60 Seconds! Reatomized (Android) – Review

Robot Gentleman’s dark comedy adventure of scavenge and survival 60 Seconds! Reatomized is available on a multitude of platforms, and it has now made the jump to mobile as well. The game is a remaster of 2015’s 60 Seconds, and promises a greater challenge than the original. Before we even consider how challenging a title is, however, the question is whether or not the game is worth playing in the first place. We took a look at 60 Seconds! Reatomized On Android to see if this is the case.

Story

In terms of story, 60 Seconds! Reatomized provides us with a humoristic take on a historical period and relies on players filling in the blanks for themselves rather than delivering an actual narrative arc. The premise of the game’s setting is brilliant in its simplicity: set during the Cold War, the game capitalizes on the idea of the Soviet Union (a.k.a. the Reds) dropping a nuclear bomb on the United States. Although this never actually happened, the possibility that it could happen was embedded into the mindset of Americans during the ‘50s and ‘60s. In 60 Seconds! Reatomized, players step into the shoes of the McDoodles, a typical American family in the 1950s as they prepare for an incoming nuclear blast, and subsequently attempt to survive in their underground shelter. Although it’s a bleak premise, the game injects plenty of humor into the situation and presents a light-hearted take on the nuke hysteria of that time.

Graphics

60 Seconds! Reatomized is split into two parts -more on that in the gameplay section of this review- and each part comes with its own distinct graphical style. During the first part of a game of 60 Seconds! Reatomized, you are presented with a 3D rendered environment, which isn’t overly detailed but it does the job fairly well. The second part is where the game’s visuals really shine though, with hilarious 2D illustrations that emphasise the bleak situation that the McDoodles find themselves in.

Sound

There’s not a whole lot that can be said about 60 Seconds! Reatomized’s soundscape. There is no voice acting, and the music isn’t anything to really write home about. Then again, this is a mobile game -at least the version reviewed here- so the majority of people will mute the game anyway as sound isn’t an essential feature here.

Gameplay

There are actually two distinct gameplay styles to 60 Seconds! Reatomized, with the game split into two separate sections. The first part of the game is where the game’s title comes from. Here, you’ll receive a warning that a nuclear bomb is about to drop and that you have sixty seconds to prepare. During this single minute, you’ll take control of family patriarch Ted (or his wife Dolores) and attempt to grab whatever you deem necessary to stay in the fallout shelter where you’ll be spending the second phase of the game. This second part, which is the lengthier section of the game, is arguably the more interesting one. Here you must make the best of the situation with whatever you managed to snatch before the bomb’s impact and hope to survive until the radio tells you it’s safe to come out again.

The scavenging part of the game is frantic, chaotic and -sadly- frustrating. This section of the game is set in the family house, which is represented as a 3D rendered environment. Both family members and objects necessary for survival are spread out, ranging from essentials like medkits and food to things like board games, which help ease boredom during your time in the shelter. When you start a new game of 60 Seconds! Reatomized, you’ll have a very limited window in which you can look around to see where these items all are, but you won’t be able to pick up anything until the siren blares. When this happens, you’ll have 60 seconds to grab as many objects and family members as possible and drop them in the shelter. You only can carry a limited number of objects, so you’ll need to make the most of your time and prioritize what you deem absolutely essential for your survival -including considering whether or not you’ll rescue your family members.

It’s a concept that works great in theory as it means you’ll need to strategize beforehand and staying cool-headed and picking the right tools means you’ll increase your chances of survival. You never quite know what will happen to your little survivor group once you’re underground. You might not need that medkit, for example, but do you risk leaving it behind so you can get more food? You won’t be able to pick up everything in your limited time window, and every object has a purpose, so your best bet is hoping your early game choices pay off. Unfortunately, the Android version of the game comes with an artificial increase of difficulty that is the result of poor implementation of touch controls. When you move close enough to an object to pick it up, that object is highlighted in green, and you should be able to pick it up by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. Tapping doesn’t always register, however, and you’ll find that you’ll need to tap multiple times or even reposition Ted before you’re able to pick up the object in question. Given that you’re dealing with a painfully short window of time, it can be really frustrating if you’re losing precious seconds simply because of a programming quirk. This might not be an issue in the PC or console versions of the game.

The clunky controls thankfully aren’t present in the second half of 60 Seconds! Reatomized. Where the first half of the game is a chaotic, physics-based mad dash, the second half dramatically shifts genres, turning the game into something similar to a point-and-click adventure. Here you’ll have to deal with survival on a day-to-day basis, hoping for the day when the family can move out of the shelter and onto the surface again. This includes dealing with everything you’d expect, from having to ration your food to people getting sick, but also includes more intricate happenings, such as people knocking on your door -to which you’ll need to choose how to react. At this point, you might wonder what the point of saving your family members is. After all, if you can just hoard supplies, why not take what you need for your own survival? Well, your family members can be sent on supply runs, and they’ll also bring back key items that you might need to overcome some of the quirkier obstacles in the game, such as a gas mask in case toxic gas starts flooding the bunker.

Given that you’ll never know quite what to expect when you’re attempting to survive, there is a lot of replayability here. Both the events that happen and the length you’re spending in the bunker are random. Add in a variety of difficulty levels -each of which is named after the bomb that’s being dropped- and you’re looking at a game that should keep you occupied for quite some time.

Conclusion

60 Seconds! Reatomized offers up a tongue-in-cheek take on an interesting period in American history. It’s an interesting and fun little game that should keep you occupied for quite some time, provided you can get over the frustrating touch controls. This might not be an issue for the versions of the game that eschew touch controls and instead go for button inputs. Either way, the game is definitely worth a look at, and given the variety of platforms it is available on, it’s easy enough to pick up a version that might feel less clunky.

SebastiaanRaats

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