Jamie C
Game provided by publisher.
Publisher: IllFonic Inc.
Developer: IllFonic Inc.
NEW BLOOD TO STUDIO’S PEDIGREE
With licensed multiplayer games under their belt, like Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds, fans eagerly awaited their venture into an original IP and Arcadegeddon, is a worthy addition to their already impressive catalogue.
Delving into the world of this third-person shooter, players can opt for a solo experience or team up in up to 4 player co-op. There is a story but it mainly serves as a mean to justify the hub world. You will meet some cool looking characters and by completing quests you will earn more of their backstory through dialogue.
Set against the backdrop of a futuristic urban landscape, the mighty corporate entity, Fun Fun Co., has been assimilating indie arcades one by one. Standing as the final bastion is Gilly’s Arcade, whose ingenious owner concocts the titular Arcadegeddon – an electrifying game designed to rejuvenate the failing establishment. However, the game’s allure captures the sinister interest of Fun Fun Co., leading them to implant a virus with the intent of total takeover. As the player, alongside a squad of three companions, you’re entrusted with the mission to dive into the game’s virtual realm, confront the adversaries within, and ultimately salvage the arcade from the clutches of this corporate behemoth.
SOLID HANDLING
The controls are similar to what you would find in Fortnite, all the way down to how the bat feels as it makes contact with the enemy. But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it works in the games favour as the controls are solid throughout and even when you eventually die, you can’t blame it on your controller or Mouse and Keyboard.
But is it still fair when you do die? Not always. The seed generated worlds layouts are not to blame here but the enemy placements. There were times when I would be on a good streak and have plenty of ammo moving forward, but I encountered a number of incidents where the enemies piled on me and killed me within a matter of seconds. I would move away, resurrect and deal with my foes only for the random spawns to be right next to me, not giving me a chance to react… but… I can’t bring myself to hate the game, I am in love with it!
GOING SOLO
Most of my play sessions were played alone and to be honest I didn’t care.
These type of horde experiences are played best when you have friends to join in on the chaos, but with challenges to achieve, I never felt I lost out when going at it alone.
But when you get a squad on Discord to co ordinate your moves, you are truly unstoppable.
2001 LIVES
The objectives are structurally sound and when that goal is achieved, you are filled with that addictive sense of completion as you tick each one off the list, albeit with frequent repetition. And with each loop, you will gain XP and money to spend on making your next loop more exciting with more weapons, ability but most importantly fresh drip.
The concurrent need to fight off hordes of enemies during progression ensures an unrelenting sense of alertness. With this game being a seed generated experience, I understand the need to limited these types of tasks. This is to avoid scenarios where the game won’t generate the specific map where a task is impossible to complete, but it still would’ve broken up the repetitiveness to tasks similar to the one you just completed if they just included slightly more variety.
Arcadegeddon presents an art direction that looks like it took inspirations from the 2001 film Osmosis Jones for its characters and visually striking environments and damage/weapon effects. When things get a little busy on screen, the blend of cartoony explosions, paint and environment make the game look visually “noisy” resulting in situations where you forget where you are facing. Despite this however, its not a deal breaker, it’s just the nature of these types of games. It is going to be busy on screen, but with your ever improving skills in multitasking, you will eventually teach yourself when this does happen, backing off will be more rewarding than risking that extra kill.
NETWORK-ISH PERFORMANCE
This game has been out for since July 2021 and today I am reviewing it thanks to its recent release on Steam. It’s had just over 2 years to continue cooking and iron out it’s bugs which was present at its initial launch, according to early adopters of the title. While the game didn’t present any game breaking bugs during my playthroughs, there was still some noticeable dips in performance while playing online. As soon as I switch to Offline mode, these dips were no longer present. In most cases, the culprit to these dips is normally caused by slow internet connections either at my end or those on my team.
However as stated above, most of my online sessions were experienced alone, my firewall permissions set correctly and my connection speeds were remaining at acceptable levels for online gameplay. So, I can only conclude the issue with these dips have to be with the game’s servers or programmed protocols.
Despite minor performance hurdles, “Arcadegeddon” is a pure delight and addictive fun. The game thrives on the satisfaction of executing perfect headshots while juggling multiple tasks, ensuring an exhilarating and memorable gaming experience.
