{"id":432,"date":"2021-04-02T18:16:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T18:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2021-04-02T18:16:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T18:16:51","slug":"ape-out-savior-or-false-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/02\/ape-out-savior-or-false-shepherd\/","title":{"rendered":"Ape Out: Savior or False Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in April of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!  I KNOW WHAT YOU\u2019RE THINKING. The Doomsayer has lost his ways.  Gone are the day of the Doomsayer\u2019s review of indie titles we never heard of.  He\u2019s clearly sold out to only play popular AAA games.  How else do we explain the sudden shift from games that get easily buried in Steam to Sony PS4 exclusives like Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man?<\/em>  Pardon me for trying to enjoy my new toy.  You want a review of an indie title to hold you over while Seriko: Shadows Die Twice <\/em>is busy turning me into red paste?  Fine, I\u2019ll turn to ye olde faithful Devolver Digital to provide something of worth, and they have provided with their newest title Ape Out<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ape Out<\/em> takes one inside the mind of an ape not wanting to be part of scientific experiments and determined to escape by doing their best Hulk impression.  You\u2019d be correct in assuming the story is very minimalistic and Ape Out <\/em>showcases the success of doing more with less.  For example, the ape and the guards are represented with simple patterns and two various colors.  The soundtrack also consists of one guy attempting to play YYZ by Rush in perfect unison with our ape protagonist smashing the guard\u2019s heads into the wall.  An almost tribal drumbeat will play throughout the level only to have the cymbal crash as the ape turns another guard into strawberry jam smeared across the floor.  Despite all the violence on display, I can\u2019t help but be reminded of a demo stand for Donkey Kong: Jungle Beats<\/em> that included the iconic bongo controller, highlighting how the minimalistic ascetic the jungle-like fury of the king of the monkeys.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So what kind of game is Ape Out<\/em>?  Well, Ape Out <\/em>is a top-down brawler, where you are thrown into a level with guards who don\u2019t want you rampaging freely and perceive to open fire freely on you.  You must use your primal fury to sprint to the end.  The obvious comparison is Hotline Miami<\/em>.  Comparing the two further is similar to apple and banana comparisons.  Since you are a gorilla, you cannot hold guns like Hotline Miami<\/em>, but you can throw enemies into the wall to the sound of cymbals crashing around you.  You are also able to grab enemies as they will wildly shoot in a panicked frenzy, but holding enemies reduce your speed, giving that sniper standing behind you an easy shot.  Now you might be thinking a melee-only Hotline Miami <\/em>sounds painful, but Ape Out <\/em>compensates for your lack of firearm with the ability to take two additional shots rather than one.  Unfortunately, this doesn\u2019t make Ape Out <\/em>as enjoyable as Hotline Miami<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For starters, levels in Ape Out<\/em>, are procedurally generated.  Not every bit is randomly generated.  Things like metal doors and long hallways will be consistent throughout certain levels, but walls and enemies will be randomly placed in the bigger corridors.  Some people might enjoy this rogue-lite element to the game, but as I often complain about in rogue-lite, I cannot stand it.  I walked away from level feeling my skills did not get me through the level, but rather pure luck did.  Rather than fist pump in the air completing a level, I usually would sigh in relief.  THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATED GODS HAD HEEDED MY CALLS AND WILL ALLOW ME TO PROCEED.  TODAY IS TRULY A GREAT DAY TO RECEIVE THE GOD\u2019S BLESSING.  A game of this nature needs to have the feeling the player\u2019s skill got them through the level, not the fact that all the guards with bombs got placed on the side of the level you didn\u2019t venture to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When lady luck had not smiled upon your run, you will be greeted with a death screen that feels like slamming on the brakes on the highway.\u00a0 Part of the reason frustrating games like Hotline Miami <\/em>or Cuphead<\/em> are loved, is they allow you to jump immediately back in as fast as you can.\u00a0 Ape Out<\/em> did not learn that lesson in challenging game school.\u00a0 When that sniper finally lands the third shot on you, the game slowly zooms out to reveal the level outlined by the word \u201cDEAD\u201d and a white line showing how far you got.\u00a0 Even if you try to hurry Ape Out <\/em>to restart the level, the game will still take its time getting you back into the action.\u00a0 It almost feels like all the guards are hastily trying to clean up the blood in the level as you are waiting.\u00a0 More likely, the game is trying to mix up the level in order to be considered a rogue-lite.\u00a0 The game would have greatly benefitted from randomly generating the level from the start, and not randomly recreating it from the start after each death.\u00a0 Hotline Miami <\/em>gets you back to the action with a snap of its fingers, and while Cuphead <\/em>does show you how far you got, they don\u2019t make a song and dance about it.\u00a0 Stop wasting my time and throw me back to the fray.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I cannot deny that I am struggling to find an audience to recommend Ape Out <\/em>to.\u00a0 Colorful top-down action isn\u2019t exactly a niche genre.\u00a0 I am sure you could be tripping over top-down action games if you were to wander to the landfill known as Steam\u2019s library.\u00a0 Even after playing a few levels of Ape Out<\/em>, I felt the more compelled to finally give Hotline Miami <\/em>a try.\u00a0 Just a half-hour into Hotline Miami<\/em> I had completely forgotten the procedurally generated levels and obnoxious death screens.\u00a0 Only for them to return when I tried to get further in Ape Out.<\/em>\u00a0 Honestly, Hotline Miami <\/em>is cheaper than Ape Out <\/em>and is frankly more enjoyable.\u00a0 I say play Hotline Miami <\/em>and its sequel Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number<\/em> before giving Ape Out<\/em> a try.\u00a0 Ironically, since all three are published by Devolver Digital, it almost seems like this was their plan the whole time.\u00a0 Honestly, Devolver, there are better ways to get me to play your games.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to go to such ridiculous lengths even though that is your brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally ran under a different banner\/website in April of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy. HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!  I KNOW WHAT YOU\u2019RE THINKING. The Doomsayer has lost his ways.  Gone are the day of the Doomsayer\u2019s review of indie titles… Continue reading Ape Out: Savior or False Shepherd<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatecitygaming.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}