Gang Beasts appeared in Steam Early Access three and a half years ago, and even then let’s players and regular players saw the potential in it. The simplest fighting game, which did not require memorizing combinations and learning techniques, was perfect for entertainment in the company of friends, and it was fun to watch gelatinous men fight from the sidelines. This was largely due to the bright style and excellent animation of the fighters – it’s simply impossible to watch what’s happening without laughing.
The game left Early Access only this month, but after spending hours in it, it’s hard to understand what exactly the developers have been doing for three and a half years. The gameplay has not changed at all, there are no new features, except that a couple of maps and modes have been added. The feeling that this is still an early version does not leave you for a minute, since many elements here either do not work at all or are made too poorly even for an independent studio.
The essence of the game is simple: several people find themselves in a small location and must defeat each other, throwing opponents off the map or into some dangerous zones. In local matches, a maximum of four users take part, and in online matches their number can reach eight. There is no difference between the characters – you can change their appearance in the menu, but it does not affect any characteristics of the people. But the hats and suits give each of them individuality, although I would like more variety in the wardrobe.
At first, you will have to not so much fight to win, but rather understand the controls. Some actions are carried out by normal pressing, some by holding the buttons. You can hit your opponent with your head and hands, and then, when he loses consciousness for a couple of seconds, grab the lifeless body and take it to the right place or throw it away. It also happens that while trying to eliminate the enemy you fall off the map yourself, but this does not cause irritation.
The simple formula works thanks dreamjackpot-casino.uk to a variety of cards, each of which offers unique ways to deal with little men. Then the group ends up on moving trucks, the roofs of which are dangerous to stand on because of road signs. Then the characters find themselves on a flying airship and almost slide off it, which increases the risk of death. One of the funniest locations is the subway, where you have to push each other in front of a passing train.
Every match quickly turns into chaos: everyone hits each other in the head, jumps, faints, someone drags someone to the side. A man falling from a cliff suddenly wakes up and grabs the wall with his hands, trying to climb up, and then approaches his offender and knocks him out in revenge. Some maps have destructible objects such as fences, boards and windows, which add more options in combat, but at the same time make the fight more dangerous.
Unfortunately, all this works more or less well only in local multiplayer. Online servers Gang Beasts do not function correctly even a week after release. No matter what mode you launch, you will constantly encounter input lag, which makes it almost impossible to play normally. When a character jumps within a second and a half of pressing the corresponding button, it becomes difficult to enjoy matches. The same thing happens with hits, and the game refuses to respond to some presses at all.
This is true for all modes, of which there are catastrophically few in the game. There’s a regular deathmatch and a team version – which is where you’ll probably spend the most time. I never managed to play football, because every time I started it, my opponent and I stood motionless in place. But chasing the ball and scoring goals is still not as exciting as just beating each other up and throwing them off a cliff.
For PvE fans, you can launch a co-op mode, in which a team of four people fights against waves of AI-controlled opponents. The enemies turn out to be quite smart and do not die as easily as one might think. The only problem is that the deceased participant remains dead until the end of the match, which makes it almost impossible to try to win waves with a group of “randoms” – if someone immediately drops out of the game, you don’t have to try anymore.
This is where the content ends – everything that was available in the game three years ago remains in its place. But there’s practically nothing new in Gang Beasts didn’t appear. The terrible interface, as if made hastily, has not gone away either. And the point is not so much in primitive fonts and lack of training, but in its buggyness. Deathmatch consists of several stages, between which the leaderboard is shown. And sometimes she doesn’t appear at all, and if you do see her, it’s just the faces of little men arranged in a column with poorly drawn stars, meaning victories.
Bugs also occur during combat – sometimes the camera can move to the side, making it impossible to find your fighter on the screen. This is especially annoying in those moments when you are kicked out of the server without warning after just ten seconds, explaining this by lack of activity. A similar situation arose on my map with trucks – having dealt with all the opponents on my side, I simply watched the fight between the two remaining players in another car. Who knew that they would be punished for this??
Gang Beasts always seemed like a great party game, and in some ways it really is. But the project was like this three years ago, and by and large it could have left Early Access even then. Why we had to wait so many years for the release of the final version and the appearance of the game on PS4 is absolutely incomprehensible: the shortcomings have not been eliminated, there is no new content, the servers are still working poorly. But at least the funny animation has been preserved – but it’s hardly worth spending money on.
Pros: hilarious animation; various cards.
Cons: barely working servers; input lag in multiplayer; primitive interface; there are too few regimes, and half of the existing ones are of no value; bugs.