Kvark, a Sovietcore Boomer Shooter that looks like Half Life in early '80s Czechoslovakia has become my favorite FPS this month.

When I first saw Kvark, I immediately thought of the Sovietcore boomer-shooter Hrot, which, for the record I enjoyed just as much as my PC Gamer comrade Ted Litchfield. When I played it, however, I found that it was quite different. It was a boomer shooter and a very ironic take on life in a grubby Soviet Satellite State. The feel is more like the original Half-Life.

In Kvark, you are not a theoretical physicist from MIT but a "valued worker" in an underground facility that has a high rate of workplace accidents. It may seem strange that you start your new job in a prison cell, but that's the least of your concerns. You'll have to figure out what went wrong and fix it, or you can just leave. I'm not sure how it will end up.

The basic rule is simple: If something moves, shoot at it. I'm no FPS pro, so I won't go into detail about the gunplay. But the weapons are punchy and loud, and the bloody mess is quite impressive: Limbs fly and heads pop with a satisfying "squitch", walls and floors are splattered in red, and although I shouldn't call shotgun decapitation "cute", it is. It's kind of cute.

Kvark is in early access on Steam since over a year, and there are still some aspects that feel a bit rough around the edges. The enemy AI isn't very good. They charge straight at me, in a straight line. Yet the enemy fire can be incredibly accurate. The save system is annoying, as it uses checkpoints that can only be used once to mark progress. The save points are rare (at least for the levels I have played) and because they only work once, going back to an older save point won't protect you.

Jiri Vasica told me that the game had a quicksave/load feature. "However, because of that, cheating was easy and you could quickly reload a situation and resolve it differently, knowing what will happen. This removed the challenge from the game. We decided to remove the manual quicksaves in favor of only using the checkpoint system.

Vasica said that it is "probable", that the frequency of the save points will be increased, possibly based upon the difficulty level. Or that other changes will be made to the system.

He said, "We need to collect more information from the players so that we can better balance the game." "At the moment, we do the placement based upon the feedback from early access players and internal QA."

As a longtime PC gamer, I'm not a fan of checkpoint saves. It's more a matter that I dislike them as a principle. It's a minor quibble, but I'm still having a great time with Kvark. The pre-Glasnost feel is excellent: some areas are downright creepy, and yes, there are even spiders. Be warned. But the whole thing is infused with dark, ironic post Soviet humor. Is it subtle or not? Not very often. Is it funny? Hey, it works for me.

The highest compliment I can give Kvark is the fact that I started out with the intention of playing a few levels, just to get an idea of how it was, but now I'm just enjoying it. I'm currently in the second of three chapter and it feels more complex and advanced than the first. The third and final Chapter is released today as part the 1.0 launch. It includes a long list of changes and additions. I'm looking forward to seeing what it has to offer. (I might even start over so I don't miss the full experience.

Kvark is now available on Steam for $20/PS17/EUR20. Below is a list of all the changes made to the 1.0 version for those who have already played the early access version.

Additional content

• Four new levels
• More enemies
• New Weapon
• More lore
• Player Thoughts
• Collectibles
• More posters
• New Benefits
• More interactive items

The following are some examples of

• We have added new localizations in Japanese, Chinese, German and Russian (we already had localizations for English and Czech).
• Add arachnophobia to the mode
• Shader compilation process improved with Unreal Engine PSO
• Physics props now feature dynamic shadow
• The inventory is now more compact and looks better
• Various UI improvements
• Some Switch N Puzzles will show progress.
• Organize bindings into categories
• Fix and improve bindings
• Cardboard box with random drop

Fixes

• Fixed Hit Animations
• Drones shouldn't stick to walls
• Audio - Ambience is muted if you return to the main menu
• Improved drone movement
• Audio - Settings - Loading doesn't stop ambient audio
• Audio - Headshot does not play when attacking with wrench
• Music stops after killing bosses in CH1L5
• Add missing reverb, ambient and CH2L1
• Audio - Conveyor Belt doesn't Stop on Load in C2L3
• Overlay material on pickups fades smoothly rather than abruptly.
• Footsteps is a level geometry work.
• The level picker doesn't unlock all levels
• Elevator shouldn't harm the player
• Enemies shouldn't get stuck in C2L5 in big cave
• Player can't get stuck in C2L2
• There are many, many more small fixes.