Previous days games can be found here. Today's game is...
Ape Out on PC/Switch
Oh. My. Goodness. I actually have chills.This game is PHENOMENAL!
Here's what happened:
I played the first set of levels. I took a breath to write this and to buy this game on my Switch because I got it on PC for free and because jesus christ do these guys ever deserve my money.
And now I'm going back to play some more.
Right. Start again.
I love video games. When video games are done properly and the player feels like they are the final component in someone else's work of art... There is nothing else like it.
It's games like Ape Out that make me wish I were a better writer. I don't think there is any way I can properly convey the excitement, the thrill, the pure joy of playing this game. It's an expertly crafted thing. Ostensibly a top down brawler with a style not unlike Teleglitch; the columns and walls of the architecture reaching up infinitely to provide a stylish way to bring line-of-sight
into play.
The art design is very Saul Bass (if you're not familiar with the name then I'm sure you'll recognise the style) and the music. My god the music. If I were to describe it as 'Percussive Jazz' I'm sure half of you would stop reading but as recogniseable descriptors go it's the best I can do. It accompanies the action so perfectly that it becomes a rhythm game - not overtly so - more in the manor that you can't help but become part of it.
Sound effects add additional percussion literally and conceptually. But I need to take a step back to explain that properly.
You are an ape. You start the game in a cage surrounded by your dead brethren and a guard, and there are two instructions emblazoned on the floor: Left Stick. Right Trigger. I'll spare you what happens immediately after this because it's a beautiful thing to be experienced for yourself - but I pretty much knew after 30 seconds that I was going to love this game.
The game is split into four sets of levels, called albums in keeping with the jazz motif, with each level being a track thereon. In the first of these 'albums' you thunder through a facility of some kind punching armed guards into walls, windows, each other, where they are eviscerated into a pool of blood and loose limbs accompanied by a cymbal clash or a bass drum thump.
Not long into the game another mechanic is revealed. Left Stick Grab. Right stick Aim. From this point you can get hold of an enemy 'human shield' style, in panic they will fire their weapon, only once, but it's enough bring another level of depth to the insane pace of the game.
There are other things that mix up play later on that I'm going to leave you to find for yourself, but suffice to say in what I've played thus far the game has yet to take even a small misstep. It exhibits perfect execution of everything it strives to achieve.
In 1987 I played 'Into The Eagles Next' on my brothers Commodore 128 and a love of top-down games was born. 33 years later I think Ape Out might be best example of this genre I've ever played. Gabe Cuzzillo, take a bow, because this is an amazing example of the focus and vision that auter game development can bring and the pure perfect artistry that is apparently impossible with large teams and, potentially, large budgets.
And it's so much damn fun I can't even quantify.
Ape Out - Go and play it. Now. Right now.
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