Jazzpunk - We are everywhere and underwear
Cold War World. Agent Polyblank goes to take up his next mission in a wornout trailer. Oh I forgot to mention the psychedelic intro. Sits down, fart chushion, laugh. This introduction is as clear as the game itself.
This is the weirdest game I have played. Well at least this year's weirdest, but it is in the top 3. This weirdness is mixed with a little old-fashioned humour, robot secret agents and high-tech gadgets, and surprisingly it gives a not-that-bad-as-we-would-expect result. It's not a long game, max 3 hours to play.
The Good:
- the jokes (if you are into this kind of humour, but seriously who wouldn't laugh, or a little chuckle at least, for sitting on a whoopie cushion?)
- the artistic, cartoony style
- not like any other games I have played
The Bad
- too many minigames in the end
Retro Cyberpunk Futuristic Jazz
The game's mood is an interesting mix of a noir detective pulp-fiction + James Bond styled secret agent + there was an episode in Tom and Jerry, where Jerry had a funky jazz band playing and Tom (poor Tom) was tortured by their loud artsy music + a handful of simple puns and jokes.
Wedding Qake and Edward Scissorhands making NSFW hedge statues
One of the many things I liked about this game, the many small easter eggs hidden, which all make part of some kind of joke. There are the floating texts, (plus a couple of other things) which reminded me of The Stanley Parable, Polyblank arriving in a "guitar" case, like in the gangster movies the guns, Edward Scissirhands' hands, etc... (plus who knows how many I didn't even get).
Also there are countless minigames, mostly parodies of existing games, for example a bridal edition of Quake. After a while you will notice that it even makes fun of the player itself.
To get the full experience out of this game you have to explore every single object laying around, and find the many puns good jokes. This humour is the cohesion of the game, beside the simple story of going to meet you boss, having you to make a couple of top secret missions, and trying to defeat the Antagonist (yes that's what it says on his business card). Although near the end it gets frustrating that there is not even a decent story, and too many minigames. But it is hard to maintain the fun from the beginning, once you do things too many times it looses it's humour.
You travel through a wide variety of scenes, from japanese sushi restaurants (take your shoes off, robot!) to futuristic spacy apartments. There are lots of details, like a playbot magazine while you are waiting with your bosses secretary.
The game has a unique art style, well a unique style in everything, which is very brave but in a good way. For many gamers it is a must for a game to have high quality graphics, but there are so many games which don't need that, have their unique art style and I appreciate that (of course there are some games which require high graphics). It creates a stronger mood, and a better experience.
The End
It is an interesting, great indie game. If you decide to play it be prepared for a weird, but comical experience, with cartoony humour.
