Kick ass, take names, and send the undead back six feet under in Gravelord, a fast-paced boomer shooter.

In Gravelord, players are put in the shoes of Queedo, an undertaker who is tired of people trying to cheat death. Queedo’s family has a long history with a company that is trying to supply people with an undeath serum, which is causing all sorts of trouble at the cemetery.

Gravelord is set to release soon into early access with an entire chapter available, so we decided to check out this brutal and hectic throwback shooter.

Gravelord‘s first episode is composed of eight missions that clock in at around six to eight hours of playtime. Each level features new weapons to unlock and opts for a linear design, featuring the key-hunting gameplay found in classic Doom.

Gravelord mostly relies on cramped maps and small arenas to add to its difficulty, feeling closer to Project Warlock rather than more open shooters like Shadow Warrior 3 or Doom 2016. The game constantly tries to surprise the player with enemy encounters by hiding enemies inside of walls or having them surround you at certain points in the level.

This isn’t necessarily bad, as a lot of boomer shooters opt for that approach when it comes to spawning enemies, but it stops being surprising after a certain point as it becomes the main way enemies start showing up. You can’t continuously surprise someone for eight levels in a row; at some point, the player starts to see through it.

Despite these issues, the level design is definitely not bad. The first episode features a good selection of varied levels, and they are all fun to move through. Each stage features a different gimmick, like constantly playing with the water level in the sewers to reach higher places or escorting a coffin through a series of tunnels.

It’s very rare that the player gets lost in a level or doesn’t know where to go next, as there are lighting cues that nudge you towards the next area, further drawing comparisons to Project Warlock‘s level design.

Every stage also features temporary upgrades like double jump boots or the spectral shovel, which let you grapple to points in the scenario. These are lost after completing a level and have to be collected again, which is on par with how older shooters operate but also feels like outdated design.

Thankfully, there are permanent upgrades, like the modified weapons, which give you a secondary firing method when collected. These range from a tighter shotgun blast that pierces enemies to shooting a wave of rockets out of your grenade launcher, which helps add some depth to the game’s encounters.

Gravelord has a pretty decent arsenal of weapons, featuring five guns and a shovel, so it’s definitely a missed opportunity to not have more alt fire modes to choose from, as the closest thing players have to upgrade choices are the perk cards, which feel tacked on.

While exploring, the player can find perk cards, which are spread between different tiers, allowing the player to slot three different cards on their hat. It’s quite clear which perks are worth using, and there isn’t much of a reason to switch after you get the ones you want, so the system sort of becomes a set it and forget it thing after a while.

Gravelord‘s gunplay is definitely the star of the show, giving the player weapons that are pretty satisfying to use and feature some great sound effects. Their animations and designs are a little on the boring side, but the “feel” is definitely there.

Both the player and enemies move fast and hit incredibly hard, so it feels like a constant push and pull between you and the undead hordes. Gravelord makes sure to tick all the boxes a boomer shooter needs, doubling down on the hyper-fast movement and high difficulty, which is bound to please fans of the genre.

Even the perk system, which is definitely not perfect, is still felt significantly during gameplay, especially when it comes to the shovel upgrades that heal the player when doing melee damage. If there’s one thing that Gravelord does correctly, it’s its combat.

The first episode is mostly solid, but the game definitely trips on its way out, featuring encounters that feel a little too packed to be fun and some enemies that might need to be toned down. The beholder can melt the player in less than five seconds simply by having a line of sight, giving a very small window of time for the player to do something.

Later encounters seem to become more focused on filling the game’s small arenas with as many enemies as possible, with the sixth and seventh levels being especially cruel about it. Pretty much every enemy can kill you in two to three hits if you don’t have a healing perk, so it becomes overkill when multiple beholders start getting introduced during fights.

The last level is also pretty uninspired, following the entertaining and creative stages with a series of enemy waves on a floating void. This is by far the least fun part of the game, not only because it’s incredibly slow to get going but also because it feels like it was just thrown together instead of a proper episode finale.

Overall, Gravelord is a pretty decent boomer shooter, featuring smooth gameplay and levels that are fun to move through, except for the last one. This isn’t necessarily a groundbreaking title, but it manages to be entertaining enough for those who enjoy the genre.

Something that does scare me a little is the lack of a roadmap or cohesive planned features. As far as I could find, Gravelord is just sort of releasing without any clear promises on what future content might be, so the developers should probably be more transparent and give players a heads up on what’s going to come when the game is released.

The game definitely has its rough spots, especially when it comes to the way it handles encounters in later levels, but Gravelord is still an overall solid experience, with a surprisingly lengthy first episode and pretty fun combat.

Gravelord is set to release January 22, 2025 for Microsoft Windows (through Steam).