Prodeus PS4 Review

 

Prodeus is a retro-styled FPS game was released digitally on September 2022, and later physically in April 2023. It was released on PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC, which was developed by Bounding Box Software and published by Humble Games.

Back in the days of 90's era when FPS became one of the landmark of video game genres thanks to various of classics like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are credited for pioneering the genres, while later ones like Quake, Unreal, Goldeneye 007, and Halo had took the FPS genres into a next level gaming with the 3D route and multiplayer matches that became very popular among with the FPS communities.

As in todays generation, it spawned with many successful FPS like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Apex Legends, and Overwatch had the most played online multiplayer titles which these became a key thing for many professional gamers and fan communities does participate competitions like esports events stuff where you need to compete against the remaining opponent in able to reach a high-tier to become a no.1 champion, so that was totally cool video game tournaments going on.

Going back to the classic stuff that's where I grew up playing the most like Doom for example: what makes it so interesting with this game are the fan communities related stuff like WADs and mods which can be found and downloaded on the fan-sites and forums.

This will give you access to play custom levels, adding enhanced in-game engine, and lot of cool stuff that you never seen it anything so awesome which is why I've discovered Brutal Doom, created by SgtMarkIV, which is a gorefested form of original classic Doom featuring body dismemberment where you can rip and tear them apart in pieces, blood-splattered everywhere, enhanced combat system with new weapons and glory kill animations, re-creating in-game graphics, and so many brutal stuff which many calling it the greatest video game mods ever created.

The gory elements from Brutal Doom was later featured for Id Software's successful reboot titles like Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal which garnered critical acclaim reception by many critics and fans hailed these games for recapturing the spirit of the classic Doom games and FPS of 90's era.

Okay enough with the history for now because I am here to review the game, so I've seen several of indie game developers had began to experiment their own FPS title that was inspired by classic 90's FPS games.

Stuff like Project Warlock, Amid Evil, Ion Fury, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, Dusk, and Graven, but there's one of the game that caught my interest was Prodeus which is a FPS game that combines the mixture of classic and modern Doom titles that I really wanted to play one of these on my PS4 console, so I have finally did played the game and does it captures the faithfulness of the Doom-Style shooters? well it's basically a Doom eternal in retro-style form, yes I'm not kidding and that's a good thing.

It's one of the indie FPS game that trying to recapture the style of both retro and modern shooters which I finding it quite an experimental idea because I'd like to see if these experiments went really well executed with this game or is it not the right game that we'd expecting, so I will cover the goods and bads to see if this FPS game are worth your time to play it on both PCs and console platforms.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

To tell you the truth, the game does not have introductory opening scene nor the main plot of the game itself, so you're basically taking an role of a corrupted agent of Prodeus went on his way to battle against his creator and every opponent, so that all it is which is kinda bit disappointing for those who wanted to know what are the main plot summary of the whole part of the game, and also we do not know what the protagonist looked like in the game, except his face on the HUD screen.

Unlike Doom franchise which we learned all about the space marine known as Doomguy or Doom Slayer went on the mission in planet Mars or some takes place in hell to fight out against hordes of demons and the undead in order to save planet Earth from an apocalyptic invasion, so these small story from the classic Doom games was present in the manuals rather than the games, while the reboot had actual small opening cutscene which came really useful for the series itself, and also we considered the appearances of Doomguy or Doom Slayer as the main badass silent protagonist that we love from the Doom franchise, so this is how you introduce the game to the audience.

Prodeus in other hand did not had an opening scene and protagonist's appearance which is kinda rather odd for not knowing what it's all about.

Despite the lack of both opening scene and small plot, the presentation settings in entire maps are actually pretty good which brings closer to Doom franchise in terms of level environments and enemy's design just really nails the appeals. 

Stuff like the levels such as Research are more of hellish looking facility rooms with lava pits, Fuel is basically an space station with big corridors and some computer stuffs going on, Hazard had a large portion of green acids from the outside, Atonement grant you into a portal of floating rocks and blue planet, Trench has futuristic looking landmarks everywhere, and Frost has cold looking surfaces settings all over places.

I really liked how they made these level concepts are so close to the classic Doom games with similar looking scenery and environments had a great mixture of sci-fi facility themes and dark medieval style of atmospheres is what I liked about the game. 

The game also had a awesome numbers of enemies such as Fiend is basically an imp throws the fireball projectile, Zombie that welds with shotgun, Bloater can spit out a lava projectile, Lunger is a two-horned creature can run up into you and bite you in pieces, Void Reaper is a giant bug that can float around and spits out skull fish at you, Cryomancer is a icy prodeans can unleash a homing icy projectile across the ground, and of course Slayer comes with extended arm bones shoots a wall of fire.

These monsters are certainly a cool looking creatures which I find them quite an hard horrifying son of b***h but also an amazing enemies in any of FPS games. 

Overall, an lack of both opening scene and small plot are sure disappointing, but also shares with good level settings and awesome enemy's concepts.

Gameplay

You will have the overworld level map, similar to Nintendo's Super Mario World, where you get to select any of levels you want to choose, but you can also re-visit the previous level for later to achieve the 100% completion including kills, secrets, and deaths.

     

Like from Doom series, you take control of the player in first-person perspective as your main goal is to reach at the finishing exit, so in order to do that you must explore throughout the levels to fight out remaining enemies, collecting keys to unlock doors, and solving some small puzzles to enter into the new area.

Pushing the left stick to move player around, while the right stick uses for aim turning. Pressing the cross button to make player jump, pressing the right trigger button to fire weapon, while pressing the left trigger does a alternative action like targeting aim or secondary weapon attack.

To keep you in mind, the game does have an configuration options which I had to re-configure the controls to match my playstyle rather than using the default, so I've replaced the use button with the circle instead of square to open doors or activate switches, the reload button are mapped with square instead of circle to replenish the weapon bullets, the sprint button used for running is much easier to hold on the left shoulder button rather than the left thumbstick button is due to lacking the toggle option, the dash button allows you to dash forward through the platforming obstacles is on the right shoulder button instead of the right thumbstick button, the weapon cycle menu button lets you select any available weapon to use which is now triangle instead of left or right shoulder button, or you can also quickly change the weapon by hitting with the d-pad button as well, and finally I've removed the automap button from the triangle button which you can access the map inventory through the pause menu instead, so this will help you navigate through the levels such as your pinpoint, items, and etc.

You will gain a new weapons and abilities by purchasing through the shop, if you collected enough gold ores which can be found hidden in any of each levels.

Stuff like Shredders which is the sub-machine guns, Minigun which fires a barrage of bullets, Super Shotgun which fires a four barrelled shells, Rocket Launcher shoots out a rocket which will explode while secondary will manually detonate the rocket, Grenade Launcher shoots out grenade which will bounce off surfaces and explode while secondary uses as sticky grenades which sticking to whatever it hit, Plasma Rifle fires out rapid projectiles while secondary will shoot a homing beacon cause all further projectiles to home in on the beacon's position, and Chaos Caster shoots out a firey blob of substance in a constant spew while secondary can be charged up to fire a ball of the substance. 

You will also gain abilities such as double jump and dash which allows you to jump higher and being able to reach through into a long platforming distance.

So far, the combat system in the game are incredibly fun to use especially on most of the boomer shooters always gives us a really cool weapons with unique mods just works really great in this game.

Having a Minigun just shreds the f**k out with packs of heavy bullets, the Rocket Launcher uses to detonate a rocket deals with wide-range of exploding damage, Grenade Launcher just sticks the grenade into the enemies till it blown off in pieces, and Chaos Caster just melts everyone to death is what I've liked about having a weapon that gives an advantage to damage whatever the big and small enemies you shooting at them in each levels.

I also like exploring around the areas to find the hidden secrets, collecting keys to unlock doors, solving puzzles segments like activating stuff to open up a new areas, doing a platforming start from low to high or high to low platforms, and of course killing many enemies as possible in order to get a 100% completion or high-scores in each levels which is why it makes me keep playing the game all day and night. 

While the single-player campaign offers many great action-packed levels, I also find the community map are actually cool too because its a level editing stuff where you get to play any of custom fan-made map, so stuff like they made a levels based off a classic FPS games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and you name it.

You can also participate the level editor software tool on PCs which allows users to create and share your own kinds of levels or campaigns.

These are the main highlight part of the game that people can able to enjoy playing the custom maps on their PCs and consoles. 

I also heard many positive things about the online multiplayer where you can team up or go head to head with the variety of multiplayer modes, so stuff like 4-player co-op campaign, 16-player competitive matches such as free for all or team deathmatch, and capture the flag is what made the arena FPS so recognisable back in the 90's era.

It's kinda bummer that they didn't include the offline split-screen mode for both PCs and consoles because I'm used too playing the old-fashioned way like I wanted to play with my siblings or cousins in the local couch multiplayer being in the same room, as well as having to blast against bunch of A.Is bots which is my huge reason to prefer playing the game offline, so don't get me wrong it's just my silly opinion because I'm pretty sure they will consider adding the offline split-screen mode if they had a enough time to do it in the future. 

Overall, it has incredible combat gameplay, great action-packed campaign, fun online multiplayer, and cool community maps.  

Graphics

The graphics are looking pretty solid which they combined a mixture of retro-pixeled and modern style visuals.

The environments are all in 3D with heavy-looking textures, bold surfaces areas, and sharp mapping system are sure looked quite amazing entirely, and I also liked the draw-distance size of the levels that are huge and wide-open just adds the appealing.

I also liked the use of dynamic lighting system that are glowing and shady just looked so good in the levels, and the special effects are quite as bold on surfaces like green acids, hot lavas, and icey water in some levels.

The visuals does gives you an option to change settings like from 360p to native resolution, so I've preferred set to native because this will make the visuals look crisp and detailed where as the 360p are more of the old-school looking which is fine for big time retro fans who much preferred it for nostalgic reasons.

Same goes with the sprite animations which gives you an option to change it to 2D sprite design like from Doom or go on full 3D like Quake. 

You can customise your HUD settings for suitable screen layouts like your health and ammunition screen, and of course the field of view.

You got to love the gory system in this game where you blow these enemies in pieces with many particles stuff and remaining body dismemberment gibs scattered on the floors, and blood splattered everywhere is just looks so incredibly hardcore.

I had to admit the PCs, PS5, and XSX/S had better use of frame-rates and performances all the way, where as the PS4, XBONE, and Switch does share a decent things in single-player campaign with no problem, but except you may encounter with bit of slow downs in some community maps which may be not as smoother compared with PCs, PS5 and XSX/S counterpart works just better overall.

Overall, it has amazing environmental design, old-school visual style, and gruesome gore system. 

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack is just as f***ing epic like any of FPS titles, as it featuring a mix of heavy metal and industrial music similar to Doom Eternal which you may know it was composed by Andrew Hulshult was behind his works on creating soundtrack for Brutal Doom, Dusk, Amid Evil, and of course the DLCs campaign expansion for Doom Eternal.

These soundtrack starts off bit settled synth when no ones around in the level yet until the kickass music starts kicking in with shredded riffs and chaotic drums when the enemies showed up for action just adds the game's badassery that makes you want to give them a good beating the shit out.

The MIDIs soundtrack was handled by James Paddock which you may know he has composed for several of Doom WADs stuff such as SIGIL, Plutonia 2, Speed of Doom, and among any others, so he also did a cracking job of creating a MIDI style soundtrack which does reminds me of the old days of PC gaming that uses the MIDI sound driver for Win 95 or 98.

The use of the sound effects are just pretty awesome with booming gun noises, explosive environmental sounds, and the monsters just growling and hissing all over the places are just as spectacular for its overall sound design.

Overall, it has epic full-metal soundtrack and spectacular sound environments. 

 

Special Features

I did mentioned the community workshop are also quite top-notch where you can able to create and share levels with the level editing tools for PCs, where as you can also play the custom level on both PCs and consoles which adds the best part of the game.

For those who owns the physical PS4 copy will have a free upgradable PS5 version are sure the nice bonus for PS4 owners may consider upgrading the game to the PS5 console.

Overall, an splendid editions including community workshop and free upgradable PS5 version.

Advantages

Good level settings

Incredible combat gameplay

Great action-packed campaign 

Cool community maps

Fun online multiplayer

Solid visual design

Epic full-metal soundtrack 

Disadvantages

No opening cutscene and protagonist appearance

Missing offline split-screen modes

Final Verdict

Presentation 5/10 - an lack of both opening scene and small plot are sure disappointing, but also shares with good level settings and awesome enemy's concepts.

Gameplay 8/10 - incredible combat gameplay, great action-packed campaign, fun online multiplayer, and cool community maps.

Graphics 8/10 - amazing environmental design, old-school visual style, and gruesome gore system.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic full-metal soundtrack and spectacular sound environments.

Special Features 8/10 - has community workshop and free upgradable PS5 version included on PS4 physical copy.

Overall 8/10 - Like any of great indie boomer shooters like Ion Fury and Project Warlock as an example, Prodeus does a job well done for its retro-inspired visual artform, the mix-style of classic and modern combat gameplay, over-the-top gorefest system, and shares with intense single-player action, fun arena-style online matches, and cool community workshop is what made the game quite solid to play. 

I am happy with the results turned out to be a quite success even though it didn't have a split-screen modes which should have been included in the game, so I am hoping that they will consider adding the offline multiplayer mode and hopefully they will look into making another new campaign in near future.      

You can get it physically for PS4, PS5, and Switch for £25 or more, while the digital releases on all platforms are slight bit cheaper for £20. You can also get it on the Xbox Game Pass subscription as well that made the game worth to play it on Xbox console platforms. 

That being said, this is definite a must play for the hardcore retro-FPS veterans out there, so get your pair of arsenals geared up and ready to kick some ass for action-packed gorefest shooter.

    

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Signalis PS4 Review

 

Signalis is a indie survival horror game was released in 2022 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by rose-engine and both published by Humble Games and Playism.

Growing up with the likes of classic horror games that was a huge thing for gaming in the 90s, so stuff like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, and Clock Tower are the major examples of creating the new style of genre known as survival horror, a term where it heavily focuses on survival aspects rather than relying more on the combat.

It involve puzzle-solving segments, revealing dark secrets, organising your inventories stuff like keys and items, avoiding many monsters as possible, and finding way to escape from nightmare is what made the genre quite interesting to play. 

I also adored the modern horror titles like Outlast, SOMA, and Amnesia: Dark Descent are just took the genre into the next level scares thanks to numerous of horrifying chase sequences, unexpected jumpscares, and much disturbing gorefest design elements which really adds the gruesome moments that will make your body shivers as you play the horror game during the night time.

There's one of the game that I totally forgot about it since I've watched the game's trailer a long ago where I was normally visit on some of the gaming sites, as well as watching some YouTube gaming channel that talks about indie related stuff. I haven't had remembered the game quite a while, until a year after the game's release I saw it again as a reminder where I began to browse on online store like Ebay and Amazon had the list of the "suggested for you" item, so this is where I found Signalis.

It is a indie game which heavily focuses on the classic roots of survival horror genre that we know back in the old days of gaming, and also the horror presentation was influenced by the likes of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch helped the game's narrative themes itself, while the art direction pulls the inspiration from the 5th Gen's graphics particularly from the PS1 console. 

Can this game really be good recommendation for classic horror fans? so this is why I am here to review this title to uncover all the pros and cons that the game had to offer.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game takes place in an unidentified planetary system that is ruled by the totalitarian Nation of Eusan which remains at war with a larger empire that it broke away from.

It employs androids known as Replikas made with copied human neural imprints as the bulk of its military and labor force, but unfortunately the neural imprints can lead to harm Replikas which causing them to destabilize and cease functionating. 

The story at the very beginning of the game is somewhat sounds strange at first until when you continue to progress further more in the game gets pretty interesting, so it involve a specialist Replika technician named Elster sent out to parts unknown to find new worlds for humanity to colonise, but unfortunately the mission is quickly cut short due to the ship crash-landing on a remote snow-covered planet which is why she went off the ship in search for her missing partner named Ariane.

She stumbles into a metaphorical and hellish places of mining facility filled with emptiness spaces, dark settings, and dead bodies everywhere, as she's gathers the information from the documents or small remaining of people who worked in the abandoned facility to uncover the secrets relating to viral outbreak where it turns people into a monstrous creatures.       

The main plot of the game is very well done because as you continue to go further more throughout the game to uncover a backstory behind the war, labor, and corruption had been written into documents or diaries is what I finding it quite interesting to know why these experiment causing to harm people minds.

Elster does sure looks like one of a female protagonist from Ghost in the Shell which I really liked her character design concept, as you can tell her robotic suit design are quite similar which I finding it quite cool with black and red colours with it.

Ariane which I believe Elster and her partner had been knowing two together for long time which is why she went on the quest to find her that been missing off from the ship.

The main things that matters in the game is the presentation design itself because I find the darker tone of settings are heavily inspired by the likes of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch in terms of psychological themes that gathers around between the narrative and sequences which depicts many weird illusion and dark atmospheres where you see the environmental facility changes from abandoned wracked places to internal organs rooms scattered around, and there are a dreamlike nightmarish cutscenes filled with disturbing parts of settings which adds the game's creepiness that made the player losing their sanity when seeing a stuff like this that are really a f***ed up. 

I also liked the design of the creatures that are looked quite terrifying in entire rooms and floors, so stuff like EULR armed with knives, ARAR formed with sports inflated arms, KLBR will scream out loud causes to block your vision, STAR armed with baton and shield, MNHR fires with big huge flare gun, STCR are tall but also strong, and Chimera bundled with cage with multiple of arms and legs are similar to most of the H.P Lovecraft's creatures which I consider these monsters as just frightening as any of horror games. 

Overall, it has darker psychological presentation themes and very well done plot.

Gameplay

You take control of Elster in third-person view with top-down perspective rather than the traditional fixed-camera angle like from classic Resident Evil games, as you must complete several of puzzles to obtain many key items that leads you to the next floor. 

In gameplay, you'll move the player by pushing the left stick button to walk, while holding the right trigger or circle button to run around the areas, and you can pick-up objects and interact stuff like opening doors and turn on switches by pressing the cross button. 

Pressing the square button to access inventory, so you will have inventory screen where you can only hold up to 6 items including weapons, ammo, and key items. Pressing the triangle button to access map, so you will have a map inventory where you can able to navigate the locations whereabouts such as undiscovered areas and locked rooms. 

For combat play, you'll hold left trigger button to ready for aim while pushing the right stick to target aim till the hit-boxes indicates red-square, then pressing right trigger or cross button to fire weapon at enemies, but you can also perform quick stun at the enemies in close-range by hitting with the left shoulder button if you had one of the stun item added in your inventory.

When one of the enemy is still on the floor paralysed, you can also finish them off by stomping them with the cross button, but these enemies are undeaded which are likely to resurrect soon after 4 or 5 visits of same location, so be really careful with these. 

You can reload your weapon by hitting with the right shoulder button if one of your weapon had ran out the ammo, so be very cautious with using the ammunition otherwise you'll lose it very quickly because remember this isn't about killing many creatures, instead you had to defend yourself for survival in order to save plenty often unless use it when its necessary if you had no other choices.

Like from classic Resident Evil games, there are safe rooms that allow player to save progress, as well as store their items for future use.

The horror aspects are heavily focused on puzzle elements which switches into a first-person point and click mechanics which allows you to interact stuff like objects or stuff that involves manipulating switches and dials to unlock stuff like new path and key items. There are an radio-puzzle part in the area where you start searching for the certain frequencies to broadcast in Elster's radio implant can be accessed through the inventory menu which allows you to change any frequencies number to detect available stations to reveal the password and matching the correct biometric sounds.

I did mentioned earlier in presentation about gathering information from the documents and diaries which are also contains stuff that gives you a clues on the exploration and puzzle-solving can be found in any of rooms.

You will also entered into a first-person perspective where you will uncover the disturbing imagery of nightmarish event which is basically a 5 mins roaming of simplified walking simulator stuff with lot of creepy stuff going on throughout the part.

So far, the game just plays really great which I am really impressed with the game's design elements that are reliant on survival aspects including the stuff that I've mentioned above.

As I grew up playing the classic horror games, I like roaming around the corridors, rooms, and floors where I need to find a way out of these nightmarish places that filled with numerous of encounters nearby and had to sort out the puzzles to obtain key items that leads to new path is what made me kept playing until at very end.

I'm sure the exploration are the good thing which encourages me to gather much of the useful items like ammo and health can be stored into safe room's storage box, but sometimes the backtracking can be bit a pain in the ass because you had to go all the way back to safe room to grab stuff what you needed, except the documents for clues and info which can be recorded into your inventory's memo list which is helping because you didn't had to backtrack all the way to the same room you had discovered because all the clues and info you had read before are still in your inventory's memo list which can be accessed by hitting the touchpad button.

I also wanted to point out the limited six items in the inventory screen are rather too short which makes it even frustrating when you aren't able to grab important items that you needed like most of the key items for use in puzzle-solving and unlocking doors, so try not to grab something too much otherwise you won't have a space for the future key item throughout the game.

Speaking of puzzle-solving, I did had fun with stuff like ultrasound lock picking mechanics, shifting the reservoir drainage system, changing incinerator settings of co2 and gas power, linking up correct nodes on blank keycard from computer's printing machine, cracking codes for symbol lock and wall safe, powering up fuse box, and broadcasting the antenna signals which I got to say it's a well executed part of the game that does the job just right.

The controls feels smooth and responsive thanks to game's configuration gives you an option to customise your playstyle such as modern controls are basically 360 degree movement which you can freely move the player in multiple direction, where as the classic tank control are just plays like from classic Resident Evil games with rotations and forwards/backwards.

It worked precisely better with the modern controls configuration because these right stick control feels very precisive to aim things with no signs of delays which means that I can able to point at in different direction while I can able to strafe around with the left stick control, as opposed to classic style configuration where you just stood there aiming with no strafing movement makes it not suitable for the newcomers that didn't experienced the classic horror games from the past.

I also wanted to praise the great balance of survival and combat system because you have a choice whether if you want to skip through the areas without fighting the enemies back just for saving up some ammunition and health packs or fight them if you think its necessary to do it with no choice whatsoever which could lead you wasting all your two important things, and also the game does involve the stealth part where you had to go sneak past through the corridors without alerting the enemies nearby depending on how good these enemy A.Is could react things like player's footstep noises or if the player are get too close to them just works incredibly well.      

     

The game also shares with multiple endings depending on how you play and progressed throughout the campaign which based on player performance such as the number of enemies killed and time spent exploring the mysterious base will show different outcomes in this game adding a significant overall of  replay values which makes it even worth to play the game again to reveal different kinds of ending that you'd like to see in the game, so this is pretty good indeed.  

Overall, it has well executed puzzle-solving, responsive controls, and great balance of survival and combat system.

            

Graphics

As the indie game standards, the art visuals are looking spectacular with the mix of anime-drawn technique and old-school pixeled-style design felt like it really close to the PS1 era in terms of heavy and rough environmental areas with few numbers of lighting and shades effects are just really adds the game's darker atmosphere, and I also liked the way the enemy's design tends to be a blocky figure just like you normally see it from the PS1 horror games where all the character's animation are all in flat-shaded which in fact this adds up a creepiness when they walk slowly or run towards at you really proves that the game are in fact terrifying.

The game does have the use of special effects such as the film grain and CRT filters that changes the texture images to appear as blured and grainy details which I normally switched off from the option menu because it would make the game a bit grouchy to play as it made it too difficult to see things.

So far, I'm really happy with the visuals choices they featured in this game just adds the appeal to the classic horror fans.

Overall, it has spectacular art visuals, darker atmosphere effects, and creepy enemy's design.

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack which I consider it as well executed with some chilled out in it, while the others are the mix of gritty industrial and ambient style noises just screams out Silent Hill everywhere in entire part of the game, yeah it does give us Akira Yamaoka vibes to it. 

It was composed by 1000 eyes and Cicada Sirens did really a solid job of creating a mix of dark and depressive track that adds the game's haunting tone of moodiness, and some others are quite horrifying to listen. 

The sound effects does have dark environmental sound design and screaming voices echoes throughout the floors and corridors are just really creeps out which is why it is well built and done absolutely right that made the genre quite known for its terrifying atmospheres and has distressful surroundings all over the places that made everyone's shivers their skin.

Overall, it has haunting soundtrack, gritty industrial and ambient style noises, and terrifying sound design.

Special Features

Unfortunately there's not any of additional features, so it would have been nice if they added a small mini-game with it just like how Capcom did with the Resident Evil games for battle mode which sadly not any indie game developer had experienced it which is why it's not on this game.

Overall, it just really needs additional features.

Advantages

Darker psychological presentation themes 

Creepy enemy's design

Well executed puzzle-solving 

Great balance of survival and combat system

Has replay values

Spectacular art visuals

Terrifying sound design

Disadvantages

Limited 6 slot in inventory 

Backtracking stuff

Lacks additional features

Final Verdict

Presentation 8.5/10 - darker psychological presentation themes and very well done plot.

Gameplay 8/10 -  well executed puzzle-solving, responsive controls, and great balance of survival and combat system.

Graphics 7.5/10 - spectacular art visuals, darker atmosphere effects, and creepy enemy's design

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - haunting soundtrack, gritty industrial and ambient style noises, and terrifying sound design

Special Features 1/10 - lacks additional features.

Overall 8/10 - I can honestly say that the game does not really disappoint me at all, thankfully because I am glad this indie game title turns out to be a definite love letter to the classic survival horror genres that we grew up playing in the 90's era.

You had a spectacular art direction closer to PS1's era, darker psychological settings with many creepy monsters and disturbing imagery content, solid story development, and great balance of gameplay design shares with combat, puzzles, exploring and survival aspects is what made Signalis an astounding horror title that I did not regret playing it on my PS4 system.

I can't believe it's one of the horror game that took me awhile to remember it again since the year after the game's release, so this is where I had a PS4 copy bought it off from the online store that I am happy to say this is a worthy purchase for my gaming collection, which I really love spent collecting the physical stuff being added to my shelf.     

  

The physical copy for both the PS4 and Switch are worth £25 or less, where as the digital copy for available platforms including PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are slight cheaper just for £16, but you can also access to this game freely on Xbox Game Pass subscription as well.  

For those who loves playing games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill then this game is definitely for you to give it a go because it's a pure solid recommendation for classic survival horror fans will likely to enjoy this type of indie horror title.   

 

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Jitsu Squad PS4 Review

 

Jitsu Squad is a side-scrolling beat-em-ups game released in 2022 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Tanuki Creative Studio and published by ININ Games.

Beat-em-ups is a genre that was a huge thing back in the retro-days of gaming from the 80s and 90s era, so I grew up playing a brawling action titles like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, TMNT 4: Turtles In Time, and of course Battletoads which these types of games was being recognised for its badass playable characters, learning to perform various of skill moves, has 2 or 4-player co-ops, tons of many action-paced levels, and beating the f**k out of these guy's faces is what made these games quite entertaining to play that really defines our childhood gaming back then. 

I also feel appreciated with several of classic arcade beat-em-ups games like X-Men arcade, The Simpsons arcade, Violent Storm, and Ninja Baseball Bat Man are the huge example of being a great titles that never got made for the home console releases such as the 4th gen and 5th gen consoles in mid-90s. 

As in today's gaming, I adored those indie brawling titles like Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge which I considered these two as the best beat-em-ups games of 8th gen console era, where as some obscure stuff like Fight N Rage does a great job of capturing a classic throwback to early 90s beat-em-up games.

So there are one of the beat-em-ups game that I never actually heard of it till I've discovered it from one of the ININ Games's Youtube channel where they made a trailer footage of some random classic games compilations, remasters, and some small indie project stuff which is why I've found Jitsu Squad from last month.

It describes as the flashy and over-the-top beat-em-ups game was been first teased on their twitter page in 2018 where these style of presentation and character's concept were inspired by the likes of Saturday morning cartoons from the 80's, and it was made for Kickstarter campaign back in 2020 which had successfully reached the goal of 15,000 euros with over 109,758 euros they had gained supporting their indie project adding the additional content and overall quality development which is why it finally got it released in 2022.  

It was heavily inspired by the early 90's beat-em-up classics which I'm very amazed with the use of incredible sprite animations, tons of non-stop stylish gameplay to learn, and of course the stages filled with action-packed stuff just makes me want to play this which is why I've bought a physical copy off from online store to see if the game turns out to be true after I've saw the trailer footage.

The answer is it's nowhere near close to same level as the Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, but it is also a very good beat-em-up title with many goods and few flaws which I will cover all of these stuff that the game does the right job and there's other things that they could have made it bit better. 

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game starts off with the legendary statue called the kusanagi stone, a hidden stone containing the soul of a powerful demon who can grant godly powers to those who awaken him, until when the evil sorcerer Origami has summoned a hordes of enemies to find the stone for him, as he plans to unleash the deadly power to rule an entire planet or something.

So you're the group of heroic warriors went on the mission to stop the sorcerer Origami from attaining the kusanagi stone before he falls into wrong hands.

There's not whole much of the story wise at the beginning of the opening scenes which took me awhile to figure it out what it is because it's just basically a squad of heroes just trying to prevent the wicked ones from obtaining the stone that contains the dark power that allows him to use it to control all over the world, so that's totally fine for the beat-em-ups perspective to keep it simple.

If you're one of those people wanted to know the character's backgrounds, then this will help you a bit to know their small backstory.

Basically these 4 heroic warriors was human at the start until when the evil Origami releases his curse power that transforming the groups of warriors into an animal form which is why they end up becoming known as the Jitsu Squad after being rescued by Master Ramen.

You'll have 4 of these interesting squads such as Hero Yamagiwa, a shinobi tanuki armed with the shiny sakura katana went on his vengeance quest to find the traitor that betrays his clan. 

Baby O'Hara, a rabbit ninja has ability to throw numerous of projectiles seeking to hunt down the one who murdered her twin sister.

Jazz Amun, an holy priest afro-frog with golden pipe who is skillful and has long serious attitude, and lastly Aros Helgason, a dragon-slaying viking-warthog welding with heavy sword, so these two came to join with squads to fight out against evil. 

There are only one supportive NPC such as master Ramen, an wise-monk owl who encourages the heroic squads to fight out against enemies, as he provides them with the tutorial at the beginning of the game to learn basics moves.

There are numerous cast of villains such as Dash Kobayashi, an albino fox who is former member of Hero's clan was responsible for betraying his former allies becoming Hero's arch-nemesis.

Then you have evil sorcerer Origami, a leader of the Emaki ninja clan seeking to awaken the demon inside the kusanagi stone and unlock's its dark power.

It also shares with bosses such as Balthazar the rhino pirate captain, Raven the sorcerer overlord, Viper the venomous snake-woman, Frost the white tiger, Slayer the bee-woman (AHH WHY THE F**K DO ANYONE HAD TO HAVE MORE GOD DAMN BEE CHARACTERS IN EVERY VIDEO GAMES!!!), and also Shade the shadow assassin dragon-lady.   

  

The presentation design as a whole are quite cool because the way they made these hand-drawn animation techniques kinda gives me a Saturday morning cartoons vibes which I really liked the way the game looked so impressive in terms of characters and settings. 

Each stage comes with different scenery depending on the locations, such as the tutorial stage filled with asian culture structures such as temple houses, bamboos, banzai trees, budda statues, and of course Pandas. Stage 2 are basically an asian streets with bunch of yakuza gangs and police, sushi bar, karaoke, game center, and headquarter building. 

Stage 3 are the tropical places filled with pirate ships, treasures, sands, beach, and cave. Stage 4 has Halloween themed settings with ghosts, pumpkins, zombies, skull and bones, gravestones, crooked house, thin branches, and huge creepy castle.

Stage 5 has mines stuff going around like minecart tracks, train, rocks, and of course lavas and flames.

Stage 6 are sure does have icy and cold structures like glaciers, igloos, snows, and bunch of blue penguins.

Stage 7 takes place in prehistoric themed stuff like bunch of dinosaurs and several of rusty manmade structures.

Lastly Stage 8 are...yeah bunch of gory stuff like monster's internal organs scattered around and some weird gloomy places.

Each of these stages has the mix of colourful and bright, where as others are more of dark and gloomy stuffs which I really liked how they created the stage locations with different settings and design just really adds the appeal.

Overall, it has fair opening scenes, interesting characters, and has cool presentation settings.

Gameplay

The game has the options to choose play solo or local co-op up to  4-players, so you'll be selecting any of these 4 playable squads which each of them shares with different fighting techniques and abilities.

Hero is an balanced fighter uses his katana sword as the close range melee, Baby is a fast-paced ninja has long-range throwing attacks, Jazz uses his skillful of kung fu techniques, and of course Aros are slow but also deals with heavy damage attack.

Pushing the d-pad button or left stick to move the fighter around, while double tapping it in different direction to dash forward or backward. 

You'll start with basic stuffs like tapping the square button to attack the enemies, pressing cross button to jump or double press it to perform double jump or glide through depending which characters you're playing.

Pressing the right shoulder button to pick-up items or even while grabbing with the enemies which you can simply beat them with the square button or throw them away by hitting the right shoulder button.

You can perform parrying on the enemies by hitting on right trigger button which not only just to deflect the enemy's projectiles, but also perform counter attack on them after successfully using the parry in right timing.

Each of the squads will perform different types of special moves which you will unlock those fighting techniques by collecting many scroll moves items, so for example: stuff like Hero's tornado slash wave and slash uppercut, Baby's drill attack and butterfly projectiles, Jazz's spinning attack. Aros's power wave attack and heavy uppercut which each of these moves deals with great amount of damage against the enemies.

You can grab the secondary weapons can be found on blue treasure chests, so each of them will have different types of secondary weapons like Hero's long-range slash and firey blade. Baby's throwing bombs, boomerangs, and shurikens. Jazz's chicken stick, spike-ball, and long-stick blade. 

Aros's machine guns attached with short-range charge blast, 8-ways charge attack, and long-range grappling attack which also deals more damage too, but also drains out secondary meter bar.

You can also perform super special by hitting the circle button allows the player to perform finishing power which instantly kills all the enemies in whole single screen with severe damage, and once your fury meter bar had fully filled up after taking numerous damage from the enemies or bosses you can activate your fury mode by pressing the left shoulder button which makes your characters growing powerful in limited time which means your melee weapon and projectiles increases the hit damage temporary allowing them to perform massive damage attack on the enemies as well as bosses.

You can also access to command move lists at the pause menu to help you learn various of the moves that I've mentioned above or you can also go for the practice through the training mode which helps you to train stuff before you're fully preparing to go for the single or co-op action.

So far, the gameplay style worked really good for most part because the way the controls works just trying to implement the similar mechanics like seen in 2D fighting games like Super Smash Bros and Marvel vs Capcom where you had to perform various of chain combos, special moves, and finishing blow just worked really well in the game.

It's fast, it's responsive, and it's easier to pull off many moves which is why this game is so unique to have these stylish beat-em-ups just adds the game's variation. 

Each of the characters does shares with really cool abilities which you can't go wrong with numerous of wave attacks, charging dash, throwing numerous of projectiles, and other cool stuff going around.

I also liked the crossover assist items like you see Maximilian Dood blasting with hadouken, and Yooka-Laylee keeps on rolling around are sure makes an interesting cameos appearance.

I also wanted to give out the game's credits for having an over-the-top stages filled with 8 to 10 enemies in single screen like most of the classic beat-em-ups games because having numerous of big and small enemies are much easier to gain amount of crazy combos up to more than 300 depending on how faster your character had performed and which any of stages has massive numbers of bad guys in one screen which is why I really liked building up the combo chain system where you had to keep mashing the buttons till you're reached up to higher numbers of combo hits, so the more combo hits you gained the higher your overall score had increased just really benefits your player's experience.

My favourite part of the game is the surf board segment which is a nostalgia throwback to classic TMNT 4: Turtles In Time or Hyperstone Heist, but instead of surfing on the water you're surfing on the hot lava which is pretty insane idea, even these surf board didn't melt, which I finding it quite cool to fight out bad guys in very hot surface stages while surfing.

I got to say I really liked the boss stages because not only these bosses are quite good, but also has crazy strategy where you need to know their patterns like using the parrying in right time to avoid taking damage, evading their heavy projectiles, and finding their weak spot that keeps you fighting more with the bosses until very end.                        

Speaking of craziness, the bosses are also unleashes their fury too because once you keep damaging the bosses multiple times, the more their fury meter goes up allowing the bosses temporary increases their attack power and special in short period of time meaning they can able to take advantage against you which really adds up a game's overall challenge.

While the single-player solo are pretty good, I also got to say I really liked the tag-team mode quite better because this will allow me to switch any of these 4 playable characters in similar fashion to Marvel vs Capcom series, so which means that I can switch any of these playable characters anytime I want too during the gameplay because in solo mode I had annoyance with the enemy fish which I can't able to attack them while they swim under the ground water or lava just always takes forever to come out when every time I moved places until they jump out of the water or lava just slows down the pacing, so thankfully in tag team mode where I can able to switch it to Aros to sort those buggers out makes it easier to eliminate them quite faster which is why I liked the tag team mode quite better in my opinion. 

The local 4-player co-op are also a fun part of the game to have your friends and families joining up with you in couch co-op mode just like in the good old days of retro gaming where these guys inviting you to come over to their house and start playing 2-player mode which is great, but it's kinda shame that this game lacked the online multiplayer co-op mode would have been sound nice to have it because the games like Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge does shares with online co-op mode which really adds the beneficial part of these game, so I wonder why it's completely absent on this game for unknown reason.

That's being said, I've managed to enjoy the entire whole game which I am happy with the results had turned out quite amazing filled with 4 unique characters to play, crazy amount of combos and abilities, action-packed stages, and has the over-the-top bosses just really adds the game's overall fun factor.

Overall, it has solid controls, crazy amount of combos and abilities, action-packed stages, and has the over-the-top bosses.

Graphics

The graphics are genuinely impressive for the indie beat-em-up project because I really loved the hand-drawn visuals for its environmental design that are colourful and smooth, and the texture wise are sure clean and detailed making it the best overall techniques in any of video games.

The game does shares with great use of parallax scrolling on backgrounds, and some special effects that are sure are flashy and shadowy in entire stages.

I also liked the gory parts of the game where most of the enemies get sliced in half, their bodies get exploded with particles, and getting set on fire are just totally gruesome. 

The sprites animation are does sure incredible with the facial expressions and humour looked really great in the game.

Those graphics design really gives me a Saturday morning cartoon vibes like I said it on the presentation side before which is why I finding the visuals looked outstanding.

Overall, it has colourful and smooth environments, great parallax scrolling and special effects, gory stuff, and incredible sprite animation.

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack are the positive highlight of the game which was composed by Sebastien Romero, while featuring the vocalist Johnny Gioeli which you may know he's the lead vocalist of heavy metal bands like Axel Rudi Pell and also being recognisable for video game bands like Crush 40, a group responsible for creating the best songs for SEGA's Sonic The Hedgehog franchise.

These guys did such an fantastic job of creating the best part of the music in this game especially the songs such as "Go! Fight! Jitsu Dreamers!", "Surfing on the Lava", and also "Into the Heart of the Sun" which does really gives me a 3D Sonic games vibes to it which is why I really enjoyed the intensity and energised sounds. 

The sound effects are does have a great use of sound design like the sound of slashing, clinging, shooting, and exploding all over the places just feels right for the beat-em-ups standards, but I also noticed the minor sound effects went really weird with muffled volume when you standing too close to the left or right side of the screen, but it didn't happen the rest of it very much when standing on the centre of the screen sounded absolutely fine, so I don't know if they forgot to fix it or maybe they don't seem to notice after testing the game out, but hopefully they should able to address it in sometime future.    

I also liked the character's voices which seems to be quite acceptable for most part such as Baby sounded like any of fighting game gals, Jazz made really funny Bruce-exploitation yells, and one of the enemy character like emaki with claws screams out with Wolverine's slashing blade are sure sounds pretty decent.

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, great sound design, and decent voice.

Special Features

I also heard that the developers are still working on the extra content development such as they planning out to bring new game plus, survival mode, boss rush mode, new difficulty mode, and hopefully new playable character are likely to be coming right soon in the future.

   

Overall, despite still in development having an future extra content really adds the better overall in-game features.

 

Advantages

Cool presentation settings

Solid controls 

Crazy amount of combos and abilities

Action-packed stages 

Over-the-top bosses

Incredible hand-drawn visuals

Fantastic original music

Disadvantages

Lacks online co-op mode

That bloody enemy fish swims under takes forever

Minor sound effects needs to address 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - fair opening scenes, interesting characters, and has cool presentation settings.  

Gameplay 8.5/10 -  solid controls, crazy amount of combos and abilities, action-packed stages, and has the over-the-top bosses.

Graphics 9/10 -  colourful and smooth environments, great parallax scrolling and special effects, gory stuff, and incredible sprite animation.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - fantastic soundtrack, great sound design, and decent voice. 

Special Features 8/10 - They likely to bring future content to this game such as new game plus, survival mode, boss rush mode, new difficulty mode, and new playable character. 

Overall 8.5/10 - Jitsu Squad is a remarkable beat-em-ups title that does the job right. You have cast of badass squads to take control, has stylish gameplay with insane amount of fast-paced combos and specials, cool hand-drawn visuals like most of the Saturday morning cartoons, rocking tunes makes you pumped for brawling, and of course the action-packed stages filled with 10s of enemies in single screen and epic boss battles are perfect for both single and local co-op mode is what makes the game quite entertaining to play.

Shamefully it didn't have online co-op which is bummer because that would have benefited the game's quality, but it's not the end of the world because I'm pretty sure they will consider adding the online co-op in sometime future.

  

It's one of the indie beat-em-up game that we had completely forgotten about it because it was released in the same year as TMNT: Shredder Revenge which is the reason why nobody had ever heard of this game before which leaves Jitsu Squad becoming an overlooked title that should have deserve the much respect as many beat-em-ups games had to offer.     

The physical copy for console release except Xbox platform should cost about £20 and £25 over, where as the digital release for both PCs and consoles should retail for £25 which you can get it on the digital platforms such as PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam, so I say this is definite buy for beat-em-ups fanatic will likely to give a cool 2D indie brawling title a worth checking out.

  

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