Keli Entertainment’s Shank is a video game style revenge story that reeks of Quentin Tarantino. You are in control of the best hired killer in Cesar’s “private army”, Shank. The game revolves around Shank’s revenge against Cesar, who he used to look up to as his father than a boss and his goons comprised of sickos and pshycopaths.
Story
The game starts off with your first encounter with the minions of Cesar. Thinking you were dead, the “minions” are suprised with shanks sudden appearance while reaching out for their guns as you are, were dead, rather under Cesar’s orders. The game’s start is a great introduction into the game. It doubles as a tutorial and introduction into the world Shank used to live in and, how things spiralled out of control.
The game storyline reeks is highly reminiscent of Kill Bill- with the flair and the style seemingly ripped from the movie but repackaged as a video game with a different name.
Gameplay
Shank’s gameplay adheres to the usual 2d beat ’em up. With intuitive controls which allow you to dish out brutal and bloody attacks against men and women who stand in your way.
Among Shank’s moves, the most notable is his “pounce” attack. While on it’s own it doesn’t do any damage – it does however lock your opponent in your arms which makes him/her vulnerable to the series of attacks which Shank can deal out. Your options include knocking your enemies head to the floor, stabbing the helpless minion with the make-shift knives Shank has. You can then finish it up with a special attack from your current equipped weapon or just throw the lifeless carcass away.
Controlling Shank requires the mixture of precise button movements while mixing it up with brutish repetitive strikes. The only variation the game has in terms of his movelists is dependent on the equipped weapon you have for Shank.
For weapons, shank can choose for a shotgun, uzi, swords and even a chainsaw (which is my favorite).
Achievements
In the Steam version of Shank, you get a list of achievements to accomplish. These achievements vary from killing a certain amount of enemies to having a combo reach a certain number. What these achievements unlock however are game arts and more importantly skins for Shank.
You can make Shank look like Bruce Lee, a Spartan, Jason Vorhees, and a white ninja. While this doesn’t affect the gameplay it’s pretty entertaining to see how an vector version of notable characters kicking asses to a bloody stumpy pulp.
BRUTALITEH!
If you would describe Shank to anyone in one word, that would be it is Brutal. IT would seem the Klei Entertainment did not let up with the blood letting since every attack Shank makes would ensure somebody would either have an opened up torso or a missing a limb or two in real life.
Aside from the copious amounts of blood the game has in spades- Shanks brutality himself with other people is the one thing you’d have to live with as you play the game. You can make Shank feed enemies with grenades or kick them at the balls then chop their heads off.
Co-op Play
What I liked most in Shank is that the game allows you to play with a friend in offline coop.
I believe Shank’s highlight is the local co-op play. I actually asked Billy to come over and play it with me so we can test out how it works. If you can’t enjoy the seamless combos in single play, you’d be amazed on how it works during coop. The combos are fun to watch specially when you’re surrounded by enemies. You can “pass” your enemy to your partner and prolong combos.
What really “awwed” us is the slow motion combo attack where a character jumps over the back of his partner and does a killer move that I can’t really explain. It’s like a lethal version of a wrestling move that I can’t name. Sadly we can’t really record that move since it happens so fast all we can do is awww… at it with googly eyes.
Conclusion
While the game is short, It was the most enjoyable a couple of hours I’ve had with a beat ’em up. I can say that Shank isn’t really a GREAT game but it has enough to make it good enough for me to keep on replaying it specially when I’m on a bad mood. It’s short, it’s sweet and it’s bloody good (yeah I had to do that).
And for a guy who gets queasy with tons of blood this is an improvement.