I'm playing Retro City
Rampage, a nostalgic open-world combat parody by Vblank Entertainment.
The game takes its cue from Grand Theft
Auto, mixing in inspired mini-games and plenty of references to
gaming and the 80's and 90's. The story mode is where the main part
of the content is located, with over sixty varied missions that offer
driving, shooting, and more esoteric activities like swimming and
rhythmic exercises (among many others); between missions, you can
taxi people around or play arcade adaptations of popular indie games.
Shops can be used to purchase weapons, alter your appearance, or
upgrade your vehicle. Also included in the story mode (or accessible
from the main menu) are over forty arcade challenges that offer
objective, weapon-specific, and story-based goals with online
leaderboards. There is also a generally pointless free roaming mode
that loses direction without missions to complete. Controls are
terrible: the WASD and arrow keys are used for movement and shooting,
a clear adaptation of a dual-stick system. It does not work well with
needlessly cramped inputs and you cannot change any of the control
settings; using the mouse to shoot would have offered a vast
improvement in this area. Weapons include standard (pistol, shotgun,
submachine gun) and exotic (the proton pack from Ghostbusters)
options, and the vehicles, though occasionally difficult to control,
are varied in their characteristics. You can also find power-ups to
increase running speed or cloak from those pesky police officers. The
game usually has a breakneck pace and offers the next mission in
quick succession, always keeping you busy and wondering what wacky
adventures await. Despite shortcomings in the control scheme, Retro
City Rampage offers a lot of content (for the price), varied
missions, and humorous references to expand upon the classic
open-world formula.
