Between games like Dusk, Amid Evil, Prodeus and Ultrakill, indie gaming has long taken over from the big-budget devs in delivering the best single-player shooters (though id Software can still pack a punch when it wants to). But lately, small developers have been beating the mainstream in the multiplayer sphere too.
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 falling flat on its face and Battlefield 6 struggling to maintain its promising initial momentum, I've turned increasingly to the throwback deathmatch joys of Straftat and the cooperative combat shenanigans of 2024's Echo Point Nova. Now, new indie challenger Doku Games has entered the arena with Out of Action, a PvP FPS that aspires to be the darling of movement kids everywhere.
On the subject of Max Payne, Doku Games also promises "advanced multiplayer bullet-time". The Steam page doesn’t explain what this means or how it works. But Doku Games ran a (successful) Kickstarter for Out of Action in 2024, and its original pitch provides more detail. Apparently, bullet-time "only affects players within the line of sight of others who are affected, leaving obscure combat in different areas of the map untouched", which sounds pretty clever. Bullet-time can also be charged through fighting effectively and with style (which presumably means doing a load of cool tricks) while loadout choices also affect the system.
In addition, the Kickstarter delves deeper into combat possibilities. Alongside the movement options, Doku Games mentions numerous tactics players can employ. These include throwing your weapons at opponents, shooting down rockets midair, attaching gun turrets to other players, and deflecting bullets back at enemies with your obligatory katana.
Out of Action is currently sitting at a 'Mostly Positive' rating on Steam, with the majority of reviews praising the core experience while noting that it needs fleshing out. Doku Games estimates that Out of Action will be in early access for 12-18 months, with planned updates including more weapons and loadout options, additional game modes, improved visuals and audio, and "fully fleshed out maps", likely explaining why the current maps look a little plain.
As for what else is coming in the FPS space in 2026, Highguard is the most immediate launch, arriving tomorrow. Everyone seems to have decided that it sucks before even playing it, which is extremely unfair. Sure, the diet Fortnite aesthetic does it a few favours, but there are some novel ideas behind its presentation, like riding into battle on the back of animals.
Elsewhere, February will bring High on Life 2, which I hope is better than the terrible first game, while March heralds the arrival of cartoon shooter Mouse: PI for Hire, the Left4Dead-like John Carpenter's Toxic Commando (which I think could be one of 2026's surprise hits) and of course, Marathon. I've no idea how Bungie's latest is going to pan out, but I hope that it's a winner, for the studio's sake if nothing else.
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