As a person who played the original flash release extensively - as in bring it out anytime I had access to a computer in primary school, unlocking the joker skin everytime I'd binge it, bring it out whenever I had friends over, and playing it into my senior years of high school from how quick it was to get into it and get enjoyment - I find myself conflicted with how to feel about the sequel. Although the additions of multiplayer and a whole new slew of maps and weapons to use, there are a few additions which I personally think make the game more clunky and tedious to play.

What I loved about the original game was how snappy and fast it was to get into and the choices it had for singleplayer games. Sure there are new mechanics and weapons to spice variety, but jeez it's hard to use a gun now, or melee combat. In the original, all you did was hold the aim/shoot button, aim the reticle up or down with movement keys, and then tap the aim/shoot button to shoot - nice and easy, but now in this game you have to first select the button which corresponds to your weapon (then waiting for an animation of you pulling it out), pressing and holding the aim button, movement keys like usual to aim up and down, then pressing a completely different button to actually shoot. No more dynamic gameplay of beating the enemy down with melee and easily switching to your gun to drop them when they're escaping!

The challenge mode is absolutely abysmal. The difficulty is abhorrent especially when it's 4 weaponed enemies that immediately rush to your position and begin to stunluck you to death. Apart from multiplayer (which I've tried and still enjoyed actually), Stage mode was the highlight of the original game which is now absolutely gutted. I compared the first stage of Deluxe and the Flash version and one I left satisfied from how quick and easy it was for me to defeat while the other was comparable to sticking my arm in a hot waffle iron as I have to keep resetting so I can get a spawn which DOESN'T put me in the middle of 5 angry enemies waiting to wail on me.

The additions of blocking and (reduced) stamina also make the game a drag to play. Instead of rushing down your opponent and simply pummelling them, you now have to do a whole rock paper scissors routine of blocking, grabbing or punching - which mind you, are all separate buttons to now also deal with. The joys of the original game was running around the maps, or running and evading gunfire. Weapons now also come in drop packs which slow the game down even more compared to the original. Instead of running to a weapon that just spawned and immediately getting the satisfaction of a weapon to shred your enemies and even the playing field, you now have to break the box, pray the weapon doesn't go flying (which it often does), and then use a totally NEW BUTTON to equip it. Picture this scenario in the original game: Your enemy has an assault rifle and your running away in warehouse. You climb up the ladder and, while the enemy is still able to shoot you and time is ticking, you make it up to the top where there's a gun waiting for you. You crouch down and punch and bam! You immediately have the option to retaliate. In this game, you have to get up there, break the box, press the newly added "interact" button, switch to your gun, wait for that animation of you pulling it out to finish, press the designated aim button, then press the designated shoot button - but by the time you've done that, the enemy has already probably shot you dead.

I seriously can't get over my disapproval of the new buttons like the DESIGNATED new kick button - why? The original times you'd kick in the original games were when you jump then attack, and when you were on top of an object and pressed the attack button. I don't understand why you have to bloat your control scheme with such an unnecessary button. I genuinely just wish there was an option to condense all of those "new" features which are just old features into their simplified forms.

Now of course it's unfair for me to judge it as a sequel rather than a standalone game - which I will. I think that the game itself is impressive considering it's still getting constant updates especially when the game came out at 2018. I still think the animations and art style is gorgeous, and that the action is incredible. The multiplayer, contrary to other "negative" reviews of this game, is still pretty active depending where you live but you will most likely run into a degenerate sweat who's pumped tens or hundreds of hours into this game already. The single player content is terse and limited to custom battles or challenge battles which just are 4 or more enemies dog piling you.

I'm glad this game made me feel the way I did at least since it made me replay the original and gave me a much more enjoyable time. I'm keeping this game on my library since the devs are seemingly still alive, because I have hope they'll consider an old veteran's gripes.

super heat