Haven’t played enough of the game to feel comfortable reviewing Gun Monkeys yet (connectivity issues – mine and the game’s own – have been preventing me from finding many games, random or otherwise), but I’ve been itching to write, so… yeah. Impressions! Enjoy.
Procedurally-generated maps is a brilliant idea for a multiplayer game. Keeps every match fresh, the unpredictable landscape keeping games from boiling down to who knows the level and its exploits best. Granted, the levels are very simple in Gun Monkeys – a mere collection of suspended platforms haphazardly dotted about the area – but the worth of the concept still stands.
Gun Monkeys is a one-on-one versus multiplayer shooter from Size Five Games, whom you may know for Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentleman, Please. In it, you control a gun-toting monkey sent to collect blocks of energy for your power company because, you see, in the future, power is a scarce resource. An experiment involving perpetual energy backfired, obliterating the human race entirely. But all that power’s still sitting around free for the taking, so what better way to harvest it than to send monkeys retrieve them to then use in the past?
A fun set-up, which is fantastically delivered by actor Kevin Eldon through the tutorial. His condescending/sarcastic wit bring some chuckles to the mayhem, often chiming in with brief quips about various power-ups and your many untimely demises. He can be turned off, however, if that’s somehow your preference.
Gun Monkeys is very manic. From the second a match begins, it’s a scramble to harvest energy cubes, gunfire erupting almost instantly. You can only fire in the direction your moving, though, mines and explosive crates your best bet at covering your behind. Most of the games I’ve partaken in have ended as quickly as they began, constantly engaging in battle almost never ending well. Those that ran long had little toe-to-toe action, the battle more a race to collect energy than one revolving around deathmatch.
The game’s at its most fun when both players aren’t making killing one another the primary focus. Respawn times take long enough to allow one of them to gain a ridiculously strong lead whilst the other painfully waits for that damn timer to expire. Frustrating, doubly so when cubes keep dropping in the general vicinity of the opposing player’s core. But that’s what you get with random drops.
There’s a perk system as well, which increases the damage of various power-ups or your jump height among other things. Perks are bought using cash earned from wins, though that cash is also stolen from you for losing. So can’t wait on using it for long.
The game has been fun for the brief spats of play I’ve managed to find. The unfortunate connection issues drag the game down, though some of it might just be my Internet (wireless is the worst, you guys). Hard to say. Regardless, it sucks, and is precisely why this is a mere impressions piece than a full review.
I’ll keep digging into it in the meantime. Have had some good fun with the game, so I do hope these connectivity issues can be sorted out. I’ll have a full review ready in the near future, I hope.
