In the post-Hatred world, I suppose a game like this was an inevitability. Damage: The Sadistic Butchering of Humanity is about a random bloke who gets so thoroughly pissed off at the world that he goes on a rampage, slaying pretty much everything he sees, or can get a bead on. The bulk of the folks who will fight back are cops, and pretty much everyone else can be slapped on the back or the head with a crowbar and go down like a lump of ice cream left in the sun for a week.
Author: lordcrocosquirrel
STATUS: RELEASED
DEVELOPER: Suomi-Peli
PUBLISHER: Suomi-Peli
RELEASE DATE: 11th OF December, 2016
GENRE: Black Humor 2D Action Adventure
TYPE: SINGLE-PLAYER
From the above, one might think I had a serious distaste for the game and its side-scrolling, 2D pixel art. That’s not entirely true– the pixel art is well done, for the most part, albeit small compared to the overall playfield. Most targets in the environment are easily distinguished as far as what they’re supposed to be, and I’m fine with that. The strip club music was particularly annoying. It was reasonably accurate for “club” music, but that still didn’t make it any less painful after the first thirty seconds.
Which is, incidentally, about the longest I can stand to be in a club in the first place. Call me ancient if you want to. I don’t mind. From there, it goes downhill fairly quickly. Death seems a sweet release, but it’s staggeringly hard to get to that point– most of the enemies go down in very short order, and those that don’t aren’t particularly accurate. As for the Player controls, it tends to be a bit of a wash. Trying to shoot something up high can get a bit tricky, but things that are nearer your level tend to take hits as if the auto-aim is on. In one instance, I tried to kill the clubbers while sparing the women dancing in the glass tubes. Didn’t happen. They died as well, and the police finished me off after expending an exorbitant amount of ammo from a catwalk near the ceiling. I did finally figure out how to get them, but not before there were enough of them up there to assure my demise. I want to know where they got that many cops, if we’re being honest…
I digress. The game at its current $4.20 isn’t a bad deal for those who want to play the flattened lovechild of Hatred and Duke Nuke’em Forever, but it won’t be for everyone. I’ll rate this one a Quit, if only because the controls weren’t immediately obvious. I’m not a huge fan, but the drug joke in the price tag and the overall attempt at other humor keeps it out of the “Ragequit” category. there are people out there who will love it, and more power to them.
Me, I’ll go back to snarking at the odd bargain-basement horror game. A+ for effort, D for narrative. Until next time…
RATING:
(click on the image to see the rating explanation)
