I've really loved some of these title and have dedicated quite a bit of time this year to playing them. Amid Evil has not only been my favourite of the retro inspired shooters, but one of my favourites of all time. Just incredible level design, weapons, variety, and atmosphere. Absolutely just hits all the right notes for me. I think Dusk has slightly tighter game play, but otherwise I prefer Amid Evil.
Even just some of these remasters have been excellent, I just got the last achievement in Blood: Fresh Supply which was some of the most fun I've had all year, and am currently working through Forsaken Remastered (this is a bit of a treat since it contains content from the PC/PS1 and N64 versions).
I will say I ultimately found Ion Fury to be pretty bland, despite being initially quite excited by the first few levels. Speaking about it outside the disappointing controversy, I think it has some really weak enemy designs, somewhat dull levels (though great secrets) with just too repetitive aesthetics, and just never expands past its early concepts. I don't dislike it, but it's my least favourite of the main build engine shooters, and by quite a bit.
I've seen Hedon be mentioned here and I'd also recommend it. I think it's sadly not gotten the recognition it deserves. Much closer to Strife or Hexen, but with far more intuitive level design than either, surprisingly strong world building, and some very memorable moments. One of my favourite games of this year. It does have a few things that I find a bit tacky, like the old trope of finding images of sexy pin-ups in some secrets (and they're so overly sexualized that there is really nothing sexy about it, it's really just shitty pandering and knocks the whole package down a bit for me), but overall, a great game.
Nightmare Reaper is still early on in development, but I've had quite a bit of fun playing it. Performance isn't quite where it needs to be at the moment, but it is seeing improvement. I'm usually not one for rouge-lite games, but this one won me over and I'm glad I picked up the EA version.
Really excited for Wrath: Aeon of Ruin.
Project Warlock is pretty fun. The level designs are pretty flat and basic but they really nailed the gun play, blasting apart monsters *feels* great.
Dusk is the king though, but once again we get a retro shooter revival thread that ignores OVERLOAD
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Overload was a lot of fun. Also a fairly strong console port on PS4 and Xbox One. I've yet to check out Project Warlock, seems there is a demo.
