facility on a ravaged Earth. The facility is invaded and you have to fight off the assault. It’s a very breakable place, according to the Steam page: “Every single bullet will react properly with any materials or objects you hit. Our artists have created many different variations for each (voxel) object to ensure that the aftermath of each encounter is palpable.”
A quick snippet of the game from March this year shows they’re not kidding. The bullets spit dust into the air with every impact, and diving through broken windows lets the player take enemies by surprise.
AI is an important element in any game that tries to pitch F.E.A.R. as its primary inspiration, and it’s something the developers are paying attention to. They said:
"With our F.E.A.R. influence, writing proper AI was a goal from the get go. The enemy is fully aware of each other's presence and work together to take you down. They will keep their distance if you apply constant pressure on them, will rush you if you hide or run out of bullets, toss grenades if you use the same cover for too long, and much more. Hundreds of custom lines have been written and acted out, providing hints to the player about their current plans and tactics."
You can see some of that play out in this 15 second clip from June. The player is pressed into cover before blasting ther way back out.
There’s no release date (well, there is: Steam lists it as “August 25th, 2255”), but there is a Patreon page with early access when the game's a bit further along. Hurry, please. I want.