Manus Dei is an FPS where we are chosen as a sacrifice and expected to jump down into a hellish pit. It is considered an honor. One held by a single individual every one hundred years. That’s the extent of the story. Our character knows his duty and picks up the titular Manus Dei, a weapon that resembles a shotgun. For those unfamiliar with Latin, it translates to The Hand of God. An exaggerated title, you may think. Wrong. This shotgun rivals the best in the genre and has unlimited ammo. Morbidly enough, you can test it out on all the monks attending the ritual. But there is no escaping our fate. We must eventually jump into the abyss.
As you plunge into the impossibly dark hole in the center of the room, that will be the final time you’ll see the light’s warmth. Manus Dei pulls off a strong opening without so much as a word or line of text. After that long fall, we finally reach solid ground, finding ourselves in a cramped, flesh-covered pit. We don’t have much time to gawk before what appears to be a tumor ascends from the floor and unleashes the creatures found within. It feels like a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in the Berserk manga. What amplifies the whole reveal is the lack of any UI in this game. You have unlimited ammo, no objectives other than futile attempts at survival, and we die in one hit. This allows us to immerse ourselves in the situation’s hopelessness while paying undivided attention to our surroundings.
One of the first things you may notice is that your weapon has a good deal of recoil. It is enough to slightly nudge you off course or interrupt your movement speed if you don’t know how to use it. Staying on the move and avoiding hazards at a moment’s notice is equally as crucial as dishing out lead. Our character can bunny hop, wall run, and use the shotgun’s recoil to quickly regain momentum in a different direction. We can also fire downward to launch ourselves further into the air. It features advanced techniques for the genre and expects us to use them. There are many games with great shooting, but few with a movement system as satisfying as this. Dodging a flurry of projectiles violently impacting where we once stood is exhilarating, all too aware that one hit will result in death.
There is a decent variety of enemies you will face. You have flying Manta Rays that will shoot projectiles from the air, a Horned Demon just a smidge slower than our character, and a cacodemon-looking fiend who is the most lethal of them all. The main fault in this game is how mechanically similar many of them are. Either they make a B-Line toward you, or they stand back shooting. Creatures like the Floating Heads are made irrelevant when the Demons start spawning. They pose the same threat of trying to rush the player, yet the latter is significantly slower. Their ability to float is wasted as they always glide at ground level. Manus Dei would benefit from additional enemy differences and synergy, especially as you’re deep into a run to spice things up. Putting a halo on a Demon and simply upping its total health was not satisfying progression.
With all that said, the game is still a blast. We don’t have much time to be looking at things with a critical eye when so much is happening at once. The arena reaches near chaos due to the number of foes thrown our way, and it is up to us to thrive in it. Much of my critiques are dampened by the large concentration of enemies. It is a lot to handle, and as ineffective as the floating heads are, they explode into meaty chunks real good. The sound design of the Manus Dei gun is top-notch. There is a heft behind every shot that is enough to double one’s ego and confidence after a few minutes. With the only music being an eerie ambient droning sound, the rhythmic dance of death that firing your shotgun creates is the centerpiece of the audio. Second to that is the constant downpour of viscera hitting the ground as you carve your way through this endless horde.
Death is guaranteed. Your main driver will be the online leaderboards and trying to out-compete your previous score before you bite the dust. With the amount of focus it takes to not die, it is a high-intensity type shooter I’d recommend playing in bursts. Manus Dei is a great option when you’re short on time or don’t know what to play. I made it to the 43rd place on the leaderboard, which didn’t even take half an hour. You’ll need significantly more time investment if you become skilled enough to reach the top ten spots. My best advice is to never stop mashing the spacebar and immediately targeting the cacodemon-looking enemy. Its horizontal projectile pattern is the easiest to get caught in. Wall jumping is your best defense against them if they’ve already charged their attack.
Regarding the technical side of things, I’ve experienced no crashes or noticed any glitches. What I found disappointing was the 60 fps lock. The arena shooter is one of the sub-genres that benefit the most from lower latency and increased motion clarity gained at higher refresh rates. The bright side is that it’s a stable 60fps. No sudden frame rate drops or uneven frame pacing to blame when we inevitably take a projectile to the face. Also worth mentioning is the lack of controller support. That is less of a negative and more of something to be aware of if that is your preferred way to play FPS titles. All keys are fully rebindable if you don’t like the current keyboard and mouse setup. I found the layout flawless, but I know some people don’t enjoy the ‘wasd’ industry standard of movement.
Manus Dei is quite a bargain at $2.99 when all is said and done. The gameplay loop is addictive and is further amplified by the impactful sound design. Not to mention the extensive movement options. Even your gun opens up movement opportunities due to its hefty recoil. It looks simple at first glance but has plenty of depth to keep us engaged. I’ve yet to mention that our gun has a full-auto mode we can briefly activate at will. Pressing the Shift key temporarily lets us flip the script on who’s the one being hunted in this arena. However, we still die in one hit. The confidence gained from it may very well be one’s downfall. With our death always being a certainty, failure simply feels like a stepping stone for us to reach further next time. Manus Dei is an easy recommendation if you enjoy arena shooters. There is no hit scanning, no reloading, and no filler. Being a sacrifice has never felt so powerful.
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