Captain Wayne – Vacation Desperation is a PC retro first-person shooter that immediately makes it clear what it wants to be: fast, loud, bloody, and completely unserious. The game was released on November 25, 2025, on Steam, and its official description summarizes it as an action retro FPS about a sailor who has a shotgun instead of an arm and tries to reclaim what belongs to him through eight locations. It currently has extremely positive user feedback on Steam, with 97 percent positive reviews out of 846 total ratings.
The game's greatest strength is its style. Captain Wayne looks like a collision of 90s cartoons, Duke Nukem, Newgrounds energy, and a boomer shooter that doesn't know how to stop. The animations are gritty, the characters are exaggerated, the weapons are loud, and the pace of combat almost constantly pushes the player forward. There is a sense of weaponry and horde mode during gameplay, while the following speed, absurd humor, and hand-drawn visual identity stand out particularly.
In combat, the game functions best when it overwhelms you with enemies, ammunition, and visual chaos. Here, the love for old shooters is felt, but also the desire for everything to be a little dumber, dirtier, and more exaggerated. Riptide Rampage, the endless horde mode, further extends the fun after the campaign—however, not everything is perfect. The game has uneven difficulty, some tedious checkpoints, and combat waves that tend to repeat.
In conclusion, Captain Wayne – Vacation Desperation is not a polished game, but a deliberately wild and messy shooter with character. If you're looking for a serious FPS, you've missed the mark. If you want a short, loud, and wacky PC action game with plenty of blood, humor, and a shotgun instead of an arm, this is a very pleasant surprise.
A copy of the PC version of the game for review purposes was provided by the publisher Silver Lining Interactive
