Developer: Samurai Punk
Publisher: tinyBuild
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
JUSTICE SUCKS: Tactical Vacuum Action – Review
Exclaiming the words ‘JUSTICE SUCKS’ might raise a few eyebrows when you’re attending a murder trial, but in the case of the following game, it actually makes a lot of sense. In JUSTICE SUCKS, you’ll be playing as a robot vacuum cleaner who is trying to protect its loving family. You’ll have to activate traps, clean up blood and gobble up the corpses of those you kill, all in order to save your loved ones, and of course, keep the house clean. We were curious to see if this game truly was able to clean house.
Story
The story of JUSTICE SUCKS is quite simple. You are a very happy robot vacuum cleaner, but after disposing of some burglars, you’re on the radar of a massive corporation. This company abducts your loving family and you are nearly deactivated when their top robot attacks you. You find yourself in a robot limbo inside the TV, and whilst in here, you must battle your way through different scenarios to make it back in one piece to the real world to save your family.
As a whole, the story is very silly, but we quite enjoyed the narrative. If you don’t go in expecting complex dialogues, you’ll get a few chuckles out of the story presentation.
Graphics
Graphically JUSTICE SUCKS looks quite cute, albeit very simplistic. The game uses low-poly graphics in combination with bright colors. Most character models and environmental assets are very rough around the edges, but they all blend well together. The game uses a bit of blood and gore, albeit in a comical way. When Dusty disposes of dead bodies a few funny-looking drumsticks remain behind. All in all, it’s a very comical concept and it works well for this game. We would have loved to be able to turn the camera around, as some viewing angles were very unclear.
Sound
The overall sound design was quite good. We loved the boyband-inspired songs playing in the background, and the sound effects were also well-made. The game gives you satisfying feedback when you gobble up items or corpses, and the more generic effects also serve their purpose. Sadly the game doesn’t have any real voice acting. This is a shame, as it would have enhanced the game’s overall charm even further.
Gameplay
JUSTICE SUCKS: Tactical Vacuum Action is hard to place in a specific genre. We found the game to be an action-packed strategy title in which it’s your job to kill those who threaten your family, while also completing tasks in short levels. You’ll find yourself hacking the appliances around you so they explode or electrocute villains while using your own equipped skills to enhance your capabilities as a vacuum cleaner vigilante. You will have to dispose of the bodies of your victims while using their blood to power up. This may sound a bit grim, but the game is actually quite silly and lighthearted.
Each of the levels you find yourself in has quite a few appliances or items you can interact with. When interacting with items, you can choose to use them to distract enemies or you can simply activate them to hurt said enemies. You can have lightbulbs explode to electrocute foes, but you can also open freezers to freeze enemies or even drop heavy objects on them. To do this, you’ll enter the hack mode, which slows down time allowing you to pick the object to interact with if it’s within your action radius. We found this to be easier with a mouse and keyboard, as with a controller we often selected the wrong object. Moving around Dusty, however, is a lot easier with a controller setup. You’ll have to see what you find easiest to work with, but both control schemes are decent.
In the game, you’ll have to avoid detection, as Dusty is quite harmless if he cannot use the environment to his advantage. This gameplay loop is quite enjoyable, but the game does have very limited content available. Every level is basically the same, albeit with a few new objects you can interact with. In terms of replayability, the game does have leaderboards for each level. It’s always quite pleasing when you break a few records and climb the rankings.
Conclusion
JUSTICE SUCKS: Tactical Vacuum Action is a very enjoyable bite-sized action strategy game. The game will easily entertain you from start to finish thanks to its core gameplay loop and the overall theme and upbeat nature of the game will easily suck you in. Even though the game may not have that much content, what you’re getting is well-crafted and fun. Overall this is a decent game to pick up for in-between bigger titles.
JUSTICE SUCKS: Tactical Vacuum Action - Review,
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