Great visuals? Of course. A solid story? Definitely. But the greatest FPS games, from Half-Life to Doom, FEAR to Battlefield, have one much more important thing in common: the guns sound fantastic. In Valve’s debut (and its modder-made remake Black Mesa) the audio award goes to the .357 Magnum. In FEAR, it’s the pump-action shotgun, in Doom, the Super Shotgun, and in Battlefield, well, it’s everything. Inspired by some of the classics of the genre, and infused with boomer shooter style and energy, one Steam FPS has managed to score great reviews and huge sales before it’s even reached the full 1.0 launch. If you’ve missed it so far, I’m pleased to introduce you to Selaco.
You play Dawn, a high-ranking security officer investigating several mysterious occurrences aboard the eponymous space station Selaco. Before you can find the culprits and start making accusations, however, the place is taken over by armed mercenaries. It’s hard to believe when you look at it, but Selaco is built on the same GZDoom engine that powers modern conversions of id Software’s classic. Developer Altered Orbit also directly credits both FEAR, which inspires Selaco’s set pieces and smart enemy behavior, and Half-Life. This is a corridor-based, sci-fi FPS game after all.
Environments are totally destructible, guns are voluminous, and blood is on tap. Selaco is a great example of what you might call the ‘before-and-after’ shooter – by the time you finish a level, the ordered austerity of the space station’s architecture has been completely obliterated, and repainted using bodies, bullet holes, and gore. Back in November, Altered Orbit transformed Selaco with a huge rebalance and new and tougher ways to play the campaign – of the 3,311 user reviews the game has gotten on Steam so far, 93% are positive.
Now, Altered Orbit confirms that Selaco has sold 100,000 copies since launching into early access in May 2024. That’s seriously impressive for a game that’s not even at 1.0 yet, and here’s hoping Selaco will keep getting bigger and better on its way to a full release. If you want to try it for yourself, just head here.
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