Calcium Contract has a demo that will rattle your bones

I hope that means what I think it means

Even though the retro-inspired first-person shooter sub-genre has been running at full steam for a while, I feel like it just keeps getting better. Sure, I feel like a lot of it is mowing down demons or cultists to heavy metal music, and it can sometimes be hard to tell your Hyperviolent apart from your Turbo Overkill, but still new approaches pop up that are easy to miss.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is one of my favorite releases this year. It combines the weird aesthetic of the late-’90s FPS era with extremely effective character exploration. It stands out from the crowd, even if its gameplay is almost deliberately hobbled to evoke the feeling of an amateur mod.

Calcium Contract similarly defies explanation. Unlike Slayers X, it seems like an earnest attempt to provide an experience that plays and feels good, but it’s partnered with this absolutely bizarre aesthetic. It feels like if Duke Nukem 3D was designed by a studio localized within McDonaldsland.

Grimace blood

Calcium Contract is the story of a chicken serpent who is not really all that big on the idea of dying. However, everything that lives must eventually meet its end, so you’re the latest in the line of doomed attempts to force the mighty beast to obey the laws of the universe. You’re essentially a grim reaper.

However, while that sounds pretty heavy metal in its own right, the aesthetic is anything but. The weapons and enemies look like they were designed by someone who passed out at daycare while fried out of their mind on peyote. They’re a colorful, toy-like cast that keeps them easy to read at a glance. The chickens? They run at you. The lizards? They cast fire spells.

The weapons, on the other hand, are a bit harder to read. Your basic weapon is a pitchfork that fires three projectiles. You’ll also find a shotgun and an automatic weapon that fires musical bones. That’s just the start, but you aren’t exactly given a vast, destructive arsenal.

The end of wall humping

I think this may be to reduce the need to backtrack and scour the environment. There’s no wall-humping for secrets in Calcium Contract, which is something that I kind of appreciate. Instead, you’ll spot weird characters hauling around treasure chests, and you have to try and take them down before they escape. It’s a cool way to handle “secrets” since it ensures that exploration doesn’t bog down gameplay and tests whether you can quickly identify and take down a target rather than just how well you can drag the spacebar across a wall.

The levels themselves feel very familiar to someone who has played a lot of raycast shooters. Stages are largely of the key-hunt variety, and they vary in size and openness. Some of them depict environments that are somewhat recognizable, while others are much more abstract.

Of course, all of them share the same sugar-fueled nightmare aesthetic as the enemies. The skybox is one of the most peculiar I’ve ever seen. You can see the interior of the island towering in the distance, sometimes with the chicken serpent looking down on you. As you progress, it changes perspective, giving you views of various landmarks and making it feel like there’s tangible progress being made. It’s a nice, ridiculous touch.

Drink plenty of Malk

I’ve said it before, but my favorite part of retro shooters is when they try to represent real-world locations in their primitive engine. It gives a charming quality that feels like home to me. Calcium Contract doesn’t seem to be aiming for that, or at least, it doesn’t, from what I’ve seen so far. However, it more than makes up for it by just being a blast to play.

While the firepower isn’t weighty and the action is rather measured, there’s a lot of neat stuff that goes on in a typical battle. There are jerks who resurrect fallen enemies, snipers who cast laser pointers across the battlefield, and mages that spray fire everywhere. The developer, Igor Aleksandrowicz, told me that they’re focusing on a “good game feel and also giving in its own unusual identity.” I can confirm that it’s largely a success.

There’s a demo available for Calcium Contract, which gives you access to four levels that are modified a bit from the development version of the game to give better access to weapons and a taste of enemies that would otherwise be differently paced. The final version is scheduled to drop later this year. Definitely give it a try. It almost certainly will tickle something in your brain.