South Park The Fractured But Whole - Review

South Park has been part of my life for many years & I still enjoy watching it now.  I first read about the show just before it was due to air and I remember thinking it sounded very different to anything else I had seen before.  It was a Friday when the first episode aired on Channel 4 & I couldn't wait to watch it.  I sat on my bed waiting for it to start and then proceed to spend the next twenty minutes laughing hysterically, I loved it, the next Friday could not come soon enough.  Over the years many games have been released using the South Park name but until now only two had the creators Matt Stone & Trey Parker's approval.  In 2014 The Stick of Truth was released & I really enjoyed it, I even played it again just after I finished it.  Naturally enough, I was excited when I heard about The Fractured But Whole and couldn't wait to play it.


In case you didn't know I have a sweet tooth, one sweet I really enjoyed growing up were called Frosties.  They used to cost 10p for a roll, they are cola flavoured hard candy, great for rotting your teeth so of course I liked them.  A couple of years back I tried them again, they looked similar and the pricing had increased but not by a lot.  They were okay but not what I remember, they were not as cola tasting and even though I ate them all during the same day they got really sticky and hard to take out the wrapper.  It's lucky I don't have fillings as I ended up eating quite a few bits of tin foil.  Playing The Fractured But Whole I found myself asking, was this something that was better left in the past and remembered fondly or could it be just as good as I remembered?

Story


Once again you play as the New Kid and are thrust into a group of vigilante heroes called Coon and Friends.  They are trying to create a franchise including movies and Netflix series, quickly arguments breakout regarding who should get what and when.  Friends become divided and Civil War erupts, two sides are created but who will win in the battle of Coon and Friends versus Freedom Pals?


The main story seemed longer than Stick of Truth but I did not feel it was as entertaining and certain parts of the plot became perhaps a little convoluted especially closer to the end.   There were fewer side quests which was disappointing, I think as normal Ubisoft wanted to hold back some content for the DLC to squeeze a little more out of it's customers.  Sometimes more is less but other times less is less, in all honesty for me there were only a few standout quests.  While there were definitely plenty of gags I just felt the story content was no where near as good as Stick of Truth.

Visuals


If you have ever watched South Park you will be familiar with the animation style, while it may not be cutting edge visually speaking I feel it works perfectly.  It helped seamlessly blend the series with game and makes it feel like you are part of one of the episodes which I really liked.  That were however some standout sections including:


Professor Chaos's base, tons of tin foil, big screen TV's, Halloween decorations and hamsters
Path to Heaven, a pretty rainbow farting flying unicorn and a gay fish with a gold chain
Tool-shed's entrance, he slides down using a measuring tape which looks really badass
Plantmancer Ultimate move, hmmm, watch it on YouTube I don't want spoil it for you



Music


The musical score has a distinctly epic sound and reminded me of the music from many comic book movies.  There are times when the score diverges most notably in the Peppermint Hippo strip club which goes for a more urban rap sound.  The composer for the score is Jamie Dunlop who has done a lot of the music for the South Park TV Series.  Outside of this he has contributed to many TV series, movies & games, some of his work includes; Stick Of Truth, Cabin in the Woods, Sixth Sense, Supernatural, Law and Order, Breaking Bad, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, The Wire, Friends, ER and Person of Interest.


While it is not a bad soundtrack it is far from being outstanding and I just felt it was too similar to others I had heard.  It runs at just under three hours, I felt there was a lot of filler and some pieces were very repetitive.  There were some pieces I quite enjoyed including; 'Main Menu', 'Morgan Freeman Boss Battle', 'V.I.P. Brawl', 'The Broflovskis (Kyle's Mom Fight)', 'Character Sheet', 'Drug Dealer Kingpin' and 'Mecha Minion Chaos Battle'.

Gameplay

On my journey I fought many different enemies including; many assed cats, city ninjas, raisin girls and rednecks.  While they only appeared once my favorite enemies were the molesting priests, not only because they were both creepy and funny but also because one of the special moves was one of them pulling anal beads from their ass & running at you with them.  Things like this reminded me of why the show is so funny and why I enjoy it so much even now.  There were some really stand out characters in the game, most notably:


Randy, a man who when he is drunk will fight anyone especially if thinks you have his keys
Captain Diabetes, with the power of diabetes which give him monstrous strength
Tool-shed, I think his outfit looks the best and his sandblasting ability comes in really handy
Professor Chaos, a great villain with funny minions and an impressive ultimate ability


An interesting and very South Parkesque thing is the difficulty level, very easy has you as a white kid and very hard puts you as black one.  This is something that can be changed at anytime throughout, I kept it at normal difficulty.  There are multiple classes in the game similar to other RPGs; Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Plantmancer, Blaster, Brutalist and Martial Artist.  There is a lot of choice but fear not you can pick more than one class.  Similar to the Stick of Truth you have summons that can call on powerful allies to help you during battle, my two favorites were:


Macaroni Picture, that calls Moses to heal up your party
Cheesing Vial, Gerald flies in and drops multiples bombs on the enemies below


The combat itself I felt was not as good as the Stick of Truth, characters can easily get in the way of each other and multiple times I found it hard to see what was going on as objects blocked my field of vision.


When you are not in combat there are plenty of areas to explore and puzzles to solve, some of these will require your buddies to help you.  There is no jump button in the game but sometimes you will need to get up higher areas using fartkour like parkour but with farts.  Early on red bricks will appear that are lava these can only be cleared by using a sandblaster shoved in your ass and the power of your farts.  There are handy apps to track your progress, show character information and of course there is Coonstagram.  Basically it's Instagram, as a whole there is no real benefit to getting followers and is just a collectible of sorts.  There are mini games, the first one you get to play in the first five minutes.  Through a slightly annoying set of button sequences you get to poop, initially it was mildly funny but later it just felt over used.  Once of the better mini games was controlling a flying unicorn to help get a frog into Heaven through the power of rainbow farts.


I touched on it earlier in the review but as a whole there were not a lot of really good quests, which is where it falls down by comparison of the Stick Of Truth.  There were however a few good ones that stood out:

Medicinal Fried Chicken, this requires you to get weed for Classi to get information from her
Shady Acres, this one has you battling old people which was tough, nasty and funny
Craig and Tweak love story, easily my favorite mission as you need to find a way to get the two back together again


Overall the gameplay wasn't bad but it felt more like things went backwards instead of forwards which was disappointing.  I did like the new buddy abilities but the combat did not feel as enjoyable or as good as the Stick of Truth.



Final Thoughts

After almost twenty hours of playing what how did I feel?  Honestly underwhelmed, the story and combat was not as good as the Stick of Truth.  The visuals stayed the same with a few good exceptions and the music was okay.  While I know I will likely play Stick of Truth again I can't imagine saying the same with The Fractured But Whole.  I can only give this one I can only give 3 out of 5

8-Bit Gaming Conference - Review

Just arrived back last night from Ireland's first 8-Bit Gaming Conference in Griffith College. There was so much to see and do; my better half and I both really enjoyed it and are already looking forward to next year. The atmosphere was brilliant; there were so many gaming enthusiasts & we couldn't get over the amount of rare games & consoles on display.


During one of the panels, we got to hear about how the idea for the 8-Bit Conference came about from one of the organisers.  It was only really conceived a few months ago in a pub (he jokes 'as all good ideas are'). It came from a desire to organise a gaming related event. With a lot of work and little sleep, their idea became a reality.  It's hard to cover everything we got to see and do while at the conference but I will sum it up as best I can to try to do it justice.

The first area we entered was the Retro Gaming Museum, which was fantastic.  They had dedicated display cabinets for both Mario & Zelda, and some of the items featured were really rare.  I thought it was really awesome that they actually had copies of E.T. on the Atari 2600 - which reminds me I really must watch the documentary on Netflix, Atari: Game Over.


While they were many great retro consoles on display, a number of which you were also allowed to play my favorites had to be a rare SNES developer console and the Atari Lynx handheld console.  I was lucky enough to play a Japanese prototype version of Mario Kart on the SNES developer console, which was a lot of fun. The owner of the prototypes explained how these were sent, in various forms (complete, incomplete, slightly different to release versions) to journalists for gaming magazines in the 90s and 2000s. These prototypes and advance copies were often then sold and traded around into the hands of collectors. For me though, getting to play Donkey Kong on the Gameboy (hooked up to a big screen!) was probably the highlight for me and made me really want to buy a Gameboy again.

Next, we moved onto the Arcade Room - this was awesome!  They had a number of Arcade Machines set up and built by Mini Arcade Systems, an Irish company.  Not only did we get to play as many games as we wanted free of charge but they also had free sweets next to every machine.  Not surprisingly, we spent quite a bit of time here hunched over machines, despite being soaked through from being caught in the rain. We even missed the Sega Arcade panel because of it. We easily could have spent the rest of the day there, trying out many of the 800+ available games from Sega, Nintendo, and many more classic systems.


Three things became apparent after being in the Arcade Room. First, playing retro games on an old style bartop arcade machines is a lot of fun. Second, having a player 2 makes it even more fun. Third, we want to buy one of these machines as soon as possible - perhaps as a Valentines Day present to ourselves.

                                                             photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

To be honest I was really happy just to have seen the Retro Museum & The Arcade Room but there was even more to enjoy.  There were multiple panels on retro gaming - the one we went to was on collectibles which was really interesting.  We not only got to hear from the event organiser but also from some avid collectors.  I really liked hearing from the guy who had his whole house dedicated to not only retro gaming collectibles but also his collection of literally hundreds of old CRT TV's & monitors - his reason being, you need a good display set up for the full retro gaming experience.  It was great how excited everyone was, and they were also seriously talking about putting together a gaming museum in Ireland which, in my opinion, would be epic.


On the second floor there was so much going on. There were some really good cosplayers including two people (dressed as Squall and Rinoa) who were there talking about Kupocon.  What is Kupocon I hear you ask?  It is a celebration of all things Final Fantasy including; games, music, special guests & more.  We will be attending next year in Birmingham as the London event has already sold out.  Outside of this, there were tournaments being held and retro games & consoles on sale along with lots of handcrafted items.

photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

 photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

Overall we had an awesome time and based on an interview done with the event organisers they are even looking at bringing it to Cork which would be awesome.  For any of you who missed out on it this year, I cannot recommend highly enough that you check it out next year.

Beginners Guide - Review

I am just back from the 8-Bit Gaming Conference in Dublin &  I have to say it was a lot of fun (might even do a review of it in the near future).  Even though I am little wrecked after traveling back I really wanted to get my final PC review of this year completed.  A short time ago, based on a recommendation, I decided to play the Stanley Parable (created by David Wreden) & being honest I was blown away by it.  I was informed recently he had made another game called The Beginners Guide, after enjoying his first game I thought why not give it a try.


Wine Gums are not the most exciting sweets in the world & if I was in a sweet shop (which I regularly am) it would not be my first choice.  That being said, I do like them - I consume one or two & think to myself 'yeah these are pretty good' & then proceed to have some more.  An entire bag later I think to myself 'damn I forgot how nice these are'. Playing The Beginners Guide I found myself asking was it like a bag of wine gums or is it more like a dip dab (a lollipop you lick & stick into a bag of lemon sherbert) - annoying to eat & generally frustrating?

Story 

The game starts with David Wreden narrating the game. He wants to showcase a number of games created by his friend Coda between 2008-2011.  None of these games were ever released & according to David, this was due to Coda feeling they were not good enough.  David seems concerned about Coda as he seems to have little to no confidence in his work & is also anxiety-ridden.  This is the basic premise of the story - David asks that you bear with him & that everything will make sense.


The story feels like David is simply trying to help his friend & hopefully by exposing his work to others it will help him build up his confidence.  I can't say too much without spoiling it for you - what I will say is that the story is both interesting & thought-provoking.

Visuals

The graphics are quite varied, Coda's early games are very basic but as the years progress this changes vastly.  The best example of this would be the first game you see which is similar to a map from the original Counter-Strike & then a later game about cleaning.  The cleaning game is set in a snow covered area & in the centre is a modern house.  When I stepped inside I was almost in shock as there was so much detail it really did look & feel, for lack of a better term, real.  Initially, I started out feeling the visuals were almost unimportant,  but they really are - just not for the normal reasons.  I know that statement may sound a little cryptic but it is all part of the experience this game has to offer & as such I am not going to spoil that.


Music 

There is not a lot of music in the game which is good because it would only serve as a distraction from David's narration & the story itself.  There are a number of atmospheric sounds used throughout Coda's games which are subtle & work well with what you are seeing.


The one standout song is played during the end credits called 'Turn Back' written by Halina Heron & performed by her & Ryan Roth.  Halina is a singer-songwriter from Canada, she has released a number of albums & EPs including; Moon Hunter OST, The Yawhg EP OST & Back Then.  I really liked The Moon Hunter OST, so much so that I am going to play the game next year because of it.
Ryan Roth also hails from Canada but unlike Halina focuses on very different genres of music, mostly electronic & ambient.  He has worked on other albums with Halina along with doing his own solo work including; The Yawhg EP OST, Moon Hunters OST, Good Snowmen Are Hard To Build OST & Shattered Planet OST.


While I do love a good musical score, the absence of one here I would mark as a positive rather than a negative.  The game wants you to focus on the story & ensures this happens by not offering you other distractions.

Gameplay

When it comes to games, I love talking about the gameplay.  I feel if the gameplay is poor then it is difficult for the other elements to cover for its shortcomings. The reverse is true that if the gameplay is good it can make up for other poorer elements.  The gameplay in The Beginners Guide could be described as an interactive story but really, if anything it is more like listening to a film or TV series commentary.  David Wreden's narration is powerful & creates an atmosphere like no other I have experienced.  The game made me challenge things I had only really thought of in a small way before. I struggled to review the gameplay but after a while, I realised it was because it was more like an emotional, thought-provoking experience than an actual game.  Considering how I feel about games this is a rather bold statement for me to make.


In my opinion, the only way you can truly understand The Beginners Guide is to experience it for yourself.  While that statement could be used to describe many games, I think after you play this one you will understand what I mean.




Final Thoughts

So after just over 2 hours, how did I feel?  Amazed, confused & intrigued.  It is very difficult for me to simply sum up my experience of the game like I would others.  The most basic way I can describe my time playing it is that I enjoyed it & the biggest recommendation I have would have for anyone reading this is to play it.  The time you spend with it will be short but I truly mean it when I say it will be very worthwhile.  This is the second game this year I am awarding 5 out of 5

Cuphead - Review

Last month Cuphead was released and I could not wait to play it.  I had originally seen a trailer for it back in 2015, and what really got me excited was that it looked like an old cartoon from 30's but instead of just watching it I could be part of it.  The game was created by Studio MDHR. The company is run by brothers Chad & Jared Moldenhauer.  It is worth noting a few things about Studio MDHR; this is their first game, the game took less than 20 people to create and in less than 2 weeks of it being released over a million copies sold. That in my eyes is pretty damn impressive.


One of my favorite sweets growing up were Blackjacks and Fruit Salads - for those of you who have not tried them they are chewy sweets with lots of sugar in them. One tastes like aniseed & stains your mouth & teeth black, the other taste fruity and...well that's it.  While there are many other sweets I like more, eating them now reminds me of my childhood which brings back happy memories.  Playing Cuphead I found myself asking, was this a nice memory of my childhood or a bad one like when I used to work in a local shop and cut off a chunk of my finger on the first day?

Story

The story is simple and a little scary - it has one very clear message: 'don't make a deal with the devil'. Also, don't gamble.  Cuphead & Mugman love to play dice at the casino, and one day they are doing so well that they make a deal with the devil - you can imagine how that goes down.  Naturally, not wanting to lose their souls they plead with the devil to spare them - he agrees if they are willing to collect the souls of some other debtors. Without hesitation, they set off on their journey to collect some souls.

I liked the simplicity of the story and the moral lessons that were in it.   There is really something to be said for un-convoluted storylines - don't get me wrong I love a well layered story but sometimes simplicity is key, as this game proves.

Visuals

The game is visually stunning, it is a hand-drawn masterpiece and I can truly understand why it took so long for the game to be released.  Everything looks so good in it; from the mini-map, that reminded me of Super Marioland 2 Six Golden Coins on Gameboy (which I may get my hands on again next week), to the random characters you can talk to in the world, to the bosses themselves.  It is hard to pick favorites but the three most visually impressive enemies were: 

• Cagney Carnation (see above), who has a Marioesque look & feel to him
• Captain Brineybeard who is able to command warriors of the sea to attack you including an octopus, shark & an army of dogfish
• The Wraith Train which is just a lot of fun & perfect for Halloween.

Visually speaking it is almost impossible to flaw it, with one minor exception, - occasionally the foreground covers important parts of the screen which adds a challenge which is unneeded and can be a little frustrating.  

Music

The music in the game has a distinctly Big Band sound. This works really well especially considering the popularity of that genre in the 1930's.   The Canadian composer, percussionist & drummer Kristofer Maddigan is behind the game's musical score.  He has played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Thunder-Bay Symphony along with a number of other groups.  His own band is called Lazerblade, I listened to the album Message to Earth which has a hugely varied sound & covers many genres including; electronica, dance, jazz & rock.

The score is just shy of three hours & I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.  I thought it was a nice touch that they released the entire score on 4 LPs, although if you do want to purchase it you will have to part with over €100.  A really solid score with some great pieces of music, my favorites included; 'Introduction', 'Forest Follies', 'Die House', 'Treetop Trouble', 'Floral Fury', 'Aviary Action', 'Inkwell Isle 1 (Piano)', 'Inkwell Isle 3' (ah yeah) & 'Fiery Frolic'.

Gameplay

Time to look at the gameplay; the good, the bad & the ugly.  Cuphead is an old school run & gun game that borrows from games such as Metal Slug, Contra & Gunstar Heroes.  As with any run & gun game, your weapons and abilities are the key to guaranteeing success.  I won't go through all of them, I will just mention some of my personal favorites which include: 

• The peashooter which is better than it sounds, chaser which is exactly what it sounds like
• The smoke bomb which allows you to dash without taking damage & there is
• A cool superbeam that you can shoot from your head which does a ton of damage

Not all the weapons I found to be very worthwhile but I guess it all depends on your playstyle.  One of the more negative things for me was the parry, it worked well enough but near the end of the game, it started feeling really fiddly to perform & failed to work correctly nearly 50% of the time.

The game is basically continuous boss fights, which may sound like a complaint but it isn't.  In fact, I got so into the boss fights so much that the small side levels felt like a distraction from my next debt collection.  The bosses in this game can be tough - really tough, but if you can learn their pattern and choose the right weapons you will triumph.   My favorites bosses in terms of gameplay were:

• Wally Warbles, a cuckoo clock with a real bird it who is pretty tough
• The Wraith Train, exactly what it sounds like filled with plenty of ghouls and ghosts
• Cagney Carnation, one of the most terrifying plants I have ever seen (see GIF above)
• Captain Brineybeard, a pirate with the abilities of Aqua-man and an angry ship 

The worst/toughest had to be:

• Grim Matchstick, a firebreathing pain that makes three heads much worse than one
• Sally Stageplay, which just felt like sheer endurance by the end of it
• Dr. Khal's Robot that was, well, really annoying

Of course, I would have to add Mr. Dice as you have to run a gauntlet of mini-bosses trying to keep all your health to take him on & beat his pain in the ass card walking move.  Until the last two bosses, I thought the game was tough but fair but Mr. Dice really took a bit of joy out of the game for me.

There are few more minor things I liked and didn't like.  Two things I really liked were the random encounters with other characters including your ancestor and I thought it was funny the way Cuphead pulls up his pants at the start of each fight.  The minor thing was the aforementioned extra challenge created by obscured foregrounds -  especially when taking on Mr. Dice I found this to be the case a few times.

Something really bad happened when I played the final boss. First time I refused to hand him the contracts and decided to fight him.  I got killed a few times and decided to change my weapons and abilities before trying again but I decided to do one thing different this time.  I thought "how about I give him the contracts", I did, no boss battle and the credits roll.  Naturally, I loaded up the game to try the other ending, I was put outside the casino and Mr. Dice was not beaten and none of the bosses I had fought from the beginning showed as completed and as an added bonus all my weapons were gone but they did leave me with one coin.  Based on what I have read online this should not have happened.  

Overall the gameplay was good, the challenge of Mr. Dice and losing all my progress after selecting the bad ending really soured me.  While I could go back through & try it all over again I just don't have it in me right now but who knows what the future might bring.

Final Thoughts

After 20 plus hours how did I feel?  Mostly happy, it was interesting and for the most part it was fun, there were some great designs and some really good music.  It would have been better if I had not been screwed at the end losing all my progress if Mr. Dice had not been so annoying and parry was a little more reliable.  Complaints aside there were lots of good times, because of that, the visuals and the music I am going to give this one 4 out of 5.

Mother Russia Bleeds - Review

I have nearly reached the end of the PC games I wanted to play this year - while I have had fun I hear my consoles calling out to me and am looking forward to playing a number of games on them including a few titles being released this month.  The second last game that I wanted to play on PC this year was Mother Russia Bleeds.  It has an intriguing name and I loved the idea of playing an old school beat 'em up game again.


I love chocolate and I love Turkish delight - they are both very different but both equally as tasty.  Naturally you are thinking 'he must really like Fry's Turkish Delight', but you would be wrong, very wrong.  Cheap thinly layer chocolate cover a jelly like material that is barely fit for human consumption.   Poor ingredients are part of the problem but maybe it's something else as well.  It's like a combined washing machine and dryer - sure it seems like a good idea but it is never as good as a separate washer and dryer, maybe some things should not be combined.  Playing Mother Russia Bleeds I found myself asking should two things be combined or are they better left separate?

Story

The game is set in an alternate 1980's USSR. You start off in a gypsy camp doing a little street fighting. You are minding your own business when a bunch of guys come in and take you away by force.  You wake up to find you have been imprisoned & injected with a drug called Nekro, which makes you super strong, but side effects may include: vomiting, headaches, nightmare visions and addiction.  Your mission: find out who did this to you and why. Oh and if you have time help start a revolution.  There are four characters to choose from; Sergei, Boris, Ivan, Natasha.  Their stories and backgrounds are all fairly interchangeable but what sets them aside is their fighting ability.  Sergei is balanced, Boris is, well insane, Ivan is tough as nails & Natasha is really fast. 

Most beat 'em games have a simple story, which is fine because it would only detract from the gameplay itself.   The issue with Mother Russia Bleeds is that it makes more of a deal out of the story than it should, and dialogue interrupts gameplay on more than a few occasions & stops the flow of things. Now this would be fine if the story was interesting, which it isn't, and it just comes off feeling clunky and unnecessary. 

Visuals

The game goes for a pixelated 2D look - think Hotline Miami but instead of a top down look it is a side scroller.   The game is full of trippy drug fueled images, blood, gore and junkies - it is grim throughout and the pixelated look gives it a harsh edge that would unlikely be achieved by a more polished art style.  There are some really stand out visual aspects including: 

• The train mission where you start the journey during the day inside and finishes with you fighting on the roof under the moonlight which looks really cool
• The rain effect on the final mission looks great as it hits off and runs down the windows and is perfect for an endgame area
• The DJ in the Underground Concert area looks like he is having fun, the music is beating so loudly the bottles of vodka around him are shaking which made me smile

Music

The music used in the game borrows from a few different styles including; industrial, Soviet classical & electronic.  The score is composed by French synthwave project Fixions who has produced multiple albums including; Migration 2019, Euphorion, Genocity, Invisible & Black Chrome Riot.

The score runs at little over 90 minutes and contains a number of good pieces of music but as a whole I found it to be a little underwhelming.  My favorite tracks included; 'Mother Russia Bleeds', 'Maniac', 'Black Racers', 'Summoning The Mire' and 'Killing Pool'.

Gameplay

Onto the borscht.  What to tackle first?  The combat has your classic punch, kick and throw mechanics which for the most part work well, though disappointingly there is no option to block.  What really sets Mother Russia Bleeds apart from other beat 'em ups are the drugs you can take, each offering different abilities.  If you want a chance to try them all you will have to  reach at least wave 10 in arena mode before unlocking them.  There are some fun weapons including swords, pipes and bottles which can be broken and shoved into enemies throats.  The biggest negative combat-wise is the guns - while they are very sparse in early levels, the later levels are filled with them & I feel it really takes away from the beat 'em element. 

There are definitely some unusual enemies in the game, most notably gimps, a bear in a spiked mask, a busker and syringe spiders.  The game borrows from games like Street of Rage, Double Dragon and Fatal Fury, though one thing they did not borrow was the health bars for enemies which I feel would have been really good.

The difficulty level starts balanced and then goes out of control about 70% of the way through the game. The number of enemies becomes crazy and many of them have guns which ends up making it feel poorly balanced and unfair.  I had originally hoped there may be elements used in the game from more modern beat 'em up style games, for example Dead to Rights Retribution.  While I had some fun early, on by the end of it I was bored and wished I had just played one of the old classics.

Final Thoughts

So after 5 hours how did I feel?  Like maybe downloading and the playing the game was not my best idea.  While there were some interesting elements it just didn't pull together well at all and I am glad my time with it is over.  I try not to be too harsh when rating games but there was just so little to enjoy I am going to give this one 2 out of 5.

Deadbolt - Review

After playing Risk of Rain earlier this year I was curious what other titles Hopoo Games had released.  One that really grabbed my attention was Deadbolt - one of the big reasons being that you get to play as the Grim Reaper.  It is one of three PC games left on my list to play this year so I decided to buy it and give it a go.


I really enjoy snack boxes. For the uninformed that is 2-3 pieces of chicken (wings or thighs) with chips served in a nice little box.  Personally, I prefer wings to thighs, I just think they are tastier and there is not as much waste.  While I do like them I have had terrible experiences where the chips are almost soggy and the chicken is just full of fat and gristle.  Playing Deadbolt I found myself asking was I eating a nice snack box or a nasty one?

Story

The story has you take on the role of the Grim Reaper, the dead are rising and seem to have something sinister planned.  One of the things I found interesting about the game is that your missions are given to you by the flames in your fireplace.  I always had the idea if the Grim Reaper existed as an entity that he would pick his own targets, but I suppose when the dead are rising things change.


Naturally a game involving the Grim Reaper and the undead is going to be very dark but this was actually one of my favorite aspects of the game.  While the story overall was not fantastic it was very different from anything I had played previously which I felt to be a positive.

Visuals

Visually it is not the most colourful but with the type of game it is this actually works really well.  The character designs are really interesting especially the Demons that are dressed in rockabilly styled clothing and the Dredged which look like skeletons dressed in 18th century naval outfits.  There were some really good level designs, my favorites were:

• 'Amber & Evelyn'
• 'Drive Thru' 
• 'Supply Demand'.

What the game lacks in colour scheme it certainly makes up for in level & character design.

Music

The soundtrack was composed by Chris Christodoulou, who is from Greece and whose previous works include: Risk Of Rain, Wanderlust Adventures & The Sea Will Claim Everything.  Similar to Risk of Rain the score is rather diverse featuring genres such as rock, dance and electronic.


The score runs at little over an hour and I thought the score was significantly better than Risk Of Rain (even though I really enjoyed the music in that).  There is a distinctly grim sound used throughout the score which really highlights the bleakness of the world and what you are trying to do. My favorite pieces from it included: Now I Am Become Death, Blood On The Dance Floor, The Parrot Is No More, The Proverbial Dust Bitters, Hemolysis, The Banality of Eternity, Reaped by Death, Die Irae, The Choir Invisible.

Gameplay

The gameplay type can best be described as a stealth side scroller with action elements, you are never forced too much to play the stealth route but for best results I would highly recommend this option.
Let's start by talking about the good parts of the gameplay.  Have you ever wanted to travel as smoke through a sewer pipe up a toilet someone is sitting on and make them explode? Me neither, until I did. It's a great way to kill enemies and is highly amusing.  The more you play the more weapons you have access to. My favorites were the Tactical SMG (great for silent kills) and the Scythe because...well it's awesome.


The enemies in the game are quite interesting - there are four main types; Zombies, Vampires, Demons and the Dredged.  The Vampires were one of the most diverse as they could hang from ceilings, run at you with knives, there were those that looked like bats and they had access to Cerberus dogs.  The Zombies were the least exciting with the exception of the scared Headless Zombies who positioned their heads elsewhere to gain a tactical advantage.


Following on from the visual side of things there were some great level designs that offered some interesting gameplay, most notably; 'Roland', 'Amber and Evelyn' and 'Drive Thru'.  The level Roland was interesting as technically you only need to kill Roland himself but as he is so well surround you need to really think how best to reach him.  Amber and Evelyn required you to kill two enemies simultaneously which required quite a bit of prep to get it right, but the pay off is worth it.  Drive Thru was great as it is the first proper introduction to the Demons and features a warehouse/garage full of cars and attacking grease monkeys.


Onto the bad, all of which I will say could have been prevented, had the game been tested fully.  There were a number of times I found when using the vents to move around the game would freeze and I would have to quit the mission.  Shooting enemies in the head is a quick way to drop them, that is if the game registers it, which, especially in later missions, it failed to do.  The end boss was far from being the hardest, but was made tough by the fact that on multiple occasions he would either disappear from the map (I checked everywhere) or it did not register that he had been killed.  While the next thing is not a glitch I did find it a major flaw - no controller support.  It is not always necessary but I like the option. Developers claimed it was too 'clunky' and did not offer enough precision.


While there was a lot of great gameplay there were a number or relatively small things that could have been fixed to greatly improve the player experience.



Final Thoughts

So after just under 10 hours of play was it a nice snack box or a nasty one?  Honestly a little of both, there were many great things about the game but there were far too many bugs and glitches in it.  I feel there was a lack of testing which would have really helped improve the end product.  I would love to score the game higher but with so many issues I just can't. I give this one 3 out 5.