Developer: Hesaw
Publisher: Hesaw
Rrp: £9.99 (Steam and Humblebundle)
Released: 8th April 2015
Available on: Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse
Sometimes the disclaimer that precedes a game can really be telling of the experience you’re about to have. Blue Estate: The Game is definitely one of those games, it’s not sensitive about race at all (not saying any racial slurs, at least I don’t remember any, but well… lets just say it has a lot of caricatures of race), its not afraid to make jokes about sexuality and sexism and it even covers a little on drugs. So if you can’t find humour in any of those subjects whatsoever, you may wish to avoid this game.
Blue Estate: The Game is an on-rails shooter that’s based on a comic series that was published by Image. You play through the game as two characters. The first being Tony Luciano, the hot-headed, loudmouthed and frankly vile son of a crime family, who’s on the hunt for his stripper girlfriend Cherry Popz. The second is Clarance, an Ex-Navy Seal who’s now turned hit-man out of his desperation to alleviate his poverty.
The basic controls are simple enough, the left mouse button shoots and the right reloads with a click and if held it puts you in cover (if the option is available).This game includes ‘gestures’ which are performed by quickly moving the mouse in the appropriate direction. These gestures can mean a few things but usually allow the player to interact with a scene (such as open a door) or collect a pick up.
In classic arcade shooter style you get a limited number of lives which act as continues if your health should run out. Both of these are fully regenerated with the beginning of a new level.
Each level within the story mode has an intro which is done in a way that resembles the artwork of the comics series, I love the style of them so much so that I’ve actually ordered a few issues of the comic series to check out. These levels are also narrated by a low rent private eye, who very much fills the role of the ‘unreliable narrator’, and gets regularly cut off by the game itself.
I hate to say it but the story mode is a little disappointing because it kinda just ends with no real conclusion, but the journey it takes you is one of great stupidity and fun.
For the most part this is a score attack style game and as is typical of these types of games its quite short, standing at approximately four hours long. The levels that are completed within the story mode become available to play in the arcade mode, which I will touch upon next.
As I mentioned previously, there’s an arcade mode with levels that become unlocked as you complete them in the Story mode.
Things work a bit differently in this mode. For starters there are no lives or health, you can get shot endlessly and never die. However in their stead is a timer. If the timer hits zero before you kill an enemy you die and the higher the difficulty the shorter the time you’re given to make the kills.
There are also no power-ups to pickup. Instead there’s a single slow-mo power-up which you can use anytime you like, so long as it’s charged. To charge it you need to make headshots, and only headshots. Finally there’s your weapon, after a certain number of kills your weapon gets changed. Eventually leading to a ultimate golden weapon if you manage to kill enough enemies.
It’s something of a sad affair that as I’m writing this I’m struggling to think of other on-rail shooters that exist on the PC, at least ones that are good anyway. Blue Estate has more in common with Time Crisis than House of the Dead when it comes to the gameplay and sadly on-rail shooters aren’t exactly plentiful.
I recommend this, simply because its something so different from what we’re usually given, it doesn’t pull its punches and is quite often genuinely humorous, if in poor taste. Give this game a go if you fancy a change or just wish Time Crisis were on PC (without an emulator).
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
