Brutal boomer shooter Ultrakill makes its new chapter even better with over 120 precision changes

I'm very glad to see Ultrakill finally getting the spotlight it deserves. The "fast-paced, ultra-violent, old-school FPS" has the speed of classic Quake, the encounter design of modern Doom, and the combo systems of Devil May Cry. Its latest chapter takes us into the eight layer of Hell, 'Fraud,' and has already been met with huge acclaim from players. Creator Arsi 'Hakita' Patala still isn't satisfied. The new Ultrakill Fraud update makes a total of 127 changes, plus "general optimizations," but not before the developer delivers a heartwarming message to the community.

"Thank you, Machines," Hakita writes. "Before we get to the patch notes, I just wanted to take a second and say: 'Wow.' The release of Ultrakill: Layer 8 - Fraud was huge. We had nearly 72,000 people playing the game at once. Nearly triple the amount of players we had for the launch of Layer 7 - Violence or the Ultra Revamp last year. More than giant multiplayer games like Apex Legends and Helldivers 2. Crazy." Lifetime Steam reviews still sit at 97% positive, an impressive feat for a game with more than 134,000 ratings. Even more tellingly, many of the negative reviews are jokes from people about how it's eaten too much of their time or makes other games feel bad by comparison.

If you've played Ultrakill, you'll know there's no time to rest, and so we come to this huge changelog packed with precision adjustments across general gameplay, enemy behavior and balance, and all of the individual levels in Layer 8. Encounters have been adjusted to target "a smoother difficulty ramp." Instances of portals pushing you out of bounds should be "(hopefully) greatly reduced," with invisible colliders placed to catch your character if they're going somewhere they shouldn't be.

Piercing attacks that should be breaking objects will now fly through them as intended, rather than being stopped in their tracks. Providences (the butterfly-like flying angels) are less mobile and easier to chase down, and their beam attacks will now damage enemies if you parry them. The pulses from Deathcatchers (who resurrect their fallen allies into puppets) will now be spread further apart based on your difficulty, with Brutal keeping the original five-second timer.

Throughout the campaign, you'll find jump pads to help you get out of pits, new light shafts to guide you in the right direction during more confusing areas, and adjustments to the number and type of enemies in various rooms. One climactic section delivers infinite rocket fuel to ensure the moment can play out as intended. You can also head into the advanced options if you want to make the arena in level 8-4 static, as an accessibility tool.

I don't want to get too deep into the weeds on every individual change, because there are so many, but it's clear that Hakita has been closely studying runs and numbers for the past week. From niche fixes to careful health and speed adjustments, these are the types of tweaks that make Ultrakill one of the most pristinely balanced boomer shooters out there. It's approachable enough that anyone can play it, but with a skill ceiling that seems to just keep climbing. "Mankind is dead. Blood is fuel. Hell is full."

Ultrakill: Level 8 - Fraud is out now on Steam, and you can buy the game in early access for $24.99 / £20.99. Hakita adds that even more improvements are already in the works, and notes that the Fraud soundtrack will be available from today, Wednesday March 4, on YouTube and Bandcamp.