Awesome / ULTRAKILL

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL.

We could just spare you the time and trouble and just declare that the entire game is full of Awesome, but of course, we still need to describe the moments bit by bit. Enter Ultrakill, undoubtedly one of the most awesome First-Person Shooters out there, to the point where just like in Devil May Cry, Stylish Action is a core part of gameplay, and is key to success.

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General

• The character we play as, V1 drips of awesomeness in every moment of their existence. V1 is a blue Killer Robot that's strong enough to Punch Parry the blows of a gigantic corpse with their left hand, defeat Heaven's mightiest archangel twice, slay a titanic serpent demon that sunk a cruise ship, and ravage hordes after hordes of damned souls, demons, angels, and their fellow machines. Their design is also a spectacle to behold: a blue, one-eyed, camera-shaped headed robot with glowing yellow wings that store their impressive arsenal, such as a revolver that V1 can ricochet the bullets with coins made out of iron excess of the blood they drink, a heat-firing shotgun they got from the Swordsmachine that, just like the revolver before, can be charged to make an even more devastating shot to decimate enemies up-close or punch the bullets hard enough to make them explosive, a nail gun that serves as a massive chaingun, a railcannon that can vaporize anything it hits with while making the most satisfying recharging noises to ever bless the FPS genre, and a rocket launcher with missiles that V1 can ride on and redirect them. V1 is the mechanical embodiment of the word awesome.
  • It gets even more awesome when it is revealed the purpose of why V1 was made: they were supposed to be the perfect counter against the "Earthmover"-type machines, colossal robots in the shape of horses who defined the last era of the Final War: their massive weapons rendered surface combat irrelevant, while their sheer size let them carry enough equipment to generate a Nigh-Invulnerable Bubble Shield that made attacking from outside of it useless. If the Earthmovers could destroy cities with their weapons, V1 being designed to kill them by invading them from the inside-out is the most badass thing of this entire game.
• While the Machines are all absolutely nightmarish robots, it is impossible to say that they aren’t cool. What could it be that makes them so damn awesome? Their varied designs? Their attacks and abilities? Their lore? All of the three? Let’s see some of them:
  • This video is enough reason to say that the Drones are an actual threat when there are many of them. And this is one of the weakest enemies of the game. You will never see the Drones in the same eyes ever again.
  • The Streetcleaners are hyped in Limbo when they are foreshadowed by a litter of burned Filths and remaining fire. The can even parry your attacks and dodge them! And you thought they would stay still and get hit, huh?
  • The Mindflayers of Lust are graceful and beautiful looking Machines that are based of the Succubi. They use their tentacles to melee attack, teleport around and use Hell energy to attack you. Also, they are very sexy.
  • The Swordsmachine definitely takes the cake, a Machine so well versed in the arts of the blade that that other Machines who are noted of being selfish bastards, actually feel respect for them to the point that there are other Machines that upgrade themselves to be more like the Swordsmachine.
  • The Sentries are green Machines with a sniper rifle for a head. They are absolutely unflinching when they aim at V1 and blip to announce they are going to shoot, and they always hit their target. The only way to stop them from shooting is using the Knuckleblaster and Rocket Launcher or kill them first. Their design looks very similar to the Moa from Warframe.
  • The Guttermen are hulking, chaingun-wielding Machines with shields that are strong enough to be a sub-boss in their first encounter. They also look a lot like the Big Daddies from BioShock which adds more to their cool design. However, their fueling system is a whole other story.
  • The Guttertank are red, tank-like Machines with a Arm Cannon as their main weapon that are the perfect counter to the Guttermen, since they were designed during the Final War to counter them. We see this in the game by seeing a Guttertank being able to kill a Guttermen with a single punch.
  • V2 serves as The Rival archetype that's embraced by other Stylish Action video games, being a red version of V1 with stronger armor plating and having mobility and combat skills that rival their predecessor's. Not only they manage to survive their encounter with V1 at Limbo the first time, the same V1 who usually ends the job, they fight against their predecessor and while they die, they truly gave us a great fight, so iconic is V2 that there are people who want their death retconned and bring them back to the game.
    • This video is a true example of why V2 is such an enjoyable boss that people want them back. V2 is waiting for V1 to come to them and they both start shooting and punching against each other, with V2 even using the whiplash to start throwing V1 like a ragdoll. But in the end V1 manages to defeat V2.
  • The 1000-THR Earthmovers: colossal robots in the form of horses that loom over Violence and watch over the carnage of the layer. These Machines (and presumably others like them, since the Earthmovers we see are all of a Japanese design) were made to destroy with their energy javelins entire cities and mountains, and V1 was made to kill these guys. Wow.
    • This video and this video alone is the epitome of V1’s awesomeness by showcasing their purpose of creation in the best way possible. It shows a hypothetical scenario where V1 doesn’t climb the Earthmover to attack and destroy the superweapon’s brain, instead, V1 fights the Earthmover in a 1v1 fight where the colossal robot attacks the blue combat robot with weapons we don’t see in the game like machine guns that spew a barrage of bullets, missiles that seek after its enemies, its own flipping coin ricochet that shoots not bullets, but lasers, and the Earthmover’s trusty light spear. All while Tenebre Rosso Sangue plays in the background and even if the Earthmover has gotten new weapons, none of it was enough to stop V1 from parrying its own ricochet, destroying one of its legs with the railgun, ripping its heart and using the Earthmover’s own light spear to destroy what is left of the already scrapped robot. And then, V1 enters the colossal robot’s brain and rips the core out of it, while Hell itself quotes the book that can be found inside the Earthmover.

Layers

ACT I: INFINITE HYPERDEATH

• 2-1: BRIDGEBURNER:
  • After beginning the level in a dark, dimly-light hallway with seemingly-modern technological aesthetics (and defeating the enemies therein), V1 takes a launchpad and flies out into the open, revealing a massive sprawling cyberpunkish urban metropolis stretching as far as the eye can see. V1, welcome to the Lust Layer.
• 2-4: COURT OF THE CORPSE KING:
  • Parrying the punch of a giant skyscraper-sized corpse and hitting it in the face with its own fist, despite being practically an ant in comparison.
• 3-2: IN THE FLESH:
  • Gabriel. Up until 3-2, the game has been mostly manageable. Then Gabriel comes out to play, and promptly turns the entire game on its head as he asserts his absolute dominance over V1 with his fast attacks and sheer tenacity, in a brutal but fulfilling end to Act 1. And just as much as Gabriel can obliterate an unprepared player, a skilled player can dance circles around him and shred his health bar to bits with crazy plays and mastery over slides and dashes.
• P-1: SOUL SURVIVOR:
  • This first Prime Sanctum does a stellar job building up its atmosphere, with V1 walking down a spiraling spinal column staircase down to an arena. The trip is supported by an orchestral tune, "Sourire D'Avril." It's the same piece sampled for some ambient tracks in the Lust layer, now played in its unaltered state... until it slowly corrupts the closer V1 gets to the arena entrance. The entire piece provides an atmosphere unlike any prior track, because it's a warning: the comfortable familiarity of Act 1's regular levels is gone, and in its place is something that requires far more from V1 to succeed.
  • What awaits V1 down below the spinal staircase is the Flesh Prison, a horrifying construct that throws out multiple chaotic attacks simultaneously. It is a grueling fight that leaves little room for error, but it's massively cathartic to put the monstrosity in its place. This alone would be a fitting award for P-Ranking Act 1, but then, its prisoner is released... It's none other than the spirit of King Minos, back in his prime as an aptly named Prime Soul. Before he begins one of the best boss fights in the game, with a moveset akin to a top-tier fighting game character, he delivers an extremely raw call to action that embodies the divine fury of a wise and noble ruler pushed too far, backed by the equally raw opening segment of "ORDER":
    "Ahh… Free... at last. O, Gabriel. Now dawns thy reckoning, and thy gore shall GLISTEN... before the temples of man! Creature of steel… My gratitude upon thee for my freedom... But the crimes thy kind have committed against humanity... are NOT forgotten... And thy punishment… is DEATH."

ACT II: IMPERFECT HATRED

• 4-4: CLAIRE DE SOLEIL:
  • The rematch with V2 is nothing short of a spectacle. With V2 having adapted to your tactics to gain their own Marksman Pistol and Nailgun resulting in an even more fast paced duel that concludes in a high speed sliding chase down on one of Greed's pyramids.
• 5-3: SHIP OF FOOLS:
  • You invade The Ferryman's ship in your pursuit of blood while a swashbuckling track plays in the background. After clearing one arena, you get to see the tail of the titanic Leviathan as it swims across the ocean Styx, foreshadowing its boss fight in the following level. Halfway though the level, you're introduced to one nasty gauntlet with a Dual-Wield Powerup waiting for you in the center of the arena, and once the gauntlet ends, the entire ship is flipped upside-down'', possibly by the Leviathan, then you climb your way through the flooded ruins of the ship as you pick out the remaining enemies while finding your way back to the starting Hellevator to prepare your upcoming battle against The Leviathan.
• 5-4: LEVIATHAN:
  • The boss battle against The Leviathan is a spectacle that rivals The Corpse of King Minos', but its boss fight gets more awesome when you realize how much freedom you have in mobility unlike the previous giant boss fight, meaning you can battle the Leviathan while rocket-surfing (as shown by this video), or hooking the Whiplash onto the beast's heart like a Rodeo bull ride. Bonus awesome points to the Leviathan for being the game's first Supreme Demon and the first boss to have a proper Colossus Climb (which is even encouraged by its Terminal Entry), on top of having a really gnarly design for a giant snake demon that's worthy of both awe and horror.
• 6-2: AESTHETICS OF HATE:
  • The rematch against Gabriel being a far faster battle where Gabriel finally stops holding back and uses his swords against V1 in his determination to kill him while The Death of God's Will plays in the background.
  • Gabriel deciding to kill the council to end their oppression of Heaven, while triumphantly holding the severed head of one of the councilmen to the masses of heaven.

ACT III: GODFIST SUICIDE

• 7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY:
  • While the level itself starts off in a creepy and terrifying manner, especially concerning that the trees you've been passing and "watering" are the bodies of suicide victims transformed into trees and left to rot for all eternity, the game suddenly flies off the handle as soon V1 makes their way to the second tree. V1 is walking down a narrow corridor in total silence... When suddenly the corridor explodes, revealing an arena positively chockful of enemies. But here's the twist: They're all fighting each other in addition to you. This results in a incredibly chaotic free-for-all where winner takes all, and subsequent enemy encounters in the level only gets more and more hectic, culminating in the final arena of the level, where demon, angel, machine and husk alike duke it out in a glorious bloodbath the likes of which is rarely seen even in this game. V1 even gets a Dual Wield power-up so they can join in on the fun!
    • This only gets better if you try to beat the level's secret challenge. Basically, you have to mark yourself for death, meaning that the normal enemy behavior is restored, and all of those hordes of enemies fighting each other now focus down on you once more, providing a true challenge rivaling that of P-2.
• 7-4: ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN:
  • The fight with The Earthmover is an even greater David vs. Goliath fight than the Corpse of King Minos or the Leviathan, as V1 has to fight through the colossal war machine by scaling its body and invading it from the inside until they reach the brain and destroy it in another intense battle. After which, the fight concludes in an intense countdown and final shootout as you escape the Earthmover and see it explode behind you as the countdown reaches zero.

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