Welcome to FOV 90, an FPS column from staff writer Morgan Park. Every other week, I cover topics relevant to first-person shooter enjoyers, spanning everything from multiplayer and singleplayer to the old and the new.
While the internet reckons with another premature hate campaign against a hero shooter that's just OK, a genuinely exciting new multiplayer FPS is passing most of us by. Not to pick too much on Highguard (review forthcoming), but every minute I'm playing it, I wish I were playing Out of Action instead.
Out of Action is the debut project from solo dev Doku Games. After years of dazzling us with clips of electrifying movement and backflip headshots, Out of Action finally landed in early access last week. It's very much a work in progress—basic features like "weapon reload animations" and "non-test maps" are bound to a roadmap for now—but what it's already got is strong:
- 12-player lobbies (team or FFA)
- A real server browser (with dedicated servers)
- Deep loadout customization and progression
- A simple leaderboard
- Two objective modes (with more planned)
Also, it's $20 and features zero microtransactions. If you, like me, miss when more multiplayer games were like this, then I think you'll dig it. But those are just details—how does Out of Action play?
It plays like this.
Like this.
And sometimes, like this.
Out of Action's big hook is its wild movement set: you can dodge, dive, dive roll, slide, wallrun, and double jump. The only thing you can't do is, surprisingly, sprint. Getting around efficiently isn't just about speed—it's about chaining together maneuvers so you don't faceplant into a wall and discovering shortcuts across the map.
It's skillful and, at first, super wonky. I spent hours accidentally diving off the map, rolling when I meant to dodge, and forgetting that I can run straight up any wall. It took longer to learn that everyone has a bullet time ability that, cleverly, only slows down targets within line-of-sight of the user (shoutout to Max Payne 3 multiplayer), and even longer to learn how to unlock new "shells" with abilities like active camo or a friggin' jetpack.
It doesn't help that PvP servers are a baptism of fire. Some folks who've been playing test builds for months are really good, but so far I've found the community super helpful. Like when I kept randomly dropping dead after a firefight, someone gave me the heads up that direct hits cause bleeding that you need to patch up with the stim. The wonders of server chat. You can also set up offline bot matches for a proper training environment.
Guns are unforgiving, too. Hitboxes are small, bullets have some travel time (or the server tickrates are a bit low, I can't tell yet), and there's zero aim assist. I also enjoy the Goldilocks TTK—aim true and you can nab a kill with a single magazine, but break away from a losing fight and it's possible to recover shields and health. It's somewhere between Halo and Call of Duty.
Indeed, Out of Action is immediately tough, but not in a discouraging way. It's the sort of FPS that makes you feel cool and capable even while you're objectively a bumbling fool. Every hard death is aspirational. Someone will so hilariously outplay me with a series of impressive rolls and flips that, instead of pouting on the death screen, I think "That sucked! I have to try that."
If everything I'm saying is taking you back to GunZ: The Duel, you're on the right track.
If you're picking up Tribes or Titanfall vibes, you're very correct.
If you're an Overwatch Genji main looking for new stomping grounds, welcome.
It's so free-flowing, and what ties it all together are a grip of simple objective modes that let the gunplay be the star—Intel is a King of the Hill variant where the hill is a bag that anyone can pick up and move, and Breach is sort of like CoD Headquarters.
Like the crew you're playing with? Lobbies don't disband, so just stick around. Don't like the mode the server just switched to? It takes seconds to jump into a new one. There are only dedicated servers for now, but Doku plans to add community server support at some point. The community, as it stands, is small so far (Doku announced 10k copies sold), but that's more than enough to find a handful of populated servers in NA/EU at any time.
It sounds silly, but all of these old multiplayer ideas make Out of Action feel like the freshest FPS on the block. It definitely needs more modes, maps, and options, but there's no urgency. I bought it, I'm playing it, I'll put it down, and it'll be there whenever I feel like cutting loose as a cyber ninja.
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