Developer: Wave Interactive
Publisher: Rainfall Entertainment
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
BUCK – Preview
Hi my name is Buck, and I really love to… might be a very cheesy opening line, but this Buck is a lot more pleasant, albeit in a gloomy and grim fashion. This early access title ‘BUCK’ brings us to a dark dog-eat-dog world, where the characters coincidently mostly happen to be canines. While this demo build only presented us with two fairly short levels, and a view at the central hub, we were quite surprised by this rabies-free title. Buck-le up and get ready to run and gun.
Sadly, there is hardly anything being told about the storyline of the game so far, only that Buck is looking for ‘someone’, probably a lost girlfriend or someone else he cares for. Nonetheless, the atmosphere is immediately spot-on, in this dystopian animal world, where a grim and eerie feeling immediately clutches onto you and doesn’t really let go until you turn off the game. The flash-like visuals are very detailed and the backdrops are quite stunning for a game such as this. While some of Buck’s movements still look a bit clunky, like climbing ladders and the jump animation, things look very pleasant and interesting, even though we only witnessed two zones in-game.
It’s clear that the game will become quite story driven in the future, and thus everything is properly supported by a hefty amount of voice acting. It seems that all dialogues in the game will be fully voiced, which is certainly commendable for a ‘smaller’ title. The music is a tad more atmospheric rather than in-your-face, even with the action packed theme that runs underneath the game.
Even though the game calls itself a Metroidvania inspired title, it’s basically a synonym for a game that grants you a certain sense or freedom, but you’ll still be running around in small delimited areas in which you’ll battle other canine foes and have the chance to explore a bit, in order to uncover some hidden loot.
In the current build you get your missions in the town you’re stranded in, but to earn the trust of the other inhabitants, you’ll have to clear some tasks, and in return they will help you find the person you’re looking for. Nonetheless, in the current build you only get two missions, where you’ll have to travel to another zone, in which you’ll have to run until you reach the end and find whatever they want you to retrieve or investigate. We reckon this will also remain the same in the full game, which is not a bad thing.
When leaving the safety of the town, you’ll come across a decent amount of enemies. While most of these enemies will be killed after a few shots, the combat, as it stands now, is horribly clunky. You get to switch between two weapons, namely dual pistols and a shotgun. The full build will probably have more, but this is what we had to work with. Many enemies will run at you quite rapidly, after you hear a grunt or growl to warn you enemies are coming. Nonetheless, often, if they wield a gun, they will immediately hit you, knocking you to the ground. If you have to reload, you’ll have to stand still for a moment, but more than often the area in which you can run around when fighting is very small, and thus you’ll be smacked around quite a lot. When dodging you’ll often roll right in the attack of an enemy, if there are multiple enemies onscreen, who happened to have spread out. While these things are solvable, it would be great if the developer(s) added a melee attack, in order for you to push back enemies. Healing items are rather scarce, at least if you get hit as much as we were. Luckily, when you die you start back at the last checkpoint without losing too much progress.
It is clear that controller support isn’t on point just yet, and while most of the controls feel quite natural, some extra button mapping would be quite helpful. Nonetheless, everything already moves quite smoothly, and even the platform sections are quite manageable.
Conclusion
BUCK is certainly a game to keep your eyes on to track its progress. Not only does the game have great visuals, it also has an eerie atmosphere you don’t come across in many small titles. While some crinkles need to be ironed out, this title is well on its way to becoming something very interesting and exciting.
No Comments