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ULTRAKILL

ULTRAKILL (in all caps) is a highly violent FPS horror game created by the indie dev team New Blood Interactive, the lead developer being Hakita. It is a very rousing game that themes itself around religious horror along with other horror genres as you (the player) traverse through the layers of hell tearing through demons, machines, and sinners alike. While this piece of media appears to be something I would rank relatively low at first glance, a deeper look allows us to see how robots (referred to as machines) are treated. The main character is a robot, V1, and many other major characters and enemies are robots as well.

It is worth noting that this game is ongoing and currently in early access. Because of this, ratings are subject to future change. The current rating holds true for the MOST RECENT VERSION OF THE GAME. However, please give seven days after an update to the game for accurate infromation.

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ROBOT RATING TOTAL: N/A

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Media Quality

1. Quality of Story (8/10)

The story of Ultrakill takes place within a very short span of time, matching with the fast-paced doom-like gameplay. As mentioned prior, it consists of the player (V1) traversing through the many layers of hell, based on "Dante's Inferno," coming across a myriad of foes along the way. The game is still in early access (aka, is not done yet), but the story so far is a fantastic show of visual and environmental storytelling. Most of the story will be found by observing your surroundings, and reading up on data found in checkpoints called "terminals" which give you data on enemies you have defeated before. While it takes a bit of paying attention to absorb every implicit bit of worldbuilding, the story is still narrative in nature, allowing you to walk through the game and still understand what is going on. This story is engaging, not too time-consuming, and every twist and turn is even more engaging than the last. I am giving a rating of 8/10 because the story is currently on a cliffhanger and cliffhangers drive me up the walls.

2. Quality of Character[s] (8/10)

Character's personalities are not often expressed through speak, and usually implied and shown off in heated battles (with the exception of characters like Gabriel and Sisyphus Prime, who are very vocal). Each character has a vibrant personality, and while different from games that might make characters seem "quirky" to maintain audience attention, the character's violent but charming behaviors and attack patterns allow for solid characterization and analysis from fans. Even seemingly simple enemies can be shown to have likes (see: Ferryman's completely normal hologram, statues, paintings, etc.), and peeves (see: the "enraged" mechanic), giving them vibrant personalities. Also I was not implying the Ferryman is at all a simple character, it was just the first example I thought of. I am giving an 8/10 rating so far due to some lost or not yet utilized potential in certain characters present (like V2).

3. Quality of Visuals (10/10)

While the game looks like it emerged from the early days of 64-bit consoles and then doused itself in cartoon blood, the visuals are nothing to scoff at. More archaic or "outdated" visual styles are now to be considered a stylistic choice- being useful for both keeping file size relatively low, while also having a nostalgic charm to them. The colors of this game is fantastic, being full of vibrant and saturated tones, causing the sharp reds to pop out like bright flashes. The game's visuals are like candy to the eyes, and get more bombastic the more elaborately you play. I had also heard from somewhere that the in-game reason for the visuals being the way they are is that V1 can only process things so fast, so it processes its surroundings in very low quality to maintain its fast speed. While I am unsure where this sentiment came from and cannot verify that, I think it is still a delightful tidbit to at least headcanon. An added bonus to the visuals is the ability to change the RGB values of certain enemies, giving the game very good colorblindness accessibility.

4. Quality of Audio (9/10)

The music of the game is not for everyone, focusing on gritty "breakcore" style tracks. Despite the similarities between tracks, each one is unique and gives a different impression that makes each level have a connecting "through line" while also shaking things up enough to not be monotonous. My favorite track from the game is currently "War Without Reason" for its dire instrumentation that makes the level it comes from all the more exhilirating. On top of music, the sound design is fantastic, with the weapons havin various levels of volume that gague with how strong they are (the shotgun is not as loud as the railcannon). Enemy and boss cues are often told through audio cues, and are mapped to L/R channels if you use headphones. This is especially helpful for P level bosses, and recurring fights like Gabriel. The voiceacting is delightful and at times outright showstopping, the usage of voicelines being so well-implemented that real-time cutscenes can play out as characters move and make bodily expressions while talking. Despite how simple this may seem, small details like this add up to create a game that is polished and enjoyable to replay to try and find details you may have missed the first time through. The only reason I do not give a 10 on this point is because adjusting particular sounds is not possible, so if I wanted to turn off sound effects, I could not do so.

5. Quality of Aging (10/10)

ULTRAKILL is still contemporary, i.e., is not over ten years old. All contemporary works will get an automatic 10 unless something particularly offensive or outdated is featured in the media.

6. Enjoyment of Playing (10/10, because it is accesible)

Absolutely fantastic to play. ULTRAKILL is among the very few games in which I have never seen someone who has played it not like it. The gameplay is what you make of it: if you want to use one weapon because you like it, do so. If you want to use every weapon given to you, all at once: you can also (attempt to) do that. Because it is a doom-like, it plays similarly to doom, but is characterized as its own game, with its own identity. Each gameplay element is painstakingly grown and weeded out by the developer team, eventually growing into the current game as it is now. I am not someone who particularly enjoys or is good at FPS games, but this game has taken my heart, and I currently have many hours logged of me attempting to P-Rank certain levels. Very few games give such an exhilirating but accessible gameplay experience.

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Segment Total: N/A

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Robot Portrayal

1. Sentience & Autonomy (10/10)

Sentient is a key part in the portrayal of robots in media, it's presence defines the narrative purpose of a robot. In ULTRAKILL, it is heavily implied and quite obvious that all robots who power themselves off of blood are capable of emotional thought, intelligent strategical thinking, and hold the desire to feed. For example, V2 is the second model of V1. Early in the game, V2 fights against V1, and as a result has its left arm stolen by V1. If V2 was a non sentient machine, it would make sense for it to run away from V1, and also find a way to get as far away as possible. Yet, later in the game, V2 shows up with a new arm and challenges V1 to another fight. This is preceeded by taunting behaviors from V2, as if the intent was more to enact revenge for taking its arm, rather than simply needing to take V2 out for no particular reason.

Autonomy is a slightly more complicated topic for ULTRAKILL. While it appears machines are capable of sentient thought and feeling, their autonomy seems to fit on a sliding scale. Models like V1 appear to have full autonomy (despite being extremely bloodthirsty) while others are tethered completely to the thing they were engineered for. Earthmovers (or the "1000-THR 'Earthmover'", pronounced "sen-thor") hold a particular soft spot in my heart, despite how horrible the lore around them is. While it is likely they are completely sentient just like other machines of their kind, even screaming in terror as V1 shows up*, they appear to have far less autonomy than other machines, as all they do is wander on their massive legs, and attack everything in sight without much reason. Ultimately it is likely their choice to continue endlessly fighting, as when you defeat the Earthmover in-game, the other Earthmover that was attacking it suddenly stops, and stands completely still, doing absolutely nothing. One must wonder if that Earthmover felt relieved or horrified in losing its "purpose" in the sudden lack of foes to demolish. This usage of a machine's autonomy (or lack thereof) is beyond fantastic. It plays around with themes of nature vs nurture, what a machine was made for vs what the machine might be content to be doing instead. We see this with the Streetcleaner enemies as well, who were once built for handling the ongoing climate disaster caused by war, but repurposed upon the war ending as they no longer were needed. Despite this, they still continued "cleaning," and thus bringing about damage to the climates of hell as a result by burning everything in sight. It seems that since they are a "lower" machine, their autonomy is lesser, and thus their desire for their original purpose remains deeply ingrained. I explicitly choose to put this at a rating of 10 despite the low autonomy of certain robots because it plays such a significant role in the storytelling of the game, that it outweighs the desire for a majority of the robotic cast to be sentient and fully autonomous.

*It is heavily implied through various tidbits shown in-game that V1 was explicitly made to destroy Earthmovers. In the wars in-game, machines were each made in response to one another, essentially making each individual machine a direct counter to the previous one. Earthmovers were the last machine to be made in war, and so there was never a truly released counter to their kind. However it appears that machines seem to understand that if they see a model they have not seen before, the model is likely there to destroy them. This explains why the Earthmover you destroy stops fighting the other Earthmover attacking it to try and destroy you, and it's sirens blare upon realizing its seeing a machine model its never seen before.

2. Presence & Frequence (10/10)

Robots are incredibly frequent throughout the entire game, being a primary enemy type while also some major bosses and the main character.

3. Respect & Demonization (8?/10)

Humans and Robots are pretty much on the same level. They are both in hell, and suffering, though robots are more on the "hunt" for precious blood to keep them alive, while humans are... Well, just look at how they're all doing down there. While machines are referred to as "it," most things in ULTRAKILL are referred to as such in-game, save for angels like Gabriel, who have "earned" the "right" to be called "him." Usually referring to robots by "it" puts me (and other sentient robot enjoyers) off, but it is worth noting that the context surrounding the usage of such words greatly impacts how it is percieved. See point 5 for more detail on scoring.

I will admit I felt a bit conflicted on the rating of this section, and it may change from time to time. I am giving a 9 not because of the fact that robots have done horrible things (since everyone in the game has done horrible things), but because the game appears to be leaning in the direction of "making machines was a mistake," which I think is slightly unfair. While it may be true in the sense that machines of war were a horrible decision by mankind, the machines were inadvertently a major playing factor for why humanity was able to survive through the wars as well. Streetcleaners helped keep air clean, and earthmovers, while absolutely horrific, served as arks for people to ride on the backs of. In a better world, the streetcleaners would be crucial for fighting climate change, and the V-model bots would be all-around helpers instead. Ultimately much like any given human, they did not ask to be born/created/etc., and thus it is only partial fault for the machines (that show only partial autonomy). I will change this rating accordingly depending on how the story goes.

4. Narrative Use (10/10)

The narrative usage of the relationship between humans and machines is murky, but it is obvious that the two rely on one another to exist. Humans created machines to help them in war, and machines fed off their spilt blood. Without the presence of machines, the wars would likely have never gotten so horrible, and without the presence of humans, the wars wouldn't have happened in the first place. One boss calls V1 the "child of man," recognizing its presence as the spitting image of that which mankind had created (as well as playing on the "child of god" phrase that is often used in christian contexts). I mentioned a decent few narratively significant things in point 2, and are not worth reiterating.

5. Difference (10/10)

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Segment Total: N/A

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Notable Robotic Characters

V1

The main character of the game. V1 was created by mankind as another war machine greater than any other. V1 boasts high speed, agility, and extremely fast reaction times. Much like other machines, it is powered largely by (human) blood. It's main source of blood is through killing things in hell, even other machines, and violently so. After kills, it bathes in blood and "eats" it through its armor. V1 is cold, harsh, and extremely merciless-- except for moments of genuine mercy that appear to show up. V1 is extremely curious, and seeks out special passageways and secrets in hope to find things. With that curiosity comes plenty of resourcefulness, often scavenging parts (from an unwilling V2) to attach to itself for better damage and navigation. Often referred to as a "he" by fans.

V2

The resident "rival" of V1, and notable as a recurring boss. The second "V" model, originally meant to be an improved version of V1, but later changed to be an all-around helper bot for the average person. This, of course, did not end up working out, as people had little interest in a helper bot. So, V2 is the only of its kind, much like V1. While V1 tends to constantly move onwards without too much though for what passes it, V2 is prone to holding grudges and will express an extreme desire for vengeance if something causes harm to it. Often referred to as a "she" by fans, which is actively supported by the creator, Hakita.

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