One of the best things regarding the indie scene is the sheer amount of ideas that go into creating a game. While AAA gaming territory is increasingly stuck in tried-and-true formulas due to the resource-intensive nature of creating them, indies are moving into a space where more risks and alternate routes are allowed within the development process. Among the publishers that are allowing more diverse games to see the light of day is Devolver Digital, who never fail to make an adventure into indie territory every year, and Anger Foot is their latest release.
Anger Foot is a first-person shooter game developed by Free Livesa development studio in South Africa who are best known for developing Broforce, Gorn, and Terra Nil, with Anger Foot being something more in line with the humor of Broforce or another of their games, the controversially titled Genital Jousting. Overall, Anger Foot takes the formula perfected by one of the most legendary games released by Devolver Digital, Hotline Miami, and shifts the perspective from the top-down to the first-person perspective we’re used to in most modern shooters.
Anger Foot mixes violence and humor, which is great, but…
Is this shift in perspective enough to make Anger Foot stand out? Overall, the answer to this question is no, a shift in perspective is not enough to make it stand out, and knowing that, Free Lives includes an element of humor within Anger Foot that is basically the opposite of the violent and transgressive tone of Hotline Miami, it is this element of humor that differentiates the two games to a large extent, if we do not take into account the execution of the formula itself.
As for this last point, which for me is perhaps the most important element of the game, the execution of the formula sadly does not reach the level of Hotline Miami. But what is this formula? In both games the game loop consists of going through a series of levels full of enemies whose only objective is to neutralize the player, who has as his own objective to go through the level in the most destructive way possible, eliminating all the enemies in his path and reaching the exit of the level.
This is the basic formula that made Hotline Miami such an addictive game, as the game loop allows the player to become familiar with the levels and find the most suitable route to acquire the most points and reach the exit as quickly as possible. However, there are small differences that make Anger Foot an inferior clone of the original.
Planning is an essential pillar
First, the first-person perspective removes the ability to view the level from above, as Hotline Miami does, a perspective that allowed you to analyze more than one room at a time and plan seconds before traversing the next room or eliminating the next enemies. Even on a first playthrough of a level this level of planning existed, whereas in Anger Foot this element is gone and makes all the levels feel much more linear than those in Hotline Miami.
This linearity isn’t bad in itself, but it certainly makes each level feel less special, and the speed at which one can go through these levels makes them all end up merging into one another, which somewhat removes the level of excitement when starting each level within a sector, as it will likely be a very similar level to the previous one.
Your mistakes will cost you dearly… quite dearly.
Anger Foot is hard, death comes quickly, just like in Hotline Miami, but the return to the game is a bit slower. While trying once more was practically free in Hotline Miami and “one more try” was super easy to say, in Anger Foot it is a bit harder, as dying in a level, especially when you are almost at the end, is quite a drag and may make more than one person lose their mind, as dying mostly means starting the level from the beginning.
Mobility is also affected by this change of perspective, because although Anger Foot tries to find the speed and frenzy of games like Ultrakill or the recently released and far superior Mullet MadJack, moving through the levels ends up being a bit monotonous and a bit clumsy as well, especially when it comes to jumping, a mechanic that is not found in Hotline Miami, but that feels clunky here in Anger Foot, a jump that perhaps generates as many deaths as the enemies with weapons themselves.
Your feet are considered a deadly weapon
Just like in Hotline Miami, weapons in Anger Foot are an element that is not as relevant as it would be in a game like Turbo Overkill, but even though as the variety of enemies grows, so does the variety of weapons, this lack of effort in creating flashy, single-use weapons becomes a bit disappointing, especially because unlike Hotline Miami, the perspective makes the weapons right in front of us.
Anger Foot has a disenchantment with weapons, but focuses all his attention on the mechanical element that gives the game its name, our protagonist’s kick, which can finish off almost any enemy with a single hit.
The player will be able to pass entire levels using only the kick, which makes the weapons more irrelevant and it is the kick that acquires a progression system that the weapons do not, the shoes, which work in the same way as the masks in Hotline Miami, where each shoe grants a modifier to the gameplay, from more speed, better jumps, more ammunition for the weapons, etc. Unlocking all the shoes then becomes the most satisfying process of the game, much more so than going through the levels or finishing the story.
Anger Foot has an artistic section that takes you back in time
Visually, Anger Foot brings with it a visual style that will remind many of classic 90s comics like The Mask, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among others. Comics that told violent stories starring grotesque characters. Those who are fans of this aesthetic will surely have a great time with Anger Foot, as its cast of characters and gangs make appearances during each new sector of the campaign. Aside from that, the grotesque look may have left more than a few people feeling bad.
Story-wise, Anger Foot is pretty poor and ridiculous. Our protagonist Anger Foot is looking to take down the gang that stole his precious shoes, and throughout the campaign the character will make decisions that will change the fate of Shit City (yes, that’s the name of the city where the game takes place), but this process of choice is somewhat superfluous. The real game is to get through the levels as fast as possible and unlock as many shoes as possible. The narrative is just an excuse for all this to happen.
Conclusion
If you look at it from an arcade point of view, Anger Foot is incredibly fun, the difficulty can be frustrating at times, but getting three stars on each level and completing the rest that each one proposes can become quite addictive, because although the execution is not as fluid as in Hotline Miami or as spectacular as in Mullet MadJackthe DNA of the idea is still present and for that reason alone the fun factor is quite high.
However, elements like clunky controls in certain sections, indistinguishable differences between level groups, and poor narrative make the game feel far from reaching its full potential.
This review was conducted on PC and the code was provided by Devolver Digital. Anger Foot is available now on PC via Steam.
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2024-07-21 16:34:53
