DRAWN TO DEATH
Take note of this fold-school arena shooter
Talk about looking sketchy. On paper, it’s probably difficult to see why you should care even one jot about this obnoxious ’90s-style brawler. But you shouldn’t rule out this notebook-set PS Plus title: it’s a pulpy pleasure. And it’s anything but twodimensional. (Okay, I’m done with the paper puns.) Run-andgun online multiplayer-only battles are simple in concept – 2v2 clashes or Deathmatch free-for-alls – but are made deep and dynamic in design.
Each of Drawn To Death’s launch roster of six weirdos boasts unique abilities. Some are mobility-based (robo-vamp Cyborgula’s power of flight) and others are for splitting heads like scribbly melons (animatronic mouse Alan’s chainsaw-lob). A rock-paperscissors mechanic means each ’toon has specific strengths and weaknesses against others. Alan’s melee deals bonus hurt to Diabla Tijuana – but if Johnny Savage smacks her with Devil’s Riff, she’ll absorb it as health. Manic action feels tight: movement around secretstuffed arenas is nicely bouncy, while attacks connect with meaty squelches.
Tactics bleed through to the arsenal, too. Pack your chosen psycho-doodle’s loadout with fast-firing FU-47s, superaccurate sniper rifles named Suzanne, or Uncle Joe – fire his corpse out of a coffin for a one-shot kill, but not before you’ve loaded the thing. Slowly yanking it out of the soil to an organ riff is a dead giveaway. There’s also fun in deciding when to bust out The Hand, a riotously meta, once-a-round deus ex machina.
ORIGAMI KILLER
It’s one of the rare jokes that lands. While the idea of a game set between the pages of a 12-year-old’s notebook is inventive (the art style readable even in hectic firefights), the downside is that 80% of the “comedy” is cringey obscenity with more than a spattering of puerile poo gags. Busty halfshark, half-lady Ninjaw is my fave pick, with her wonderfully snappy grapple-hook and shield-producing aerial backflips – but the repetitive, offensive butchery of her fauxJapanese grates. Earning free Mystery Boxes is too much of a grind, launch modes are samey, and balanced matchmaking in Ranked battles is currently non-existent. All right, the new Overwatch it ain’t – but it’s far from tearable. (Sorry.)
VERDICT
It’s ironic that a game so wilfully, tonally idiotic can be this cleverly designed. A smart, slick, and striking multiplayer curio that’s worth the digital paper it’s printed on. Jen Simpkins