Angel at Dusk

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1

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Review:

Angel at Dusk, sometimes referred to as Angels at Dusk, is a Shmup released in 2024 on PC and Nintendo Switch which borders a bit on Bullet Hell territory, but this game takes a unique approach to the genre that makes it unclear whether that label applies. Point in fact, Angel at Dusk does a few things that are fairly unique within the genre.

The first and most noticeable is the presentation, which uses detailed 2D visuals to combine themes of angels and gruesome, bloody body parts. Not everyone will appreciate this theming, though it does at least get away from the overplayed spaceship/WWII plane motif many games in this genre have. Oddly, despite that this game’s visuals look like they were ripped off the cover to a heavy metal album, the game’s soundtrack is strangely placid, with serene synthesized themes that don’t fit this game’s visuals nor its gameplay.

Speaking of that gameplay, I think that in many ways Angel at Dusk is possibly the most inspired Shmup I’ve played in a long time. The game ditches all impact damage – you can only take damage from enemy gunfire. What’s more, while the rapid-fire shot and charge shot that are old standbys for the genre are still present here, they act very differently.

The charge shot is something in Shmups that tends to be a stronger attack to reward players for holding their fire in the time it takes to charge up, but here it is primarily defensive, offering no significant boost in firepower but having the ability to push away enemy gunfire, which is at times the only way to survive a volley of attacks unscathed. Meanwhile, the wide spread of the rapid shot plus the inability to take impact damage encourages players to get right up close to enemies to deal the most damage, a gameplay element that the game doubly rewards by enabling players to more swiftly refill their “stamina bar” (basically, your health).

The combination of these elements makes for a delightful game of chicken – you’ll have the biggest impact fighting enemies if you’re right next to them, but you’ll also have the least amount of time to react when said enemy fires and you need to change tact to your charge attack to fend off their bullets. Add to this an upgrade system that rewards you for efficiently taking out enemies but downgrades you when you take a hit, and you have a superb risk-reward mechanic built into the gameplay.

There are a few problems that detract from this otherwise great gameplay, though. First, when your “ship” upgrades, it gets bigger but its hitbox purportedly gets smaller, which is extremely visually dissonant. Depending on which ship you’re using and how much you’ve upgraded it, you could be taking up as much as a sixth of the screen, which makes it harder to judge when you’re trying to thread the needle between enemy shots that are passing over and through you.

Another problem is that when the action really gets going, the game’s visuals become so much noise across the screen that it becomes difficult to parse what is you, what is an enemy ship, what is a pickup, and what is enemy fire. As impressively-designed as the game’s visuals are, I feel like they would be far more practical if they were subdued somewhat.

However, despite its flaws, I think Angel at Dusk has some great, original ideas that it does very well, and while the visual issues in this game detract from it, they don’t change the fact that this is an excellent Shmup that fans of the genre should definitely play.

tl;dr – Angel at Dusk is a Shmup with an “angels meets bloody body parts” theme, and that has some really well-crafted game mechanics that make for a truly unique experience within the genre. Some visual issues undermine that experience somewhat, but this is still a delightfully original entry in the genre that Shmup fans will absolutely want to check out.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Runner-Up: Most Overlooked

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