Ultrakill

Ultrakill arrived in Early Access in 2020 and immediately started a conversation about what a first-person shooter could be when it stops trying to be anything except fast, violent, and mechanically deep. Built almost entirely by a single developer known as Hakita and published by New Blood Interactive, it takes the speed of classic 90s shooters and welds it to the combo systems and style rankings of character action games. The result is something the FPS genre hasn’t seen before, and the community response has been close to universal praise.

Players who’ve spent time with Ultrakill tend to describe it with a level of enthusiasm that borders on evangelical. The Steam reviews are among the highest-rated for any game on the platform, and discussions across forums consistently place it alongside or above genre legends. The few criticisms that surface are minor: occasional difficulty spikes, the inherent uncertainty of Early Access, and a visual style that prioritizes function over beauty. None of those complaints have put a dent in its reputation.

Blood, Coins, and the Art of the Style Meter

The combat system is where Ultrakill separates itself from everything else in the genre. Health doesn’t come from pickups scattered around levels. Instead, you heal by getting splashed with enemy blood, which means staying close to enemies and staying aggressive. Hanging back and playing safe is a death sentence. This single design choice transforms every fight into a forward-pushing, risk-rewarding encounter where the most dangerous play is also the most effective.

Layered on top of that is a style ranking system borrowed from games like Devil May Cry. Vary your attacks, chain kills quickly, use different weapons in sequence, and your style meter climbs from D through S and beyond. The meter isn’t just cosmetic. Higher style ranks mean more points, which feed into level grades, which unlock additional content. Players who would normally just shoot everything with one weapon are incentivized to experiment, and that experimentation is where Ultrakill reveals its true depth.

The weapon arsenal is dense with possibilities. Each weapon has multiple variants that fundamentally change how it works, and the interactions between weapons create techniques the community is still discovering years after release. The coin toss from the revolver, where you flip a coin into the air and shoot it to create a homing projectile, has become iconic. Players have found ways to chain coins, ricochet shots off them at impossible angles, and combine them with other weapons for trick shots that look like they shouldn’t be possible. The skill ceiling feels almost limitless.

The Unfinished Edge of Early Access

Ultrakill is still technically in Early Access, and that’s the most significant caveat. The game has been receiving substantial content updates, with new acts, levels, and weapons added over time, but the final act is not yet complete. Players who want a finished narrative arc with a definitive ending will need to wait. The development pace has been steady enough that the community trusts it will get there, but it’s still a factor worth knowing about before buying.

The visual style is deliberately lo-fi, drawing from the PS1 era with low-polygon models and simple textures. This is an intentional choice that serves the gameplay, keeping visual noise low so you can read encounters clearly at high speed. But some players find it ugly, especially in screenshots that don’t capture how the game looks in motion. The art direction has personality and consistency, but it won’t win over anyone who needs modern graphical fidelity.

Difficulty can also be punishing in later levels. The game provides difficulty options, but even on standard settings, some encounters and boss fights demand a level of mechanical skill that casual players may not enjoy building. The community generally views this as a positive, arguing the challenge is fair and the satisfaction of overcoming it is part of the appeal. Players who bounce off demanding action games should know what they’re getting into.

Why Ultrakill Feels Like the Future of Shooters

What Ultrakill gets right, more than any individual system, is the feeling of mastery. Early hours feel chaotic as you learn to manage multiple weapons, the style system, and the aggressive pacing all at once. But the game teaches through play rather than tutorials, and the moment everything clicks is transformative. Suddenly you’re sliding under projectiles, parrying enemy attacks back at them, flipping coins into railgun shots, and painting every room red while the style meter screams. Few games deliver that kind of flow state as consistently.

Should You Play Ultrakill?

If you want a shooter that rewards skill, creativity, and aggression in equal measure, Ultrakill is one of the best options ever made. The blood healing system, style meter, and weapon depth create a combat loop that stays fresh across dozens of hours. If Early Access status is a firm dealbreaker, or if you need polished visuals and a complete story before committing, those are legitimate reasons to wait. But the amount and quality of content already available puts most finished games to shame.

The Verdict

Ultrakill is a masterclass in first-person combat design. It took the speed of Quake, the style systems of Devil May Cry, and a blood-soaked healing mechanic, then built something that feels entirely its own. The fact that it’s mostly the work of a single developer makes its quality even more impressive. Early Access is the only real asterisk, and even that feels like a formality given how much polished content is already here. This is one of the defining shooters of its generation, and it isn’t even finished yet.