Murderous Pursuits – Review
Follow Genre: stealth em up game
Developer: Blazing Griffin
Publisher: Blazing Griffin
Platform: PC
Tested On: PC

Murderous Pursuits – Review

Site Score
7.5
Good: Differentiating
Bad: Always the same
User Score
1.0
(1 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 1.0/10 (1 vote cast)

A year and a half after the release of The Ship: Remasted, the crew of Blazing Griffin comes through with a new game, Murderous Pursuits, a multiplayer stealth-em-up game. It reminds us of their previous games series with enough of a twist to see it as a new game. Set in the Victorian era, it’s either kill or be killed, hunt and be hunted.

Story

The story takes place in a flying, time traveling Victorian-era ship. In the spirit of ‘kill or be killed’, you are given the task to identify and then kill another player while you are being hunted yourself. Not knowing what this player looks like gives the game an extra challenge. Additionally, the ship is boarded with travelers and guards which means you have to act like you’re one of the passengers, not causing any fuss or attracting witnesses. Using your best hiding, sneaking and stalking techniques, you try to overthrow your target before being brought down yourself first. All of this is ordered by the mysterious mask-wearing Mr. X who needs help with his mission. Of course for players of the Ship games this name rings a bell. Mr. X wants to pick out one winner among the assassins, the one with the most Favours and unfortunately the others won’t make it to London. This means that every match your goal is to rank highest. It gives you a challenge each match but it also makes every mission kind of the same.

Graphics

As we said before, the game is set in a Victorian era style which gives the game that little bit of extra. The artwork in Murderous Pursuits reminds a little of another assassination game, Dishonored, yet it still distinguishes itself plenty. The graphics are beautifully done and setting the game in the Victorian era only helps with that. The ship is decorated accordingly.

Sound

The music during the game menu is very promising and gets you even more excited to try out the game. Keeping up this music during the game gives it a fun yet ‘I’m going to get you’ kind of feel.  Occasionally you hear Mr. X talking which makes things more interesting now and then and can even give a humorous twist to the game. Every time you kill or are killed, Mr. X will offer you a nice –or not so nice- comment. Maybe it shouldn’t be every time, but put your hands together for the voice acting.

Gameplay

Murderous Pursuits is a kill-or-be-killed Victorian stealth-em-up. The game can have 1-8 players. If a game doesn’t reach eight players, AIs will step in and show you how it’s done. You can choose out one of eight characters to play as and can be put in various locations on the ship. Put simply: you get a target you have to kill while you are also one or two other people’s target. Meanwhile you are surrounded by lots of NPCs. Since you want to score high points (Favours) for Mr. X, you definitely want to find good weapons. You can find these in boxes around the ship. On the top of your screen, there is a bar that tells you if your enemy is close. If he/she is, then the bar turns green and underneath it will say ‘enemy nearby’. It will also tell you whether your quarry is on the same floor as you, the floor above you or the floor below you. When you know your quarry is close, you have to pay attention to the people around you and figure out who is hunting you, since you don’t know what they look like. You will also be told when someone who is hunting you is nearby; a skull will appear on your screen. You don’t know who is hunting you either so you have to pay attention to who is acting suspicious. You also have to be careful guards don’t catch you.

Paying attention is key in this game. It’s also very important to not get exposed. Killing someone when you’re exposed won’t earn you a lot of points. You can boost your exposure bonus (which can reach a maximum of level 5) by standing in marked places on the map. These will help you fit in with the passengers to make you look less suspicious. You can also employ a maximum of two abilities per match. In total there are five abilities you can choose from; flash, disguise, humiliate, counter and reveal. Using these to kill a quarry will grant you extra points. The player with the highest score at the end of the match gets chosen by Mr. X to further help him in his mission.

Conclusion

The game reminds of Assassin’s Creed multiplayer but better. Murderous Pursuits differentiates itself from other games alike in an interesting way. Instead of using your reflexes and just killing your enemies, you have to act sneaky and secretive. This gives you an extra sense of victory when you kill your quarry. In the short term, this game is certainly a winner but the game could become less interesting in the long term since basically it’s constantly the same thing you’re doing over and over again without a bigger picture. In conclusion it’s a fun cat and mouse game in which the cat is unknown and it’s this that makes the game more interesting and challenging.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 1.0/10 (1 vote cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: -1 (from 1 vote)
Murderous Pursuits - Review, 1.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
Maui Vindevogel


23 year old based in Belgium with a passion for writing

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