It's strange to live in a time where people can make a feature list out of things their game doesn't have, but here we are. Exceedingly Unreal-Tournament-esque shooter Toxikk touts no leveling, no regenerating health, no perks, no cover systems, no classes, no configurable weapons, and no iron sight aiming. And yet, it actually looks quite good.


It also will not be free-to-play.

The basic idea is to "bring back" the style of shooter that went out of style after Call of Duty (specifically the original Modern Warfare) re-shaped most of the genre in its own image. Developer Reakktor—who has used up the world's supply of Ks, forcing us to rename ourselves Qotaqo—is really going all-in with the idea, too. Case in point:

"Instead [of modern shooter tropes] you get fast and precise movement (with deeply configurable mouse controls), double jumps, dodge jumps, booster pick-ups, nine iconic weapons to be carried around simultaneously, secondary fire modes for every weapon, vehicular game modes, jump pads, health-packs, lots of vertical gameplay, optional mutators (incl. instagib) and everything else that made these kind of games so addictive. And if you want to practice your skills offline, Toxikk also features a configurable BOT MODE."


These are people who shout about BOT MODES. If that is a thing you would also shout about—say at a party, during a wedding, or in the middle of a funeral procession—then congratulations: you're home.

Between this and Epic's brand new, very-early-in-development Unreal Tournament, it looks like things are beginning to turn around for fans of old-school arena shooters.

The plan is to have Toxikk up and running on Steam Early Access in a few months, but until then Reakktor is taking suggestions for what you—yes you, and also the rest of humanity—would like to see in the game on their forums.

Speaking of forums, this post (the top one on there, as of writing) is perfect:


In other news, TIL that seeing two Ks sitting right next to each other immediately and irrevocably renders me blind.