Steel Rats... Reviewed!

If you are a fan of motorcycle games like... Trials, then Steel Rats is the game for you (trust me). It gives you that stunt bike type of experience packed into one awesome badass sci-fi adventure that I'd love to see made into a film. You're part of this motorcycle gang called the Steel Rats, taking on robots in this full-throttled platformer. I can even call it a sort of... beat em' up on wheels.

One thing I really appreciate in this game is the fact that they could have gone the route of a stunt bike racing game or the direction of a Road Rash clone, but... they didn't. Thank you thank you. Road Rash was fun, but what they did with this game just makes it worthy of being part of a gaming library that's chock full of variety.

I won't say the Road Rash route wouldn't have done well, and they can even add on a stunt mode of sorts if they choose to in this game, but they went outside the box in Steel Rats. Yes, you can jump ramps, do tricks, and all that good stuff... to boost your score in each level (been there done that), but you're doing so on a fun adventure. You're going somewhere... while dodging the beams of killer robots, avoiding on-coming trains, racing to avoid rolling bots, unloading bullets into death machines, and using your many abilities with your bikes to take down these bots. I went through all that in the Prolog.

You start off playing with one member of the Steel Rats (Toshi), but... you can unlock each member of the gang as you proceed, along with outfits, perks, charge attacks, ultimate attacks, and secrets. The animations and power-ups are impressive, even if it gets a bit hectic and I forget to use some of the tools in my arsenal.

Visually this game reminds me of something Avalanche Studios would develop... based on the charming detail. Animations are also clean and... even if there's not much to a bike turning around, I find myself enjoying that every time I play. The gameplay is smooth, and that small thing of turning around in certain areas is a Godsend when you have a little problem like a... GIGANTIC bot coming after you. I wasn't riding down ramps in this case, I was jumping over railings and spinning my motorcycle mid-air to get the hell outta dodge. So once you get adjusted to playing, you will be able to figure out the best methods and character for you.

Based on how often you die in the game... you will have to switch to the other available bikers. If you have one available, you can continue with that biker, if you have 2 remaining... you can use them (you get the idea).

TIP: Since you can switch between bikers in-game... I recommend switching to a biker with full health if one of your other bikers has lost their health and is close to dying. I say this because it saves the life of the other character.... and when you reach a fuel station, you can replenish everyone.

I noticed that I was facing quite a few of the same enemies in Steel Rats, but they get a pass based on how they did it. You have the base enemy that you deal with throughout the game (your basic minions), but others are introduced periodically... almost like mini bosses. After the introduction... you see these stronger enemies here and there... just not as often as the minion, but they mix it up well and there are enough for it not to deliver the feel of repetition. They're bots, so they're going to be replicated, but... they also made the locations different, they don't feel... recycled.

You have multiple cities to venture through, and it's not just one location for each city. The prolog begin in Olbarrow... which had 7 Districts, Halcyon Isle has 6 Districts, LakePort has 6 Districts, WarrensGate has 5, and Felyards has 4. So you have lots of wheeling to do. These locations are broke up into 6 chapters. The Prolog, Chapters 1 - 4, and the Epilog... which come with their own hand-drawn cutscenes.

In terms of the audio, you aren't missing out on anything here. You get nice clean sound from the chainsaw tires that slice through bots, and cars, to the beautiful sound of a shotgun clearing the crowd of metal programmed to do you in. I've been back and forth just looking at the animations, audio + visuals and... the dev team made one solid game (top to bottom).

The replay value is sweet in this game. In-game you can collect "Junk" to be used for Upgrades and Skins for your gang, which is one cog in the replay value bot... but that's not all. You also get the Secrets, which clearly you will have to search to find in each level (that sends replay value soaring), but you also have the Level Objectives like scoring a certain amount, completing it in a certain time, pulling off a certain type of move, or destroying a certain type of bot. I'm still not done... you also have 46 Accomplishments to go after in this game, and last but not least... you have Leaderboards. So if you want a game to spend some serious time in... this will surely deliver.

I still don't know how Dirty Harry got 50,500 out of the very first level... but I'm willing to see if I can surpass that. SDGT Ent is currently at Rank #17.

Price wise... Steel Rats roars in at $19.99, which is $5 to $10 below where it could've been placed. Thumbs up for being sensible because... more people can actually purchase a reasonably priced game, which could win over more expensive games if it's just that good. There are some great games at this price, and this is one of em'.

Overall, I think Steel Rats is one bad ass platformer that challenges your skills on a motorcycle through one rubber burning experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. Looks great, sounds good, the fun factor is there and it's priced right.

Fun factor: 4

Visuals: 5

Replay value: 5

Price: 5

"4.75 / 5 Cool Points"

Brought to you by the... Baby Fu Clothing Co!

Road Rage... Reviewed!

Here is a Steam game code for... Brutal Legend: 7EXJ0-DL6XA-NN6BL

I might have road rage if I go for a drive after playing this. Then again, I might just be happy I'm not playing it anymore... so scratch the road rage part.

This review will be a bit different from others because this game just doesn't come off as... complete. Until the time comes (if the time comes) that they actually... fix this game's bugs and even add more to it, a revision will be considered. As of this date and time, this is a fitting review.

What can I say about Road Rage? Hmmm... you can still play the game, but I don't know... it's a frustrating lackluster experience. Please don't approach this game thinking you're about to embark on the remake of Road Rash... or you'll regret it. I tried to get into Road Rage, but the messy layout, the gloomy/visually challenging environment, and bugs... had me (literally) going back and forth to play this game in segments. It reminds of how some people are so difficult to deal with you can only handle them for a short while. It may be the complete opposite for someone else, and if someone is thoroughly enjoying this game... I'm happy for them (because I'm not).

Gameplay by Luis D. Lucha

What initially threw me off about this game... is the lack of a title screen. All it shows is a video loop of a police car flipped over on the side of the road. That wasn't even jazzed up to show you how the cop car got there, which honestly gave off a... demo vibe. Some of you may not be as familiar with demo's at game conventions, but since some games are still being developed... the experience is presented sometimes with the lack of a title screen (with a member of the team standing close by just in case it crashes). That's what this felt like. FYI: You get access to the menu once you're in-game.

What it also felt like was GTA after initially starting a new game and you have your auto-save to start automatically where you left off. Which made me wonder if the game was meant to be a mod for GTA and they just took it a step further and made a stand-alone game. If that's so, I totally applaud them for having the ambition, because some mods or fan remakes waste man hours on projects that get shut down by the IP holders. Then again, man hours also go to waste when games are not completed like they should be.

After that initial race (where an NPC got stuck on the side of the road)... I decided to check out the open world, all the while ignoring that annoying phone pop-up that continues to appear again and again until you get tired of it and accept the call. I rode into an area where I guess I wasn't supposed to be... and the police sirens began to go off, so I thought I was going to be in for a police chase... but that wasn't exactly the case. Don't get me wrong... I saw Swat trucks and cop cars, but I was able to drive by the swat vehicles which seemed to be positioned on every corner to block the way as the cop cars drove around like they were chasing someone else. I was eventually hit and the bike exploded... multiple times, and then I would drop back into the scene and it would happen again until the car moved enough. I was busted after hitting one of those detour street blockers... but it wasn't like an actual pursuit.

The blame could go either way or both ways with certain outcomes... because some publishers rush the development, while others let certain things slide. At the end of the day, thinking of the development cycle, I'm not a total stranger. If you only have so much time to get the game done... sacrifice the unnecessaries to ensure that the focus can go towards a stable product. That's important because the game isn't free.

The music's okay, but the in-game sounds are pretty generic to me... so I didn't really notice anything to appreciate (audio quality-wise). I didn't even use the headphones because the explosion sound isn't something I wanted to hear up close. If you are stuck in an area where your bike continues to go... KA-BOOM (shout out to RkRk)... you will know what I'm talking about. It's not pretty.

Although the open world really isn't something that I really care about in this game... I'm glad they put it in there to a degree to break things up, but something else came to mind. If they did a mission-driven game that took you from one scenario to the next, it may have been better... because then they could've focused on the adventure. There is plenty of dialogue, so that would've been a nice, in theory.

There are upgrades you can make to your bike so that it handles somewhat better, a variety of characters, weapons, and motorcycles to choose from also. You can even customize your bike which is a nice touch also. This doesn't make the game, but I didn't mind spending some time on this menu.

The price point is easily... $10 to $15 off the mark. It's not even me trying to argue a sweet spot. I'm saying for what its worth, that would decrease buyers remorse. This game still has the potential to be patched and given some other appealing updates... but it's up to the decision makers. Especially if they want maximum sales because right now... it's just a frustrating experience to me. There is plenty of that to experience... as you take on 42 missions and 56 side missions ranging from escorting, time trials, delivery jobs, etc.

Fun factor: 1

Visually: 1

Replay value: 5

Price: 2

"2.25 / 5 Cool Points"

Brought to you by the... Baby Fu Clothing Co.!