Vampire Survivors' like count has rivaled the endless waves of monsters filling the screen in the bullet heaven roguelike itself, but a new Steam Next Fest demo is taking that roguelike mayhem and breathing new life into the formula. .
Dieseldome: Oil and Blood takes the structure of Survivors, which has you mowing down enemies until your eyes turn pink and getting random upgrades as you level up, and applies it to a blisteringly fast FPS. Developer GHST Studios calls it 'Movement Shooter', which is just a fancy way of saying that it was at least somewhat inspired by Doom Eternal and that game's wicked jump-and-shoot combat.
And it absolutely tears (and tears). The Steam demo has three gladiators you can unlock, each pushed into a 'RomanPunk' arena that has retro-futuristic sets decorating an ancient coliseum, which already makes for a cool introduction. From there, increasingly dense waves of flying eagles, rotten soldiers, floating steel balls, and sometimes even airships will attack you or one of several targets scattered around the place. Getting consecutive kills or successfully defending an objective will rile up the live crowd and get you to the next level faster.
Where things get interesting is in the actual movement and old school shootouts. There are double jumps (and a triple jump, if you unlock it), fast-paced wall runs, and even pipes on the map that will launch you into the sky. Chaining a wall run on a slide before shooting an enemy in the face is always exciting, no matter how many times you've pulled it off, and things only get wilder when you unlock the Spartan who comes with a damn grappling hook . As if things weren't hectic enough. My only complaint here is that the demo currently doesn't support controllers, which is how I prefer to play my shooters, so you might end up with a stiff wrist after a while.
But the upgrades you unlock can help ease the tension. There's a ball and chain that spins around your character and hits anything that gets too close – every Survivors has their own version of garlic, and Dieseldome is no different. There is a friendly tank that can capture our targets in the air. There is an eagle mascot who is a very good boy and hits all the enemies.
Either way, the lightning-fast movement of Dieseldome and the ever-enthusiastic structure of Survivors had me playing “one more game” practically all night. The meta-progression system was also a big reason, as you can even place 'Bets' here and risk winning or losing large amounts of gold if you can successfully complete different challenges. Risk and reward even encourages you to select your setup and play style depending on what the challenge is, so I never settled into a comfortable routine that quickly became boring, and I can't wait to see what else GHST Studios has in store. . store when Dieseldome comes out in Early Access.
For now, check out the ten best Steam Next Fest demos which you should try before it's too late.