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.

Mr Shifty - Review

I have been slowly working through my 2017 games list, I only had two PC titles left; Mr. Shifty & Deadbolt ( the same studio that gave us Risk of Rain).   I was reminded of it recently as I saw a trailer advertising it coming out on Nintendo Switch.  Mr. Shifty has been heavily compared to Hotline Miami,  there are similarities but they are both I feel vastly different games.  I felt like spending some money the other evening so I purchased it on Steam.


Any fans of duck in the house?  I love duck, my favorite way to have it is with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions & hoisin sauce.  It works well as a snack or a main course (that is if you order at least half a duck),  you have tasty meat, a little salad & sweet hoisin sauce which compliments it all perfectly, all wrapped in a tiny pancake.  I have been unlucky on occasion & had a poor quality one where the meat is too fatty, the sauce is way too sweet & salad is almost dead.  Playing Mr. Shifty I found myself asking was I enjoying a succulent tasty snack or a cheap imitation?

The story for the game is cheesy but fun, you play as Mr. Shifty, can you guess what his power is?  He can shift from one area to another, fast!   Think of Marvel's Nightcrawler & they are pretty much the same, except he doesn't have a tail.  The voice in your ear is Nyx,  she is usually telling you how screwed you are or...wait no it's usually just that along with the occasional wisecrack.

Mr. Shifty's mission is to find a stolen plutonium core located in the most secure building in the world, Olympus Tower.   The villain in our story is Chairman Stone, a one-eyed madman who is also a billionaire (which are the worst kind of madman).  The story is a little James Bond & a little cliche but it works well.

I love the visuals in the game, they are that comic book cell shading art style which works really well.  I feel by doing this developer helped the game appeal to all ages, unlike Hotline Miami that has a much darker look more adult theme (just so you know I really liked that game, both of them).  While the layout of the early levels look very similar this changes quickly forcing you to adapt to new more powerful enemies & some challenging traps (frickin' laser beams).  The later levels in the game reminded me of the final level in Streets of Rage, long corridors & having to face off against every enemy you had taken on up to this point.  While you never see Mr. Shifty's face I really liked his vibrant outfit & the attention to detail with his jacket that actually moves rather than just being stuck to him.  

The music has a nice rock sound that works so well with the gameplay.  The composer for the music is Ack Kinmonth who is from Australia & mostly know for his work on films & TV series, his works include; Tender, Limbo, Texas Rising: The Lost Soldier, Sesame Street:  The Farm Animals Song & he also did the music for the mobile game Land Sliders.

The score is the shortest I have ever heard in game at just over fifteen minutes, but when it sounds this good it doesn't matter.  The music is at the core of the game & I feel it would have turned out be a vastly different had they chosen a different musical direction.  I loved all the tracks & even downloaded the soundtrack from Steam.

Onto the tender succulent meat that is the gameplay.  In short it is fast, high octane, adrenaline fueled fun (no I am not talking about the Fast & The Furious films).  The game has you playing from a top-down view which for this style of game works really well.

The combat can be challenging & shifting at the wrong time or using your ability too many times in quick succession can leave you riddled with bullets (of course in this game you only need one to kill you).  If you kill enough people you can charge your adrenaline gauge which gives you a few moments of slow-mo which is useful if you are close to catching a bullet, as all know slow-mo is never not a good thing.

Your two main weapons in the game are your shifting ability, which you can use to get bad guys to kill each other by timing things right & your powerful fists.   Have you ever wondered what it would be like to punch someone through a window out of a high rise building?  Well I am no longer curious, it was all I expected to be & more.  There are items in the game you can pick, for example tridents which can be used to pin enemies to the wall.  My favorite item has to be the mine, arm it by getting close to it, pick it up, shift to an enemy stick it on them & shift again,  I had so much fun making people explode it should almost be illegal.

While the game can be challenging I never found it to be unreasonable, the game allows use to get used to the basics & then ramps it up from there.  In terms of replay value I feel it is not only a great game to blow off steam but the speed run challenge certainly gives me a reason to try it again.  Overall great gameplay with no issues.

After just over 5 hours, how did I feel?  Joy, that may sound sarcastic so try to imagine Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy saying it.  I really loved the game & could not flaw it, I really enjoyed every part of it.  If Team Shifty made a sequel I would be really happy even if it was pretty much more of the same.  While I have played many great games this year, big budget & low budget, big worlds & small ones it is the first game this year I am giving the score of 5 out of 5