Whenever I write one of these posts I copy it over to a few subs on reddit and a couple of Facebook groups where I think others might find it of interest.
There’s a very good chance that’s where you’re reading this as, without sharing elsewhere on the internet, I don’t think there’s any way my ‘blogspot’ site would be found by anyone.
Obviously it follows that it’s on these subreddits where I get the most feedback and general comments, for which I sincerely thank you all. For most part these are pretty positive and/or constructive and genuinely feel great to receive.
But I did get called some names, and had some not-so-pleasant comments when I mentioned the obvious, endless, targeted misogyny of Vice City Stories… and there was even a couple of commenters who took umbrage to me confessing that I didn’t enjoy the unrelenting murder of police officers you undertake in Kane and Lynch.
But I bet no one will be bothered when I say I didn’t like having to kill the dogs you encounter in this Shank.
These are not realistic depictions of dogs, and Shank isn’t trying to make a ham-fisted moral statement. These are cartoon dogs, and as the player you kill them because they’re just another enemy type trying to kill you.
It didn’t anger me, or make me sick, or anything like that. But I didn’t like it.
And I bet no-one cares.
Humans are weird. And never weirder than when they’re on the internet.
The only upside is that, unlike a certain, very recent, hugely hyped game, Shank doesn’t indulge in trauma porn by insisting on making the killing of dogs as realistic and unpleasant as possible, so that you feel bad about killing the dogs, while not giving you the option to do anything other than kill the dogs as gruesomely as possible. Which is something… I guess.
Murdering everyone else, in Shank, by the way, is excellent fun!
It’s also a game focussed on combo’s more than you would expect. There are three basic attacks to choose from, (light/heavy/shoot) and these can be mixed at-will to produce long, bloody assault-strings that can drain the entire life bar of smaller enemies.
Add that dodge move into the mix, and it’s easy to see why the Hard mode of this game (I played on normal) doesn’t allow for continues; with enough practice and concentration all the tools are here to be able to play while taking very little damage.
On top of the above moves there are throws and grabs to consider. They’re easy to overlook in the chaos of the moment, but each can be combined with directions and the attack button to produce a variety of results that can be very useful for further control of other assailants.
Finally, you have a stock of grenades, which I nearly forgot to mention because I regularly forget to use them while playing - even though they’re total life-savers at times.
It’s a bloody, violent, affair depicted with trademark Klei style and panache. After a while you’ll be using the tools at hand to juggle, control, avoid, and variously butcher the massed hordes of underworld (criminal, not mythical) hoods that descend upon you with incredibly fluid brutality and flair.
These assailants are also hugely varied and require different techniques to defeat. You may be attacked by one of several giant characters who will initially shrug off your attacks until you’ve worn them down a bit. Gun toting hoods need to be dealt with as a priority, knife wielders often dodge as you would yourself, and speedy ninja types will keep you constantly on your toes.
Shank throws all these different enemies into the mix at once and it’s up to you to figure out how to prioritise and escape unharmed.
In a section I just completed I was beset by a huge guy with a minigun, a huge guy with a flame-thrower, and a huge guy with a grenade launcher all at the same time - along with a slew of smaller, faster chumps. It made me long for a nice square CRT as keeping an eye on both ends of a 60” screen while battling in the middle is quite the task.
Most of time picking out who, or what, needs to be picked off when, and how, is a matter of player skill, but there are occasions when the enemy colour palettes are similar, and the fighting space is small, that it becomes a bit muddled. It’s rare, but it’s frustrating when it occurs.
On the subject of which, Shank moves the sound effects to match your position on screen. It’s a nice idea but didn’t work properly for me on any of the settings my 5.1 system offered. Perhaps it needs to be in stereo? So perhaps it was me, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone else encountered muffled sound when fighting at the extremities of the screen.
I wanted to get to the end of this game before I posted today but I’m out in the garden tending my flock (of chickens) again as I write this so, sadly, it’s not been possible.
But there’s a rudimentary revenge plot to the game, and at least not finishing it yet means I can’t spoil the twist ending that I’m pretty sure is coming.
But I’m going to finish it this weekend, and don’t be surprised when Shank 2 turns up in Gaming the Pandemic day ninety-something because I’m having a great time with this one and I don’t want it to end.
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