Kingdom of the Dead: Cowboy Gone Agent Gone Undead Hunter

Armed with only your wits about the situation, a variety of weapons, and your possessed sword, you breach areas of your world head first to rid the land of the demons who have corrupted it. In Kingdom of the Dead, you play as an agent sent out on a variety of missions to clean up the mess that has been caused by the undead. From eight available locations to play on, each with its own interesting layout, terrain and music. Your primary goal is to survive and kill all opposition that stands before you. You’ll have at your disposal seven weapons, most of which have a primary and secondary fire mode, allowing for flexible and fast gameplay.

This game, at its core, feels heavily inspired by the original DOOM series. The movement is extremely fast and tight; the core of the game philosophy being to never stop moving, as enemies can swarm and overwhelm you with physical and projectile attacks if you aren’t careful. There is also a healthy variety of enemies as well, from generic undead who attack you with melee weapons, to wizards firing energy blasts at you. And each level has its own boss; all themed around animals, making them all feel different, while giving them similar goals and desires. To rid the world of the player character so they can rule their little section as they will. Of course, that’s us. And we won’t let that slide.

Combat feels very tight as well. Headshots are the name of the game (for most enemies at least), and it is very satisfying to lay waste to enemies one after another with your choice of old, western-styled guns. Since most guns don’t have reloads, but instead having chambering of cocking animations, once you figure out the flow of combat with cycling between weapons to cancel out their animations, the game really opens up. And I think that’s what I enjoyed the most about this game; pacing and flow.

The game just feels good to play. It feels good to land killing blows on enemies and keep pushing forward. Being aggressive and taking the fight to them feels good. And combine that with the game’s soundtrack, you’ll find yourself lost in the game, moving your head to the beat of the music and killing enemies. You get that flow that games like DOOM really knock out of the park. And speaking of OST, the game’s music is really good. This dark and grungy soundtrack that wants to get in your head as you kill everything in front of you (except the hostages you’re supposed to save, but hey, it happens sometimes).

Now, the game has its flaws. The terrain can sometimes get you caught up, while you’re slaying hordes of the undead. And the one thing that stood out to me the most was one section in the later levels was rough. It was the only section of the game where I died more than once. And it’s a by-product of the game handles hitboxes with enemies with something in front of them. You have to shoot enemies not where you’d think you would in order to kill them, while they have weaponry that knocks a whole heart off of you should you get hit. It kind of sucks, and I can only imagine the damage on harder difficulties. And while most of the soundtrack is excellent, there are some songs that are grating on your ears. Even with the volume down it’s a lot of noise that can feel overwhelming. But that’s maybe two tracks out of the whole OST, so not that bad.

Overall, Kingdom of the Dead came out of nowhere for me. I just happened to spot it one day while browsing steam, and it’s really fun. There’s a reason to play the game at least twice; once for a first playthrough, and then again on the hardest difficulty trying to collect everything in each level. And the hardest difficulty is definitely living up to that title. Tougher enemies show up sooner, less health, less ammo; it’s going to be rough, but a good challenge for anyone willing to try it. I definitely would recommend this if anyone wants to kill some time and just vibe to a fast FPS with good music and a really interesting art design.