Field guide · Retro boomer shooters on PC

Games like DUSK and Ion Fury: retro boomer shooters on PC

By Ekin, a solo developer in Istanbul (Whale Development Studios), maker of Iron Curtain Call. Published 8 November 2026; every price, release date and platform below was checked on 8 November 2026 against the US Steam store and the sources at the end.

Fast first person gunplay aboard a speeding Soviet train in Iron Curtain Call
Iron Curtain Call pairs classic boomer shooter speed and secret hunting with rubber hose rubber hose animation. Free demo on Steam.
The short answer

The ten boomer shooters at a glance

Players who finish DUSK or Ion Fury rarely want a modern military shooter with chest high walls and regenerating health. They want high movement speed, non linear levels packed with hidden walls, a full arsenal carried at once, and weapons that hit like industrial machinery. As a solo developer in Istanbul building Iron Curtain Call, I studied how modern boomer shooters keep your feet moving and compiled the ten best retro and stylised shooters on Steam.

If you loved the oppressive rural atmosphere and secret filled levels of DUSK, play CULTIC ($9.99, free demo on Steam) and HROT ($19.99, free demo). If you loved the interactive Build engine city blocks of Ion Fury, play Selaco ($24.99),which pushes the GZDoom engine into a full destructible office warzone. If you want chunky sprites and heavy gore, play Prodeus ($24.99), Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun ($21.99) and Turbo Overkill ($19.99, free demo). And if you want boomer shooter speed with parries, kicks and rubber hose rubber hose cartoon bosses, play the free Steam demo of my game Iron Curtain Call (releasing 11 March 2027).

At a glance

The ten boomer shooters at a glance

US Steam store prices, release dates, platforms and free demo availability checked on 8 November 2026.
GameEngine & visual styleSignature hookFree demo on SteamUS priceOut
Iron Curtain CallMy gamerubber hose rubber hose ink in 3D arenasParry, kick, grapple & dual wieldYes, free: Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutesNot priced yet11 March 2027Free demo since 28 October 2026
DUSKLow poly nineties Quake tributeStrafe jumping, dual shotguns & cult horrorNo$19.9910 December 2018
Ion FuryTrue Build engine sprite shooterLoverboy revolver & interactive city blocksNo$24.9915 August 2019
HROTBrown eighties Czechoslovak software lookSoviet brutalist bunkers & gas mask actionYes, free$19.9916 May 2023
CULTICGritty pixel art & voxel goreBlood inspired dynamite throwing & headshotsYes, free$9.9913 October 2022
Prodeus2.5D sprites with modern lightingHeavy metal gunfeel & community mapsNo$24.9923 September 2022
Turbo OverkillCyberpunk low poly neonChainsaw leg slide & grapple hookYes, free$19.9911 August 2023
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun90s sprite carnage in Warhammer 40KHeavy Bolter & Chainsword chargesNo$21.9923 May 2023
SelacoHeavily modified GZDoom engineF.E.A.R. style smart AI & destructible officesNo$24.9931 May 2024Early Access
Forgive Me FatherHand drawn 2D Lovecraftian comic spritesMadness meter & comic book framingNo$19.997 April 2022
Game by game

Each shooter, how it plays and why it belongs next to DUSK and Ion Fury

Each card covers what the game shares with this guide’s theme, how it plays and its verified US Steam store facts on 8 November 2026.

Iron Curtain Call

My game

Play it if you want my game.

I am building Iron Curtain Call with the core rules that make DUSK and Ion Fury timeless: no slow cover shooting, instant weapon responsiveness, secret rooms behind suspicious propaganda posters, and enemies whose projectiles and telegraphs you can read across a crowded room. Instead of nineties pixels, every enemy is hand inked in rubber hose rubber hose cartoon style, and you stay alive by parrying incoming fire, kicking tin soldiers off train cars and grappling across theater stages.

Developer and publisher
Whale Development Studios
Out
11 March 2027
Free demo out
28 October 2026
On Steam
Windows and macOS (demo on Windows, macOS and Linux)
US list price
Not priced yet
Demo
Yes, free
Gameplay trailer · 1:00 · Twelve chapters in sixty seconds. YouTube · Video page

Download the free Steam demoPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download

DUSK

Play it if you want the modern revival benchmark.

David Szymanski’s DUSK proved that one developer with a clear vision could build a three episode campaign that stands shoulder to shoulder with Quake and Blood. Starting in backwoods barns with dual sickles and escalating into gravity defying Escher cathedrals, it remains the gold standard for movement speed and level design.

Developer
David Szymanski
Publisher
New Blood Interactive
Released
10 December 2018
On Steam
Windows, macOS and Linux
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam

Ion Fury

Play it if you want true build engine craft.

Voidpoint built Ion Fury directly inside Ken Silverman’s Build engine, turning cyberpunk Neo D.C. into a labyrinth of vents, arcade machines, bowling bombs and multi lock revolver trick shots. Every room rewards players who tap on walls and look up.

Developer
Voidpoint, LLC
Publisher
3D Realms
Released
15 August 2019
On Steam
Windows and Linux
US list price
$24.99
Demo
None on Steam

HROT

Play it if you want czechoslovak brutalist retro.

Created by solo Czech developer Spytihněv in a custom Pascal engine, HROT shares DUSK’s love of chunky low poly geometry while trading rural America for eighties socialist Czechoslovakia. You fight through flooded Prague metro stations and brutalist concrete bunkers with an experimental lightning gun and a gas mask. Try its free demo on Steam.

Developer and publisher
Spytihněv
Released
16 May 2023
On Steam
Windows (demo on Windows)
US list price
$19.99
Demo
Yes, free

CULTIC

Play it if you want spiritual heir to blood.

Solo developer Jason Smith built CULTIC for players who loved DUSK’s first episode and Monolith’s classic nineties classic Blood. You slide tackle cultists, shoot bundles of dynamite in mid air to clear rooms, and hunt secrets across moody voxel canyons and asylums. A free Steam demo is live.

Developer
Jasozz Games
Publisher
3D Realms
Released
13 October 2022
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$9.99
Demo
Yes, free

Prodeus

Play it if you want 2.5d sprites & modern lighting.

Prodeus bridges nineties sprite shooters and modern particle lighting. You can toggle between pixelated 2D enemy sprites and 3D models at any time, and every shotgun blast shakes the corridor.

Developer
Bounding Box Software Inc.
Publisher
Balor Games
Released
23 September 2022
On Steam
Windows and macOS
US list price
$24.99
Demo
None on Steam

Turbo Overkill

Play it if you want chainsaw leg speed.

If you loved the high speed strafe jumping of DUSK and want to push it into cyberpunk overdrive, Turbo Overkill builds a literal chainsaw into your sliding leg and hands you a grappling hook and wall run boots across massive neon stages.

Developer
Trigger Happy Interactive
Publisher
Apogee Entertainment
Released
11 August 2023
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$19.99
Demo
Yes, free

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

Play it if you want heavy bolter & chainsword.

Auroch Digital’s Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun combines nineties sprite enemies with the heavy stomp of an Ultramarine Sternguard Veteran. Your Bolter rounds detonate Chaos cultists, and your Chainsword lets you lunge across arenas to finish armored champions.

Developer
Auroch Digital
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Released
23 May 2023
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$21.99
Demo
None on Steam

Selaco

Play it if you want gzdoom pushed to the limit.

For players who loved how interactive every shop and office in Ion Fury felt, Selaco pushes the GZDoom engine to an astonishing level of physical detail: flanking squad AI, shattering glass, flying office papers and brutal close quarters firefights.

Developer and publisher
Altered Orbit Studios
Entered Early Access
31 May 2024
On Steam
Windows and Linux
US list price
$24.99
Demo
None on Steam

Forgive Me Father

Play it if you want hand drawn comic sprites.

Byte Barrel’s Forgive Me Father keeps classic 2.5D boomer shooter level design while replacing pixel art with high resolution hand drawn comic book sprites that warp and mutate as your madness meter climbs.

Developer
Byte Barrel
Publisher
Fulqrum Publishing
Released
7 April 2022
On Steam
Windows
US list price
$19.99
Demo
None on Steam
Where my game fits

Why DUSK and Ion Fury fans feel at home in Iron Curtain Call

Like David Szymanski (DUSK), Spytihněv (HROT) and Jason Smith (CULTIC), I am building Iron Curtain Call as a solo developer who cares deeply about how a shooter feels in the first ten seconds:

Speed and physical melee. Your kick, parry and grappling hook are always one button press away, keeping you moving through arenas instead of hiding behind cover.

Handcrafted Eastern Bloc stages with secrets. Every train car, television studio and ministry basement in the sixties Cold War Republic of Slobovia is built by hand with hidden rooms and visual gags.

Native Windows, macOS and Linux support. Just like DUSK, our free Steam demo runs natively across Windows, macOS and Linux without compatibility workarounds.

Questions

Questions players ask about games like DUSK and Ion Fury

Which games like DUSK and Ion Fury have free demos on Steam?

Four shooters in this guide offer a free playable demo on Steam right now: Iron Curtain Call, HROT, CULTIC and Turbo Overkill.

Which boomer shooters like DUSK are made by solo developers?

DUSK (David Szymanski), HROT (Spytihněv), CULTIC (Jason Smith) and Iron Curtain Call (Ekin in Istanbul) are all built by solo developers.

Which games like DUSK and Ion Fury run natively on Linux and Steam Deck?

Iron Curtain Call (free demo), DUSK, Ion Fury and Selaco all ship native Linux builds on Steam.

What PC and indie games are coming out in 2027?

More than one page can hold: Steam shows a lot of PC and indie games with a 2027 date, and dates keep moving. What we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026 are the shooters and the Mac action games, in two dated lists: upcoming FPS games and upcoming Mac games. Iron Curtain Call, our own cartoon noir shooter, is due 11 March 2027 on Windows and macOS, and its free demo is on Steam now.

What games release on 11 March 2027?

Among the shooters we checked on Steam on 7 November 2026: Blood of Rations (11 March 2027) and Iron Curtain Call (My game, 11 March 2027). We only checked shooters, so this is not the full set for that day; Steam’s own Coming Soon page has the rest.

What is a good new single player FPS I can play for free right now?

Iron Curtain Call has a free demo on Steam (Mission 1, about 15 to 20 minutes) and a free 60 second browser trial with no download. It is a single player cartoon noir shooter, and it is our game, so weigh that. For other free shooters, our list of free FPS demos on Steam holds the best rated ones.

Sources and when we checked them

Every release date, US list price, platform flag and demo entry on this page was read from the official US Steam store API and Wikipedia/Wikidata on 8 November 2026.

  1. Iron Curtain Call, Steam store page
  2. DUSK, Steam store page
  3. Ion Fury, Steam store page
  4. HROT, Steam store page
  5. CULTIC, Steam store page
  6. Prodeus, Steam store page
  7. Turbo Overkill, Steam store page
  8. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Steam store page
  9. Selaco, Steam store page
  10. Forgive Me Father, Steam store page
  11. Shooter game: Boomer shooter, Wikipedia
  12. Dusk (video game), Wikipedia
  13. Ion Fury, Wikipedia
  14. Cultic (video game), Wikipedia
  15. Prodeus, Wikipedia
  16. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Wikipedia
  17. Forgive Me Father, Wikipedia

Test the free Steam demo or play 60 seconds in your browser

Download the free Steam demo on Windows, macOS or Linux, try the 60 second browser build right now, or wishlist Iron Curtain Call ahead of 11 March 2027.

Download the free Steam demoWishlist and Follow on SteamPlay 60 seconds in your browser, no download