Review: It’s Bad That War Happen, But Now It’s Time To Do Some Really Great Kills
Once again, war has happen – and this time, it’s worse than ever. The next big war is here, bigger than all the other wars, and of course, it’s all terribly sad. But now is not the time to think about that. Now is the time to get my gun and do some really sweet murders. Let’s jump right in!
If you’ve done wars before, you’ll be familiar with things like the control layout, the core gameplay loop, and the way a man’s head explodes like an egg, showering you in bits of bone and trauma. This next war brings the best of the old war while trimming off some of the bits you didn’t like, in the same way that your bullets trim off the limbs of other human beings you don’t like while keeping the bits you do, such as their loot.
This time around you play as Man Who Was Secretly Ready To Do War But Hoped War Day Would Never Come. This is a fresh change from the usual lineup of generic characters such as Man Who Joined War Machine And Was Looking Forward To Doing Wars and the tired trope of Man Caught In The Wrong Place (War) At The Wrong Time (War) But Is Really Good At It Anyway (War). This time around, Man can be Woman instead, which is actually quite progressive.
Still, War Day comes for us all, and when war comes that means we all need to reluctantly kill a shitload of people and take their stuff. Fortunately, the developers have made a smart decision to dial back on the narrative angle this time, which is good because last time I got quite a bit sick of picking up tapes and listening to voice recordings about how “it’s bad that war happen”. It’s like, yeah, we get it!
Instead the team have decided to focus more on upgrading the loot system to make it more rewarding to do the very sad (but necessary) murders, and overall that’s probably a smart call. Without loot there’s no reason to do wars anyway, and since war makes me very sad, it’s best to avoid it as much as possible. War! What a bummer. I hate it.
I was initially quite worried that this particular war would be too political, but after a few hours I could tell that doing a big war right in the nation’s capital while a burning flag hung limply on a broken pole was actually really non-political and just about having a good time. Big thanks to the developers for keeping a tight lid on this stuff. Politics can really ruin your enjoyment of war if you’re not careful.
If you’re looking to get into war, this is definitely a great starting point. There’s something for everyone, whether you want to be really sad from the terrible futility of armed conflict, or whether you want to be really sad from the trash items that keep dropping from the people you kill. Sometimes you can also be happy after a kill, but not too happy, because war is of course quite sad. That’s what makes this genre so great.
Review code provided by the military industrial complex.
