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SkullWriter The skull that writes with its teeth. Since: Mar, 2021
The skull that writes with its teeth.
04/23/2022 06:16:23 •••

"How do you do, fellow kids?" meme turned into a game.

It's actually pretty hard to make a review and put into words something that a professional reviewer like Yathzee said it better: This game feels like it was made by a council of corporate suits, with a literal comedy consultant being hired. It wanted desperately to be Saints Row 3 without knowing what made Saints Row work. The 'humor' is basically a pseudo-punk-rock protagonist believing and acting as if he was 'awesome' while interact with 'nerdy' groups such as geeks, scouttroops and larpers, the survivors of a soda-post-apocalypse, and by the time this game was launched, this kind of humor was already insanely dated. Here? It becomes a cringe fest that is made worse by the fact that you can't skip the cutscenes. They think that people talking awkwardly with long pauses are funny, and it only gets worse, to the point where nearly everyone in the game is unlikeable for one reason or another, either by apathy, jerkassery, complete detachment of reality, or acting like a psycho jerk to seem 'tough' (I loathed Las Catrinas). And sadly, this is the driving force of the story, just interacting with the 'weirdos' that survived the apocalypse and slowly banding them together and you never kill a single corrupt corporate suit, just their robots, which makes it more obvious how 'corporate suits' wanted a product that didn't made them feel bad. Gotta admit though that there were some good spots of dark humor in the middle.

There are also lots of 4th wall breakings, and those do fare better, actually making me chuckle two or three times.

Liking or not the soundtrack will depend completely if you're into Punk Rock and some of its branches, though 'weirdly', you'll never hear any song about corrupt corporate system or destructive societies, just the run-of-the-mill 'lets party', 'I'm awesome', 'toilet humor' and other kinds of punk rock. At most one song about all the dead bodies, and one 'Fuck Fisco'. (I actually enjoy Punk Rock, so its a pro for me)

Also, there are some bugs, if you get it on steam, turn off the steam cloud save synchronization.

But even with all that, I'd still recommend this game for casual players seeking to turn their brains off and just have some fun. Why? Because the game actually fulfils what it promised to do: To counter the horrid wave of grey-palleted cover-shooters with something bright and different. Its a fast paced fun romp where you grind through edges, bounce on cars and fight waves of monsters while wielding weird weapons. Its a colorful mix of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Dead Rising, and the mechanics of amping the music as you fight the waves is a good touch for games like this. Heck, its combat mechankcs are so simple that I didn't mind the 'tower defense' missions in it, and I'm a person that loathes tower defense. So if you don't mind ignoring the main story, going to make popcorn during long cutscenes, I suggest giving this game a try. Too bad they couldn't make a good story, or else this would have been a good competitor to Saints Row.


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