Ever since Mr. Shifty was first announced I had been following the development of the game and even played the beta build back when it was released. It was a fun game and a decently enjoyable experience having similar but also different elements from other games such as Superhot and of course Hotline Miami as already mentioned by others writing reviews of this game... It is just only now on sale that I bought the game and played through the story in its entirety.
To begin, the ability to "shift" or teleport a short distance through walls, obstacles, and bullets is a nice touch and a fresh mechanic in the game. In addition, the combat system and a largely destructible environment full of melee weapons to use against enemies (who have guns) also help to keep the game interesting (at least for the beginning half of the game). The art style and the soundtrack as well were done to a large degree well.
The problem with this game is that the story of the game ends up feeling generic and also too long to the point where the back half ends up feeling like it is dragging because the game mechanics become stale. There is largely no new mechanics or additions to keep the game feeling fresh in the back half and as a result, the game just ends up becoming a boring mess to some extent. I was also kind of disappointed at the difficulty spike, which in this instance on the last few stages of the complete eighteen stages total in the story, seemed to become challenging just because it could, without any real justification to the point where the end of the game was anti-climatic. Also, I do agree with what other people have said about the other mechanic of the game on the slow motion time, which activates when you are going to get hit with a bullet. I also wish that this mechanic could be controlled/triggered by the player and wasn't automatically activated.
All in all, Mr. Shifty still provides a decently enjoyable experience with a unique addition to the top-down action genre that has enough content to stand alone as its own title, despite being plagued by a few details such as the story content. Even though there are some things that disappointed me slightly in the end, I would still recommend this game to anyone who wants to give it a play-through. I would also consider getting it on sale as there is limited replayability. (The only incentive to really replay the levels are the first completion is for the speedrun achievements or to try and get fewer deaths or a perfect run). The game is fairly addictive and entertaining though for the most part in conclusion.
To begin, the ability to "shift" or teleport a short distance through walls, obstacles, and bullets is a nice touch and a fresh mechanic in the game. In addition, the combat system and a largely destructible environment full of melee weapons to use against enemies (who have guns) also help to keep the game interesting (at least for the beginning half of the game). The art style and the soundtrack as well were done to a large degree well.
The problem with this game is that the story of the game ends up feeling generic and also too long to the point where the back half ends up feeling like it is dragging because the game mechanics become stale. There is largely no new mechanics or additions to keep the game feeling fresh in the back half and as a result, the game just ends up becoming a boring mess to some extent. I was also kind of disappointed at the difficulty spike, which in this instance on the last few stages of the complete eighteen stages total in the story, seemed to become challenging just because it could, without any real justification to the point where the end of the game was anti-climatic. Also, I do agree with what other people have said about the other mechanic of the game on the slow motion time, which activates when you are going to get hit with a bullet. I also wish that this mechanic could be controlled/triggered by the player and wasn't automatically activated.
All in all, Mr. Shifty still provides a decently enjoyable experience with a unique addition to the top-down action genre that has enough content to stand alone as its own title, despite being plagued by a few details such as the story content. Even though there are some things that disappointed me slightly in the end, I would still recommend this game to anyone who wants to give it a play-through. I would also consider getting it on sale as there is limited replayability. (The only incentive to really replay the levels are the first completion is for the speedrun achievements or to try and get fewer deaths or a perfect run). The game is fairly addictive and entertaining though for the most part in conclusion.