Lately the side-scrolling genre has become very popular amongst both gamers and developers, games like Shadow Complex, Braid, Lost in Shadow and Kirby’s Epic Yarn are games that have gotten a lot of attention. Some of these bring something new with them, while others stick with the good old recipe that has been handed down in the family for generations. Shank from Klei Enternainment Inc is nothing revolutionary when it comes to this genre, but it does not follow the recipe to the last dot.
What distinguishes Shank from other games are mostly it’s visuals and the amount of blood and violence the game contains, if you’re a fan of being able to juggle people in the air while their blood falls from the sky like rain on a dreary autumn day, then this game is just up your ally.
It is pleasant surprise that this game also have a story that it follows, it will not win any Oscars with its cliché story. Shank’s girlfriend has been kidnapped and he is the only one who can figure out what has happened to her, the rest of the story is known to everyone. It is how the story is told where the games storytelling surprises the most. While playing thorough levels players will get a cut scenes often at the start and the end of a level, here the plot is set up why Shank is in the given location, who he is after, and when Shank has finishes cutting up dudes in so many pieces that even the amount of Elvis impersonators in Vegas are no match, it often given you a flashback at the end of the level telling the player who its next target it. There are also some “in-game cut-scenes” while the game is played, a small window will pop-up out-of-the-way from where the action is so that the player can both focus on the game and the story that is going on. The quality of the voice acting has a very 80s feel to it that fits with the games overall feel very good, and the game also crams in one or two really dark jokes here and there. It is hard not to smile a little when Shank delivers lines like “I have failed in the eye of god, forgive me father for I am about to sin” and then he pulls guns and leads through the conversions box.
Visually the game looks fantastic. Just forget about 3D with impressive light and shadow effects, here it’s all about good old-fashioned cartoon inspired look, and this look works very well for Shank. The way Shanks animations are link to each other is very fluid, but here is where one of the games big problems come into play. The game prioritizes animations before user-control input, and this can lead to a few frustrating moments. This particular comes into play when you are facing a level boss. In the heat of battle an extra button press has been made and this sends Shank into his next animation sequence, at the same time the boss is charging forward with a powerful attack. Franticly the controller is being pressed from every angle and direction to try to get Shank out of his animation, but to no use. “Mistakes” like these are very game-breaking, especially if a player has chooses the “Hardcore” setting where check pointing is turned off. This often ends with the poor controller flying to the ground and hitting it a force that is not unlike what you see in the game. With that said, if the player is patient enough and learns Shanks animations and combos then this can be avoided, but it will take a few frustrating tries.
Throughout the game Shank will visit several exciting and colorful level that look unique, each of these levels have their own color palette and enemies. The variants in enemies in the game are okay, but some are just visually different from each other. Each enemy will have a given weapon that they are weak against, this brings a small element of tactic into the gameplay. At any given time Shank can have 3 weapons equipped, his shanks, a light attack weapons and a heavy attack weapon. The Light and Heavy weapon can be switched out on the fly with the help of the D-pad, while the shanks are standard and cannot be switched.
The game has a combo system built into it, and let me tell you. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a foe be throw-up into the air and then stay there for a good 15-20 seconds while you just hammer on him/her, all at the same time just watch the blood pour out of the helpless body.
Singleplayer will give you around 2-3 hours of gameplay, depending on what you want to get out of your game time. If you just want to get all the costumes that are available in the game that the game will give you around 1hour more. The game also has local co-op gameplay, but no online play. So if you have no one around you to play with then run out side and grab the first person you see and hand them your extra controller, because this game gets much better with two players. The co-op story is set before the events that in the single-player and you play as Shank and Falcone. There are some interactions with the two characters that the players can do, but to be honest the screen will get so chaotic that you will most likely never use these.
Shank is all in all a good game, but only if you play it in small time spans at a time. Even though it introduces the “X enemy is weaker to Y weapon” it still feels very mashy, replay value is very limited to the costumes that you unlock and some of them you will get by just playing through the game on your first try.