CARNAL
CARNAL is a fast and challenging old-school shooter taking loving inspiration from the 90’s greats made on the Quake and Build Engine.
Enter a strange world filled with mysteries, conspiracies, and paranormal activity.
Mixing classic FPS action with an unsettling horror atmosphere, every episode and unique level will keep you on the edge.
As a chad member of the Realm Defense Force, take on the terror organization known as the Sons of Anak, who have opened portals to the “other side” throughout the city of Seed Valley. Once there they plan to extract Dark Matter in order to build weapons of mass destruction.
Destroy their soldiers and operations, as well as any “other” hostile entities that plan on stopping you.
Be warned: the world looks a lot different on the “other side”, and it also probably smells bad.
FEATURES:
- 3 Episodes with 17 total missions
- Diverse human and monster enemies that will murder you
- Various guns that are harmful to your health
- Keycards, swimming, secrets, and pick-ups
- Several unique boss enemies to ruin your pace
- Unique retro art style
- An archaic Extra Lives system that keeps you going
- Two difficulty modes for those who like to measure things
- Terrible/offensive humor and game design
- An atmosphere and feel unearthed from 1996
Game Discussion
Steam User 17
Pros:
✅ Simplistic story (old school shooter like gameplay where you collect cards to advance).
✅ Decent selection of stages.
✅ Very cheap.
✅ Decent music.
✅ Achievements.
Cons:
❌ Some stages are either too long or too short.
Steam User 4
The BEST shooter of this type on steam considering the price (1 dollar). You get many levels with great guns and combat, dev really understands what makes games like this tick.
There are games on this platform that cost much more but are much worse due to the devs not understanding the genre.
The first level is a bit longer than the others and has more of a "horror" vibe than the rest of the game, imo.
Don't base your expectations of the game on it. This, along with some enemies being hard to see in some levels from a distance, are the only flaws in the game.
I think my favourite thing about the game is the enemy variety. There is much more here than you'd expect, and they don't feel tacked on or like a one off gimmick.
Steam User 3
Solid boomer shooter. Gameplaywise this leans more towards doom (collect 3 keycards), looks like quake and has solid beats as soundtrack. Some levels are easier some require more searching, its a good mix.
had a blast
Steam User 1
Not a bad retro shooter. The enemies all have projectiles while you have hitscan, and gunplay ends up feeling like Quake 2. There's a nice variety in enemy types and the weapons get the job done. I always like seeing cityscapes and suburbs rendered in videogames.
Now, some downsides.
The levels are big, empty arenas with a lot of time spent just walking around the level looking for a key or another portal. Besides some novel setpieces, the levels are fairly linear with little in the way of a dynamic or interesting layout. The whole game is incredibly dark and drab, which makes some firefights difficult.
The humor may have been striving for edgy satire but ended up reeking of Qanon more than anything.
But it's 99 cents. A lot of effort went into Carnal and it has enough charm to last a few hours.
Steam User 1
Probably the best single dollar I ever spent.
Great gameplay with great design!
+ Great classic FPS gameplay
+ Relatable, real world themed locations like Duke Nukem 3D
+ "Short" game but HUGE open levels. Insane replay value from that alone.
+ Cool enemy variety throwing PLENTY of curveballs with very unique and often exclusive enemies in several different levels. Kinda reminds me of Painkiller for the enemy creativity on certain levels.
+ Classic, Quake style graphics. Looks good in 4k!
+ Enemy bullets are NOT hitscan for once. It is proper ballistic projectiles. This makes circle strafing actually viable. First sign of good design IMO
+ You have lives so you rarely have to restart if you are moderately skilled in classic FPS.
+ Solid level select where you start off with just the right weapons and ammo each level like it was someone else's save
- Lack of level checkpoints or quicksaves. This is at least countered by your extra lives and the fun factor of the levels.
? Co-op mode would be sick! Similar to how it would benefit Brutal John.
I have JUST finished the 1st episode because of the fun I had with the giant open levels and comprehensive exploration. HUGE value for the 1 dollar price!
Steam User 0
A surprisingly good game for such a low price. A really solid boomer shooter with 17 levels. The quality of each level varies a bit, with the best ones being just as good as the classics with plenty of details and easter eggs and a few nice bits of soundtrack too. The combat is fast and frantic, reminding me a bit of Serious Sam with its large open arenas for strafing and bunny hopping through clouds of projectiles.
There are cons - the less developed levels tend to be forgettable without having a strong theme to give you a sense of place. Also, there's some pretty bad edgy humour - undoubtedly inspired by classics such as Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior, so this will please some for the nostalgia, but in my opinion was a tackier part of this genre best left behind.
To conclude, I should reiterate that the pros FAR outweigh the cons and it's a very easy recommendation at such a low price. it could easily be 3x more expensive and still feel worth the money.
Steam User 0
It feels like the developers or developer (I’m not sure) got burn out while making this because the first episode does suffer from levels that are too big and have that “where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go” problem going on but there’s variety.
But the 2 & 3 episodes are a lot less interesting and very samey. Some like the second last level feel downright unfinished because the level is so empty and quickly over.
The game isn’t hard like it claims to be (at least normal) but it’s very unbalanced. I never had to restart level because I ran out of lives but if I had, I would have just skipped it. Nothing carries over between levels and there’s actually no saving and you can select any level via level select. Anyways….those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ american footballers are one of the worst enemies I’ve seen in a FPS game.
But I really liked the old school soundtrack (especially the more mellow tracks) and despite all it flaw’s, the game just kinda works and has good vibes going on. I’m keeping my eye on what comes next.