Developer: IllFonic
Publisher: IllFonic
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Arcadegeddon – Review
Videogames have been a large part of many of our lives, entertaining young and old. Those who have lived through the years of videogame evolution will know that the once powerful arcade era has slowly succumbed to the home console market in the last decades. In Arcadegeddon, this story plays out slightly differently: one corporation has the monopoly on videogames and one local arcade tries to survive. You are at the dusk of video games and are deemed the last hope for gamers to save the indie arcade industry from vanishing.
Story
It all begins with uncle Gilly’s arcade, the last safe haven for the local gangs to enjoy video games in their purest form. As Gilly is trying to save his business from going bankrupt due to the influence of an evil corporation, he made his biggest project yet. He is a veteran developer and has made a bunch of games in the past, now he combined the elements from each of his titles into one huge game. Sadly the Fun Fun Co decides to sabotage the game and hacks into it with a rather nasty surprise. The new game is riddled with viruses and Gilly has requested the help of his nephew Plug and the local gangs to defend the arcade. Plug has to work hard to earn the repest of the gangs, but as luck has it, their infinite love for the last real arcade place is stronger than any prejudice.
The game starts with a pretty strong story and continues on developing the location and gangs throughout the playthrough. As the game is a rogue-lite by nature, this does mean that you won’t have to expect a really deep storyline. Nonetheless, there is just enough story content to keep you hooked.
Graphics
Visually the game is really striking. This is thanks to the colorful character, the extreme explosions and many unique locations. Immediately from the start, you are thrown into various nicely crafted cutscenes and most interactions with characters are also energetic encounters. This makes the game look like a big-budget title, especially when considering the many unique combinations for your character. Moving around the map looks a bit like playing Fortnite in all its glory, yet the firefights are even more spectacular than we expected. During your travels, you will see many different locations, and each location has its own styling and layout. You will go from urban areas to mystical caves and true hellscapes. Sadly, the enemy design is quite monotonous, and we would have loved a bigger variety.
Sound
Alongside the high quality of the graphics, it seems that the sound department also spared no expenses. The game is supported by a really energetic soundtrack during your runs and the sound effects are equally as nice. When playing with special weapons, they all sound powerful and not as if they come from a cartoon. Last but not least, each character that you encounter is fully voice acted and even the enemies will say a few lines. Sadly, your main character does not have any voiced lines.
Gameplay
Arcadegeddon is a rogue-lite third-person shooter where you’ll have to play-test your uncle’s newest game that has been sabotaged by an evil Mega Corporation while gaining a reputation from the local gangs. The story all begins when your uncle combines all of his games into one huge title to save his arcade from bankruptcy. All was going well and you, Plug, the nephew, gains the honor of trying this new game out. Immediately it becomes clear that someone has tampered with the software, and now you’ll have to defeat the virus that has tainted the software. Luckily, uncle Gilly is liked by all the gangs, and they are willing to lend a hand.
You can start the game with a rather elaborate tutorial that shows you all the ins and outs of the gameplay. We very much appreciated the inclusion of the tutorial, as the game does have a few mechanics you need to know about. In its essence Arcadegeddon is a pretty simple game: you jump into the arcade machine and try to survive as many rounds as possible, but the game is much more than meets the eye. After your first run in the simulation, it is time to get acquainted with the locals. They don’t care at all for you, but once you tell them Gilly is family, they do open up to your proposal of helping them. This is the chance to earn their respect, and you can do so by accepting their challenge. These challenges have to be completed in your uncle’s game.
Initially, you won’t have much besides your starter gear, but as you progress, you will unlock more weapons, gauntlet abilities, and perks. Starter weapons are the guns you take out when you initiate the run. New ones can be unlocked by finding them in a run and leveling them up. This is ideal if you like to start with a sniper rifle for example. There are a lot of weapons out there, so take your time finding your preferred loadout. Your gauntlet grants you special abilities to use during combat, and they can be either offensive or supportive. The abilities will recharge over time and can give you an edge over the competition. Lastly, the passive perks will give you nice character bonuses, from extra health regeneration to increased health or even extra speed.
Making your way through the simulation isn’t just walking from A to B, you will need to clear objectives like uploading new data, purging the virus, or destroying objectives to unlock the route to the exit. Of course, your work doesn’t go unnoticed on the other side. While completing objectives, the boss meter will fill, and once it is full, you can fight a really strong boss for high-tier loot and rewards. The boss will not appear immediately when the meter is full, so you can take some time to prepare.
After your first real run, you will see that other gangs have started to gather in Gilly’s arcade. This is great, as more support means more stuff to unlock. Sadly, however, you can only complete one gang challenge at a time. This means that the progression can be pretty slow, certainly if you know that a run can take longer than an hour. That these take long isn’t necessarily bad, as there are many different levels and everything is randomly generated, but as the enemy pool is rather limited, the game could get rather grindy.
Conclusion
Arcadegeddon is a really interesting title that offers you many hours of gameplay if you can look past the recycled enemies. We understand that an invading virus would consist of many similar ‘enemies’, but it would have been cool if there was a bigger variety. The graphics and sound are of amazingly high quality, resulting in a very good-looking title with an energetic soundtrack and great voice acting. The game is easy to pick up thanks to its simple gameplay and the inclusion of a good tutorial. You’ll have many items to unlock and so many missions to complete that you won’t know where to start.
No Comments