Developer: Puuba
Publisher: Mastertronic
Platform: PC
The Weaponographist – Review
Open up Steam and you’ll instantly be bombarded by tons of different games in all kinds of genres. Really ALL kinds of genres and a game such as The Weaponographist shows how even older genres can be revived, are you ready for some high-speed top-down dungeon-crawling arena action?
Story
The story of The Weaponographist is one about demon hunter Doug McGrave. When going about his own business, his path crosses that of a witch who is desperately looking for help freeing the nearby village of evil. Being the selfless man he is, McGrave doesn’t care about freeing some village without a decent pay out so passes. The witch doesn’t agree and casts a curse on the demon hunter. From there on, every weapon McGrave touches deteriorates rapidly. He’s also stripped of his abilities and skills. Now Doug is forced to help to village to regain his strength.
Graphics
When first getting into the game, be prepared for what’s to come because it’s going to be a crazy ride. Right off the bat you’ll feel that crazy vibe which is created by the old-school cartoon approach. Characters look colourful and interesting and so does the village. It all just fits together very well with a big plus being that the game should run well on any sort of device on which the game is available.
Sound
The music and sound-effects in the game are just as crazy as the graphical style is. They work together really well. It would have been nice to have some more variety here though, certainly because you’ll be facing the same type of demon quite often and you’ll spend a lot of time in the same gauntlets.
Gameplay
Before playing The Weaponographist, be aware that you’re going to need a gamepad. Whilst keyboard controls are supported, you’ll quickly change over for a smoother gameplay experience. Controlling McGrave is pretty easy with dedicated buttons for moving up, down, left and right as well as buttons for attacking in each direction, a button for picking up weapons and a last one for using your magic ability if you have a magic item on you. No button for moving or attacking diagonally though which is annoying sometimes, certainly when using ranged weapons. Talking about weapons, there are a ton of them. Expect to be wielding anything from swords to chainsaws, bows to machine guns and more. Magic abilities can also be picked up by collecting wands or staves and include abilities like summoning fireballs around you or shooting laser beams
.
Basically the village which Doug refused to help, becomes your hub where you start off and also end up between dungeon-crawls. It’s there that you can buy and upgrade weapons, gain perks and basically get Doug back on his feet. To acquire those, you’ll have to spend goo which is earned by killing demons. The evil haunting the village is divided into a bunch of depth levels. Each depth is then separated into rooms. You’ll have to pass through all the rooms to fight a boss battle and then gain access to the next depth. Once you enter a room, the door closes and you have to fight a number of enemies before the doors open to the next room. The enemies you face are picked at random but are set to each depth so once you progress, you’ll encounter new enemies. The killed demons drop goo and occasionally also their weapon which you can then pickup to use against the rest. A kill also increases and levels up your combo meter which in turn levels your character when it’s high enough, increasing the damage you deal.
There’s a catch though, run around without killing stuff and the meter will instantly begin to drop down again and to be able to kill the increasingly stronger demons you’ll have to keep up that meter. You start off with three health points, if you get hit you lose half a point. When you die, you return to the hub and have to start again from the beginning or a save point. Save points can be found in the middle or beginning of a depth. There are some annoyances to be found too though. Some weapons are really not balanced well by being under- or overpowered. There are occasions you’ll end up in a room with enemies carrying only underpowered weapons, seeing that you fight with the weapons your enemies drop you can probably guess how this can be annoying.
Conclusion
The thing about The Weaponographist is that it’s just so easy to play. The beginning is the roughest part though, being unfamiliar with the controls and enemies you’ll have to replay the first couple of rooms a bit to stack up on the goo and get familiar with the hack ‘n slash vibe and enemy strategies. The dodgy cartoon art style and light-header story and characters around you do help to give The Weaponographist that crazy atmosphere which is what’ll make you come back for more.
The Weaponographist - Review,
No Comments