Do you like FEAR? Do you like DOOM? Yeah, I bet you like FPSing, where you’re defeating soldiers in offices with a nail gun and digging up demons like you’re driving a Hummer through a pheasant sequence in an alternate Evil Somerset universe. No, it doesn’t boast an all-caps title, but Selaco’s early access release more than deserves to be a must-see for those who want some sophistication with their ultraviolence.
Like many retro-inspired shooters, Selaco has a simple premise that’s prominent enough that you’ll vaguely understand what’s going on without even trying. And if you’re someone who cares about knowledge, there’s plenty of data to be found, giving you a glimpse of the back-and-forth emails that escalate to urgency. We’re not talking about increasingly disjointed signatures that go from “Best” to “Warmly, not kindly” to “At a loss for words.” We’re talking about the emails sent when an alien invasion starts and everyone goes from “medicine stocks are good” to “Aliens have destroyed our medicine stocks.”
You play as the security captain of Selaco, a massive facility housing humanity’s last bastion in a sci-fi future where the Earth has exploded. Thanks to said invasion, your task is to do one thing: kill aliens and explore Selaco – killing more aliens. This is an objectively good, no-nonsense setup.
Selaco itself is a dense map split into several levels, which admittedly took some getting used to. At first I wasn’t on board with all the gray offices and brown boxes and even grayer treatment facilities, but they’ve grown on me. I think it’s because they strike a good balance between live-action and video games, fully committing to mundane spaces that you’d absolutely find in a human storage area, while permanently moving you into a new challenge before workplace fatigue sets in.
These complicated maps can be difficult to navigate, mind you. Because hallways and rooms can blend into one at times, it can be difficult to know where to turn next. Most of the time it’s pretty obvious, as a burst of enemies shows you’re at least in the right space, or the map clearly shows the colored door you’re looking for. But there are moments where backtracking through quieter places becomes downright frustrating, as the game doesn’t do enough to stop you from double-checking the abundance of previous paths, nor to help you engage the small opening hidden between the web of corridors that a bout of déjà vu made you pause. I once spent an hour or so circling a water plant looking for a way to de-electrify some water, only to give up and watch a YouTube review of that particular part. Solution? Slide through a gap and through a pane of glass that I hadn’t even considered to be breakable, nor the path ahead.
These spaces at least feel clearly Selaco, however, thanks to the magic of GZDoom, the developers have sprinkled all over the gray. The way the lighting sits on the surface gives abandoned control rooms an eerie glow and libraries a comforting warmth. Change the aim-down-sight sights in the menu and you’ll see a blue dot sight when you right-click with your assault rifle. Billboards feature detailed, often amusing advertisements and even the glow of medkits is a nice sliver of light. Lots of little touches like this add up when you’re exploring and especially when you’re spitting bullets at alien bodies.
Fireworks are a trash fest, where printer paper rains down and computer monitors crackle and alien bodies coat everything in a gooey purple goo when it explodes. While the output of your bullets can be quite chaotic, the gunfights straddle the line between tactical shooter and balls-to-the-wall shooter, I think. At least on Commander difficulty (intended for people familiar with FPS games), you have to peek out of cover and watch your ammo count, as enemies can outright kill you. The forced content makes those frenzied moments even sweeter, as you carefully choose those moments to slip between cover and blast some bodies with your SMG. Maybe hit them with a slide shot, then a revolver to the head. Maybe a shotgun blast, quick exchange, a little side kick – then throw in some choice punches, sending them crashing to the concrete.
As you might expect, the weapons are equally heavy, all with their own personalities and strengths. The shotgun is chef-kissing material, with a chunky “ch chnk” reload and the ability to crush enemies to a paste. If you find weapon kits in hard to reach areas, they will modify your weapons to do interesting things. Like say, it lets you double wield your SMGs or adds a double tap to your revolver, giving it a boost at close range. And if you find a safe room, you can cash in on weapon parts and tech doodads to further upgrade your weapons. An early crawl for my assault rifle made an immediate difference, so while any upgrade can be expensive, the wallet hit is offset by a utility cushion.
When it comes to using the environment to your advantage, I wouldn’t say Selaco’s SIM immersion credentials are that strong. While there’s no doubt that GOTY lets you flush a toilet or open pizza boxes and then eat the pizza inside, the game doesn’t give average thinkers like me many clear hints about optimal home alone decor. Of course, you can do some clever box stacking or item stacking to uncover hidden secrets. But for the most part, your environmental trickery won’t go any further than opening up turrets in useful locations and maybe setting up a barricade.
Then again, when the band parts arrive, they pulsate with electro or drum and bass that really gets you in the mood for violence. And even if all you do is place a turret or two, there’s an early sequence where soldiers burst through walls periodically and you’re stuck in a dose where it’s just you and your automated buddies against a small army . Do whatever you have to and please I make you hurry.
And they’re made even more brilliant by clever enemy behaviors that escalate as you progress through Selaco. At first you’ll have enemies trying to outsmart you, a la FEAR, and later they’ll develop techniques to match your growing arsenal. Some will start putting up shields and some will even be assigned squad leaders (marked by an icon), so you’ll want to shoot them first to reduce the strength of their allies. The overall variety is also on point, with both standard and heavier troops with small guns and chain-wielding flying bastards. Again, it thrives on battles being more than just a regular shot meat grinder, as you really have to consider where you’re positioned and what the best means of breaking down your opponent’s defenses is.
For an early access release, Selaco is in really good shape. You have a long campaign spanning 30 maps and many more to go with it, both for weapons and enemies. There are modifiers that make later games more difficult as well, like one that makes you start over after beating a level. And everything feels smooth – I didn’t encounter any snags or glitches at all. The developers say they’re aiming to release Selaco 1.0 sometime in early 2026, but honestly, it’s worth going ahead now if you’re a fan of good FPSing.
This review is based on a build review of the game provided by the developer.
