Arcadegeddon: Game Review

Almost a year ago, early access was opened to Arcadegeddon, a new project from IllFonic, primarily known for Friday The 13th: The Game. Now the final version has been released, which is also available to PlayStation Plus subscribers. To me, the early version seemed like a curious action game that successfully combined the mechanics standard for such games, and therefore it was interesting how the developers plan to develop the project. It turned out that it didn’t.

Victims of capitalism

Like a year ago, we are transported to the slot machine hall, which wants to get its hands on the evil mega-corporation. There is no place left in the Arcadegeddon universe for normal arcade video games – the industry is overflowing with cheap crafts that people somehow like and bring a lot of money. The owner of the hall is not ready to put up with this state of affairs and decides to create his latest, best game, which is able to lure a large part of the audience. However, corporations do not like such actions. She launches a virus into the system that can destroy the game, and our task is to get rid of it.

Fight the misfortune to be spending time in the game. Arcadegeddon is a fast-paced, third-person roguelike action game in which you have to run from one end of the corridor map to the other, completing simple tasks. Standing on points, fighting off a wave of opponents, shooting cubes that appear in different places – there are not so many situations, and all of them were already in the early version.

This is the problem with Arcadegeddon – it’s hard to understand how the release version differs from what was available a year ago. There seem to be more cards, but there are still few of them – the locations quickly begin to repeat themselves. And there is no difference between them – everywhere there is a series of corridors and large rooms or squares. Some areas can boast of verticality, in some you meet opponents face to face more often, but almost nothing changes in the gameplay. The declared procedural generation does not save either – you don’t even notice it.

Opponents have become a little more diverse – the higher the difficulty level, the more often new individuals are encountered. First, these are soldiers with jetpacks flying over the ground, and monsters that explode when approached. Then some skinny devils are added to them, running in groups, guards with shields and other reptiles that can be fun to fight. Fortunately, upon reaching certain stages, you can start the next race not from the first difficulty level, but from later ones, in order to avoid fussing with weak enemies.

The bosses are the most frustrating. There are only four of them, and already somewhere on the fifth attempt I managed to defeat them all within the same race and get the corresponding “achievement”. They are completely uninteresting – each is a large creature that summons a pack of small monsters and periodically shoots in your direction. They come across randomly, which is why balance problems are especially annoying – if the battle with one boss takes place in a hall with many columns and other shelters, then you meet with another in an open arena, where there is almost nowhere to hide. And sometimes they turn on the second phase, which does not differ significantly from the first – just a strip of their health is restored entirely.

Running and shooting in Arcadegeddon

At the same time, the gameplay basis of Arcadegeddon is good – that I liked it a year ago, and that now. The character runs fast, can ride on the fifth point, like the hero Vanquish, uses magic tricks that are restored when enemies are eliminated. Since it takes place inside an arcade game, there are multipliers, numbers flying out of opponents, high score tables and other similar elements.

There are several dozen types of weapons. We start with a simple pistol, which has an infinite number of cartridges, but it overheats quickly. And while searching the chests and breaking the boxes, you find a lot of other guns: freezing, setting fire, and shooting something like circular saws or grenades. There are submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, even swords. You can carry three guns with you, so you can equip weapons for all occasions – both for close combat and for long-range firefights.

The more often you use something, the higher the level of the item becomes, and at the same time, the ability to take it with you from the very beginning of the race is unlocked. If you especially liked any three types of weapons, then take them and do not search for chests. At the same time, if at first you run with “green” guns, which have so-so characteristics, then over time they will acquire a legendary status and begin to cause more significant damage. True, in the central hub, where you are engaged in setting up equipment, for some reason it is impossible to compare the characteristics.

What, then, is unique about the races, if you take weapons with you, and the cards do not differ much from each other? Here hacks should come to the rescue – passive bonuses that you collect as you progress through missions. However, even if on paper these bonuses seem significant (+25% damage! accelerated shield regeneration! increased movement speed!), in reality they do not change the gameplay. It doesn’t feel like you’re destroying opponents faster or spending less time completing tasks.

Therefore, Arcadegeddon quickly turns into a routine. In the early version, this was not so noticeable, because it seemed that this was only part of the game and over time the project would acquire content and more sense would appear in what was happening. However, in the end, almost everything remained exactly the same. In this regard, it is not entirely clear why the progress was reset to zero. Those who bought the game before the release were given a handful of virtual currency, and they also accelerated the process of earning levels, and that’s it. Would you like to put old people and newcomers on an equal footing? This is strange, because there is no PvP in the game – only cooperative races.

There are two things to keep players going. The first is the progress system. Characters in the hub give out tasks, gaining new levels unlocks passive abilities, you can buy new magic tricks. But, again, the gameplay from this does not become more diverse. Orders are banal, there are so few “passives” that there is not even anything to choose from, and there are even fewer tricks.

The second element is character customization. Although you see the hero from the back, and do not control him from the first person, the ability to change costumes should kind of encourage you to get new looks. However, I don’t want to complete missions for the sake of new items, nor look into the store. Everything is gray and boring, there is nothing that I would like to unlock as soon as possible. It’s funny to see a microtransaction store here – it’s hard to imagine that real money is paid for all this.

Conclusion

When Arcadegeddon was in early access, and the developers promised to actively support the game with updates, the attitude towards it was favorable – this can be seen from my preview of a year ago. Now it turned out that there was no normal support and is not expected. Here, even the small print was not corrected – that then it was impossible to read the characteristics of weapons on a 4K TV, which is now. Gameplay-wise, this is not the worst entertainment – you can run and shoot for several evenings not without pleasure. However, at some point you realize that you are wasting your time.

Pros: dozens of weapons; convenient control and good shooting; quite a lot of types of opponents – the higher the difficulty, the more diverse they are.

Cons: few cards, and the difference between them is minimal; only four bosses, which do not stand out in anything special; the progress system does not encourage you to spend a lot of time in the game; mediocre story with meaningless dialogues; the game hasn’t changed much from the one year old version and feels unfinished.