Recent reviews by Rudedog

This game has to be the best "choice-driven" game to exist.

Not For Broadcast has one of the most unique ways of storytelling. Putting you in the shoes of a broadcast director, controlling the camera feeds, censoring audio, managing power and the commercials that play in between news segments all play a part in driving the narrative. Each activity can leave a lasting impact that can change the direction of how the story will end. There is a sense of "Papers, Please" when the story continues outside of the news station. Consequences that change depending on your dialogue at home and the news that you presented to the public.

The acting and story were all brilliant. Funny, exciting, dark, sad at times, checks all the boxes for a fun 1980's dystopian film to lose yourself in. Kept me engaged throughout the whole game which is what you want from a 50+ GB game filled to the brim with different camera shots of a decently long "movie". Everything seemed to flow elegantly from one segment to the next without any major breaks in immersion (or at least I didn't notice anything). With all of the available choices you get to make throughout the game, there's bound to be plenty of video footage I've never seen from just one playthrough.

Gameplay is intense at times! Throughout the news segments, you are juggling various actions to keep the news focused on people who are talking, censoring words to keep things PG, aligning the frequencies to stop any interference, and sometimes having to care for a different minigame that'll have you even more on your toes. The normal "Broadcaster" difficulty had great pacing in introducing new mechanics and juggling various events going on at the same time. Performing these actions well enough will drive your audience viewership up, giving you a score after each segment.

The only complaint is my inability to focus on the story during the more intense moments of gameplay on normal difficulty, which is not even the game's fault. This is remedied with the Archives Room where you get to playback your broadcast as well as the various camera angles during each segment. You also get the chance to watch all of the commercials you didn't select during that broadcast day.

Excited for the next batch of content!
Crazy Neil For Life!

Incredible fun! Short career mode but tons of challenging maps and AI opponents that can handle themselves pretty well. Destruction and car flipping makes every race interesting. The bonus modes are very barebones but are a nice distraction from frustrating races.

DO. NOT. UPGRADE. TIRES. For some reason it makes your traction WORSE? Makes no sense.

Hell of a game!

Wow. Highly recommend this game.

Story: ~8-9 hours

Pros:
-The Incredible Atmosphere
From up close, it's very much apparent it's a voxel-style indie game. However, looking from afar the scenery changes to this lively neon-lit city that you can easily get lost in. The constant rain and beams of light shining on every streetlight and building sign set the tone so beautifully. The music is very Synthwave. Lots of drowning synth pads and slow rhythms to compliment the moody setting.

- Compelling Story All Throughout
The first mission begins the mystery of the Cloudpunk delivery service and your first steps into exploring the cyberpunk city of Nivalis. You'll meet numerous faces and personalities that will help unravel the history, the good, and the worse of what Nivalis has to offer.

- Tons of NPCs with excellent backstories
This is one of those games that will have you wanting to explore the city just to talk to the variety of personalities that are scattered across Nivalis. Upcoming stars trying to make it big, engineers working in the city, androids, just to name a few. All with great voice acting and fleshed out storylines that you would think they would be sending you off into some wild side quests. It's definitely a contributing factor to continue playing the game after the main story is complete.

- The Flying Is Like No Other
This is more personal preference on how you like your drifting, but the feeling of flying throughout the city's traffic inside the speed lanes, going "off-the-grid" and banking around buildings, even the feeling of landing your vehicle to park incite Blade Runner feelings. It's a mixture of chill rides and fast-paced moments, but ultimate a great experience.

- Your Automata Is Your Best Friend
That is all.

Meh
- Protagonist Takes Time To Gain A Personality
Was having a difficult time wanting to like Rania. She seemed indifferent and the tone of her voice would not match the emotions her character was attempting to drive into the story. About mid-way into the missions was when she picked up her personality a bit and was a much more lively character.

Overall
Worth the $20. Could easily add another 5 hours to just explore the collectibles and talk to other wandering characters.

If you love Hotline Miami, breakneck high-speed ninja slashing, and cyberpunk neon flair, get this.
Incredible pixel art, the MUSIC keeps you going throughout the game, dialogue choices and storytelling is top-tier. Some of the maps can be very challenging with the insta-death mechanic, but none of the maps are too long or too cumbersome with the move-set you have.

Highly recommend this one!

Teared up a bit.

This is how you do Early Access RIGHT! Love this dev, first game was amazing. This one excels in every aspect the first game did and way more now that it's in full 3D. Highly recommend it.

This game consumes me.

The "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ This Ending Better Be Good" game.
.........the ending was good.

Getting CONS out of the way:
Very tedious missions, enemies losing you when you are near their face, pebbles can stop and even damage your vehicle, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ENEMY OUTPOSTS EVERYWHERE, and long destinations making this game a bit longer to finish.

However, PROS:
For a dated game the scenery and the asthetics are gorgeous, really nailed Africa with its trees, landscapes, foliage and roaming animals. Buildings, bridges, and other structures keeps you immersed the entire time. Sound quality surprised me, the ambient animal noises, rain and waterfalls were great to hear. Design aside, the gunplay and constant firefights kept the playthrough very entertaining. JEEPS EVERYWHERE but was fitting. Good variety of weapons allowing you to enjoy a different style of attacking a group of enemies whenever you want (This game is not that well into stealth attacks, more for receiving the upper hand in fights).

Story was great all the way through, lots of lefts and rights keeping you engaged and wanting to progress til the very end.

You can shave off tons of hours on your playthorugh by not completing the extra (blue) missions.

Yea it's good, get it on a sale. Play it. It's fun.

Brawlhalla is going to bring back local multiplayer in a refreshing way that Super Smash Bros has in one way and hasn't in another. The thrill of chaotic brawling between three other players is brought into Steam as a soon-to-be free to play game with the optional microtransations of cosmetic items as well as purchasing in-game coins (there is no system as of yet that allows for awarding coins, which renders the store useless FOR NOW. I have great hopes that this company will be fair with its coin system). Each character has its own unique playstyle much like Smash Bros and the Training Mode is a great place to get a feel for each character and see which you like best. Unlike Smash, each character has their own signature weapons that spawn in the match through the use of "weapon portals" that act much like grabbing an item on the ground. The weapons do not necessarily make your character more powerful. It can be fairly fun to challenge an armed opponent with your bare hands and succeed. However, these weapons do increase the range of your attacks and can be used to create outstanding combos that can lead to some serious beatdowns. The multiplayer is locked at Time Limit Mode for now, but the Couch Play and Single Player tournament allow for stock matches for all you Smash players that prefer lives over time.

All in all, I am fully appreciating the game as is and will continue to support it. I can't wait to see how many more characters, weapons, maps, and other ideas Blue Mammoth Games has in store for Brawlhalla. Great game!!!

When it comes to video games, you need a funny. Battleblock Theater is a funny. A Good funny. Go get it.