| System: PC, X360, PS3 | Review Rating Legend | |
| Dev: Klei Entertainment | 1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid | 4.0 - 4.4 = Great |
| Pub: Electronic Arts | 2.0 - 2.4 = Poor | 4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy |
| Release: Aug. 24, 2010 | 2.5 - 2.9 = Average | 5.0 = The Best |
| Players: 1-2 | 3.0 - 3.4 = Fair | |
| ESRB Rating: Mature | 3.5 - 3.9 = Good | |
by Adam Brown
When Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films were released in the earlier half of this decade, I couldn’t help but wonder why no one was trying to make a video game based on them. Don’t get me wrong, the films were excellent and we all know how video games based on movies typically turn out, however, they just seemed so perfectly suited to a video game formula.
Take a wronged character bent on revenge, throw in a series of mid-boss type enemies to topple en route to a final showdown against your real adversary, and sprinkle liberally with over-the-top action, violence, and gore. Sounds like a winning formula to me. It also sounds incredibly similar to the newest downloadable title out of EA and Klei Entertainment, Shank.
This game puts you in the shoes of Shank, a man who has been betrayed and left for dead by some evil folks. After recovering, Shank makes it his mission to force all those who wronged him to pay for their misdeeds. However, Shank isn’t exactly a hero, as he is just as much of a killer as those he pursues. In fact, he actually worked for and with them before they decided to try to kill him. As an anti-hero killer, the only way for you to rebalance the scales is to kill your way through thousands of goons, take out those who betrayed you, and finish off the man who gave the order.
The first thing you’ll notice about Shank is just how visually striking the game is. If you are familiar with the Samurai Jack cartoon, you’ll know exactly what to expect from Shank’s look. Whether you are playing the game or watching the game’s animated cutscenes, you’ll swear that Shank looks more like a stylized cartoon than a video game. However, this isn’t a bad thing, as the hand-drawn characters and environments come to life before your eyes thanks to a high level of detail and great animation, making every blood soaked minute of the game visually appealing.
Unfortunately, Shank’s gameplay is rarely as unique and interesting as its visuals. At its core, Shank is a simplistic 2D brawler that has you walking left to right, annihilating countless foes, and completing some platforming in order to proceed. The basics of the combat include a melee attack, a heavy attack, and a firearm attack. With each of these attacks being mapped to their own button, it is possible to string these attacks together in a variety of different ways. However, the order in which you perform these attacks rarely matters, barring the need to fire your gun at advancing enemies to keep them from blindsiding you. In fact, it is quite possible to mash your way through the majority of this game’s fights.
The only time you’ll need to consider a fighting strategy during combat is when facing off against one of the game’s bosses. Actually, strategy is perhaps not the best way of putting it, as these brawls simply involve watching what the boss does and waiting to find its glaring weakness. For example, at one point, you’ll face off against a foe named The Butcher. Sticking with his shtick, he is surrounded by hanging meat and attacks by hurling a chained meat hook at you. In order to defeat this foe, you’ll need to use your guns to shoot the hanging meat. This lowers the massive hunks of protein, leading to The Butcher getting his meat hooks stuck in them and opening the window for Shank to perform a special attack. Then, all you need to do is keep repeating this cycle until The Butcher’s life bar is empty. Every boss fight in Shank plays out similarly, with only the weaknesses and method of exploiting them changing.
Sadly, this kind of mindless repetition is what makes up the majority of the experience in Shank. Whether you are wiping out hundreds of nameless goons or finding another more formidable enemy’s glaring weakness, be prepared to perform the same few attacks countless times. However, the game does attempt to spice combat up a bit by giving you access to new weapons throughout the course of the single-player campaign. You’ll receive a couple new guns and a few new heavy melee weapons to use, although, they don’t do much to change the actual gameplay. Sure, the shotgun is better at close range and has more stopping power than the pistols you start with, but both weapons are essentially interchangeable. The same goes for the unlockable machetes and blades that replace your chainsaw. The animations may be different, but they are still basically the same.
