I'm going to ignore the fact that there was a lot of slow-down just from loading the demo and waiting for the game to start.You play Shank, a guy eager to get back his girlfriend from a masked wrestler named "The Butcher". Go at it with knives, guns, chainsaw and grenades!
A "beautifully" bloody game, but not beautiful to say the least. It's pretty reminiscent of any Saturday morning Flash-based cartoon you can find on CN (honestly, even Samurai Jack was a lot better than this). The character designs themselves are pretty minimal, and felt like just a flashier, more bloody version of a Streets of Rage game. You know, without the eating food out of garbage cans to regain health. Except in Shank, it's just booze you find lying around or that pop out of the enemies. Ok, so maybe it's not that different.
The music itself has a nice, vaguely Western theme to it, perfect for any "revenge plot" setting. Dialogue, however, was on the cliche side and could have been delivered a lot better. Shank simply sounded...bored with everything he was doing.
The game mentions developing a strategy to defeat each different type of enemy, but you're really just better off button-smashing your way through each fight, as you're likely to get the right weapon to dispatch of any foe.
It's a neat little game for venting, as there will be plenty of blood-spillage to get you through the day. Nothing really too in-depth, if that's what you're looking for.
Shank is available for download at 1200 MSP.
