Its a lot longer than i expected, but damn i didn't expect for this to hit so hard as it did. I played it back in January when it shadow dropped out of nowhere (only to wind up having my game pass expire go figure), and finally got the chance to wrap it up once i've renewed it.
The one word i can describe this game is.. unique. Sure, its a hack n slasher action game but its a hybrid of that plus rhythm gameplay you'd see out of guitar hero, meshed with a Saturday morning cartoon artstyle. On top of some corporate satire which kinda reminds me of ratchet and clank but with less cynicism. Also another word to describe this game is genuine, There's not some irony poisoned energy where, y'know, people taking the piss out of very bizarre and wacky situations. I mean this game stars a dude named chai who wants to become a rockstar that can summon a guitar out of scrap metal with a robotic hand he got from an assembly line who accidentally crushed his ipod into his chest. Best thing to do is just RUN with that premise and they did with flying colors. There's actual genuine convos between chai and the rest of his gang that actually did get a chuckle out of me. Even with the added touch of CNMN, your robo pal, having to constantly draw emotions on his face with a sharpie, that you can also see with the subtitles, will always get a kick out of me. That and The endless robots with either incompetent on doing work, suffering in a predicament or just fucking around.
Once i got a hold of the gameplay, that's when things really shine. Like ive said previously, its a hack n slash combat system with a rhythm beat behind it, Just like how games like metal hellsinger or BPM winds up being FPS games with rhythm behind it. You can summon your pals with very useful one off attacks with a cooldown via a tech cat named 808 (Tango really has a thing with cats, with evil within and this and ghostwire). On top of all that, everything is synonymous with the beat. And i do mean EVERYTHING. The environments, the guitar strings when you hit an enemy, the platforms you have to jump on, even the little miscellaneous things you gotta do to go through obstacles, EVERYTHING. I haven't seen anything like this since Def Jam Icon in 2008, where the environment reacts to the rapper you beat up synonymous with the beat. and that was 15 years ago. Really props to the musicians, designers and programmers because this definitely would be a pain in the ass to pull off properly but id say they'd did good. With a game with 0 expectations that they've developed in secret might i add.
Now, This game does have options for those who are rhythmically challenged (i sure was after not playing guitar hero since 2008), but i really did not wanna enable that and actually wanting to provide myself a challenge. Though i rarely scored an A on "Just timing" which much more skilled players wont have a problem with.
The bosses are actually kind of fun and unique. Have their own different quirks and ways to beat em and I always had fun and looked forward to the next one. Except the final one which is definitely bullshit and is responsible for the most deaths i've ever had in this game, and i just wind up button mash my way through and tossed everything and the kitchen sink at him.
And i gotta say, this game definitely feels like it could've dropped in the 2000s with the music choices here, like NIN to their own OSTs. Even surprised the shit out of me by playing the prodigy at one point, whom i haven't heard in ages ever since tv ads stopped using em. That's a definite deep cut right there. That mixed with some of the action mixed with the beats, got me impressed. On top of chai imagining a crowd of people chant his name like its a concert is the cherry on top.
Then there's the artstyle, Which i can best describe as Saturday morning anime/cartoon. It does stick out and its an almost reverse on what happened with Overstrike/Fuse whereas Insomniac went from a quirky tone to UBER serious military sci-fi shlock to be forgotten, with this seeing some concepts, I was baffled on how they went from basic scifi to THIS, which is far more suitable. I cant imagine what this game would've been like if they stuck with the original concept art. Because this game wears it on its sleeve, literally jumping from gameplay to cutscene is almost smooth, because it goes from an animated segment, usually chai breaking a window INTO gameplay. Its little touches like that, that makes this one big playable cartoon (in a good way). In game, it almost like they took Ratchet and Clanks industrial/futuristic dystopia design and mix it with jet set radio. I gotta say it is aesthetically pleasing to look at and even runs well since it isn't "photorealistic".
If you haven't heard me mention the story by now, its because there's not much to talk about there, if you played a game about a ragtag team going against a corporation, You've know where the stories gonna go. Including the plot reveals which, yeah, explains a lot. Only 1 plot twist actually surprised me but i wont spoil but it also impacts the gameplay a bit. But really the characters and the interaction between them is what elevates it for me.
Overall, Id say this is one of my favorite games in this generation because on how much fun i had with it. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out, especially if you have game pass, you aint got much to lose. After beating the campaign you can also do a lot of side objectives, a "BPM rush" mode where its a turbo mode to crank the beat higher and higher, or the tower mode where your abilities are gone and you have to rework your way to the top. Or the hardest difficulty being rhythm master which, screw that, this game already filtered me by the end lol
But seriously, i cant praise this game enough. Go play it.
The one word i can describe this game is.. unique. Sure, its a hack n slasher action game but its a hybrid of that plus rhythm gameplay you'd see out of guitar hero, meshed with a Saturday morning cartoon artstyle. On top of some corporate satire which kinda reminds me of ratchet and clank but with less cynicism. Also another word to describe this game is genuine, There's not some irony poisoned energy where, y'know, people taking the piss out of very bizarre and wacky situations. I mean this game stars a dude named chai who wants to become a rockstar that can summon a guitar out of scrap metal with a robotic hand he got from an assembly line who accidentally crushed his ipod into his chest. Best thing to do is just RUN with that premise and they did with flying colors. There's actual genuine convos between chai and the rest of his gang that actually did get a chuckle out of me. Even with the added touch of CNMN, your robo pal, having to constantly draw emotions on his face with a sharpie, that you can also see with the subtitles, will always get a kick out of me. That and The endless robots with either incompetent on doing work, suffering in a predicament or just fucking around.
Once i got a hold of the gameplay, that's when things really shine. Like ive said previously, its a hack n slash combat system with a rhythm beat behind it, Just like how games like metal hellsinger or BPM winds up being FPS games with rhythm behind it. You can summon your pals with very useful one off attacks with a cooldown via a tech cat named 808 (Tango really has a thing with cats, with evil within and this and ghostwire). On top of all that, everything is synonymous with the beat. And i do mean EVERYTHING. The environments, the guitar strings when you hit an enemy, the platforms you have to jump on, even the little miscellaneous things you gotta do to go through obstacles, EVERYTHING. I haven't seen anything like this since Def Jam Icon in 2008, where the environment reacts to the rapper you beat up synonymous with the beat. and that was 15 years ago. Really props to the musicians, designers and programmers because this definitely would be a pain in the ass to pull off properly but id say they'd did good. With a game with 0 expectations that they've developed in secret might i add.
Now, This game does have options for those who are rhythmically challenged (i sure was after not playing guitar hero since 2008), but i really did not wanna enable that and actually wanting to provide myself a challenge. Though i rarely scored an A on "Just timing" which much more skilled players wont have a problem with.
The bosses are actually kind of fun and unique. Have their own different quirks and ways to beat em and I always had fun and looked forward to the next one. Except the final one which is definitely bullshit and is responsible for the most deaths i've ever had in this game, and i just wind up button mash my way through and tossed everything and the kitchen sink at him.
And i gotta say, this game definitely feels like it could've dropped in the 2000s with the music choices here, like NIN to their own OSTs. Even surprised the shit out of me by playing the prodigy at one point, whom i haven't heard in ages ever since tv ads stopped using em. That's a definite deep cut right there. That mixed with some of the action mixed with the beats, got me impressed. On top of chai imagining a crowd of people chant his name like its a concert is the cherry on top.
Then there's the artstyle, Which i can best describe as Saturday morning anime/cartoon. It does stick out and its an almost reverse on what happened with Overstrike/Fuse whereas Insomniac went from a quirky tone to UBER serious military sci-fi shlock to be forgotten, with this seeing some concepts, I was baffled on how they went from basic scifi to THIS, which is far more suitable. I cant imagine what this game would've been like if they stuck with the original concept art. Because this game wears it on its sleeve, literally jumping from gameplay to cutscene is almost smooth, because it goes from an animated segment, usually chai breaking a window INTO gameplay. Its little touches like that, that makes this one big playable cartoon (in a good way). In game, it almost like they took Ratchet and Clanks industrial/futuristic dystopia design and mix it with jet set radio. I gotta say it is aesthetically pleasing to look at and even runs well since it isn't "photorealistic".
If you haven't heard me mention the story by now, its because there's not much to talk about there, if you played a game about a ragtag team going against a corporation, You've know where the stories gonna go. Including the plot reveals which, yeah, explains a lot. Only 1 plot twist actually surprised me but i wont spoil but it also impacts the gameplay a bit. But really the characters and the interaction between them is what elevates it for me.
Overall, Id say this is one of my favorite games in this generation because on how much fun i had with it. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out, especially if you have game pass, you aint got much to lose. After beating the campaign you can also do a lot of side objectives, a "BPM rush" mode where its a turbo mode to crank the beat higher and higher, or the tower mode where your abilities are gone and you have to rework your way to the top. Or the hardest difficulty being rhythm master which, screw that, this game already filtered me by the end lol
But seriously, i cant praise this game enough. Go play it.