Kvark is an upcoming first-person shooter set is a dangerously ill-kept underground workplace. Here’s the first trailer for an intriguing retro-style blaster.
We’ve seen a few shooters in the retro style of Quake or Half-Life in recent years (hello, Dusk), but Kvark is somewhat different. Not only does it look like an FPS from the early 1990s, but its setting is also steeped in 20th century history.
Kvark takes place in a post-Communist era Czech Republic, where infrastructures are crumbling and jobs are scarce. You therefore jump at the chance when you get a job offer at Kvark, a nuclear energy company. But when you arrive at its underground facility, you soo discover a workplace that doesn’t quite match the one in the job description.
“How did you end up in this mess?” ask Czech developer Latest Past. “Why did everybody escape? What the hell is going on? Those are but a few questions ringing in your head louder than the sirens and emergency calls around you.”
With lots of murky, low-res textures and chunky polygons, Kvark looks convincingly like the old-school shooters it’s modelled on. But what has us most intrigued is its line of dark, cynical humour.
Kvark’s Steam page, for example, is one of the quirkiest we’ve seen in a while. It’s penned as a sort of welcome letter from Kvark’s bosses to you, its newest employee, and it talks at length about workplace safety and your complimentary lunch (dill sauce, dumplings and something that may or may not be steak, in case you were wondering). Even Kvark’s website has a charming faux command line interface, like an old PC.
What exactly are we shooting at in Kvark? Have those workers in protective suits been taken over by aliens, demonic forces, or simply driven out of their minds by the dill sauce and dumplings? We have no idea, but we’re looking forward to finding out more.
Kvark is due to get an Early Access launch at a so-far unspecified date in the future.
