Wait Until Dusk For Beyond Sunset Early Access

Hold on, wait a minute – at least let me adjust my chair and get comfortable before getting me to jump all over the place in Beyond Sunset Early Access, the latest FPS from Movie Games. Christ, it’s fast.

So, how badly do you miss the 90s and want to re-live/live the type of first-person games from the era? Besides locating a big box at your local car boot, Beyond Sunset is pretty close to it – warts and all. The reason it’s so damn fast is, first, the mouse sensitivity is worse than your girlfriend at that particular time in each month and because it’s graphically one of the least demanding.

You play a street samurai and are sent to sort out some chump. You’re greeted by streetwalkers who aren’t interested in talking to you but are up in your face each time you race forward. Sorry, have I mentioned how fast this game is? It’s like driving a P1 through your local supermarket and trying to read the label on your organic, vegan cheese. Note I write your. I’m all about real cheese.

Beyond Sunset Early Access: Wait Until Dusk

After dashing around the city as if on speed, it becomes clear that you can sign up with a local weapons dealer who’ll ask you to assassinate someone in pink. What with? Aha – here’s the katana you see in the Beyond Sunset tutorial and trailer. No, it’s a little easy to press the mouse button and slash all those NPC stalkers, but first, a mission.

When you’re wielding a sword, it would be poor judgment from a henchman not to pull out their gun, but they’re already too late: I’ve sliced them in half. Quick, call my psychiatrist – that was satisfying as you see the pixelated blood splatter up the walls of the teahouse. Now it seems I can’t get a paper door (shoji) without defeating all the spawning enemies.

Combat in Beyond Sunset Early Access is as swift as the movement as you hack and slash at the visor-wearing suits. For those not armed with a sword, they’ll sport a gun and shoot from a distance. Fear not, as you can deflect the shots with some practice, then press ‘F’ when close up to dismember them. That’s more like it. Well, not necessarily the violence, but something is actually happening in the game.

Shine Bright Like A Diamond

Though fast, there’s a surprising amount of loading times, which is annoying, as is the jumpiness when more than a handful of enemies are on screen. Once the Ryu-like Hadouken-firing characters jump into the mix, it gets a bit hairy, but rely on the sword, and it’s all good.

If it weren’t for the fact that some enemies are heavily protected and need a charged shot to ‘break them down’, I don’t see the point in introducing firearms into Beyond Sunset Early Access as the katana is so enjoyable and effective. 

Besides the combat, there’s a lot of backtracking and working out where to go, but the mini-map is decent enough. Someone at Metacorp must have played Ghostrunner at some point, as this feels like a retro version of that, what with its double jumps and dashes. It adds to the consistency in pace. Well, aside from the story.

There’s a Beyond Sunset demo out now on Steam, which I suggest you try if you like fast-paced FPS games like Project Warlock and similar. With currently three episodes to play in Early Access, the full release should be five episodes. Check out the store page for more details.