Platinum Games are known for chaotic, clever and fun experiences, spanning many consoles and a few genres. Bayonetta is probably their best known and most realised game, with magnificently flowing combat, creative enemies and insane humour. So, what if they take Bayonetta and put her in a room with Jack Cayman from MadWorld, add fourteen other crazy characters, and let them all beat each other up? The answer, unsurprisingly, is anarchy. With the Director of Anarchy Reigns being part of the team that brought us Power Stone, the manic item-chucking influence is clear. Also in the melting pot are fighting games, Devil May Cry, and Streets Of Rage. It’s probably less than the sum of those parts, but what could possibly live up to that pedigree?
Given the types of game I mentioned in the opening paragraph, you’d expect your toolset to be important and expansive. I apologise in advance that this is gonna get detailed, but I honestly think it’s important you know the potential depth in this combat system. In practice, your toolset is not dissimilar to the kind of move list you’d expect to have in a Devil May Cry or MadWorld. First of all, you have a basic weak and strong attack which you can chain together into combos. Combos are usually ended by strong attacks but have edge cases. When you need a stronger attack, you have a Killer Weapon modifier which requires spending of a meter built by normal attacking to allow you limited use of your weapon. They also have light and heavy versions, with the heavy version costing two bars and usually triggering a canned animation if it hits clean. You have access to anti-airs and ground pounds, both modifiers of a jumping attack. The only tool that crosses both defense and offense is the 360 attack, which costs life but has lots of invincibility with which to break through attackers. Defensively, you have a guard and an any-way evade. Your guard can be broken or thrown out of (another weapon at your disposal), so you can’t just turtle.
There’s also a mechanic that feels very much like X-Factor from Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (it’s called Rampage, here). Activate it and you get start-up invincibility, and then proceed to go Kenshiro on anyone you manage to hit, delivering them the Hundred Crack Fist Of The North Star. If you then come across another Rampaged opponent, you go into a button-mashing minigame – and to the victor, the spoils. Learning when best to utilise this is just another part of the curve.
That all sounds pretty complex, and to some extent it is, but after an hour or so it’s likely you’re slowly progressing from just mashing X and Y and phasing all of the available tools into your game, especially if you jumped straight into the online jungle. In fact, this may be the best way to learn, as they’ll show you pretty quickly how to effectively approach an opponent by kicking your ass over and over until you notice. At least, this was my experience. Of course, there’s always the tutorial if you need it or a multiplayer mode with just computer bots.
The single player Campaign lets you take on the story from two sides, Black Side and White Side. Leading Black Side is Jack, and on White Side is new character Leo. Obviously each has their own story, but they’re both leading to the same goal of finding the mysterious Max. Starting with a bar brawl between the two, each branches off to take on various foes trying to stand in their way of finding Max. You go through five hub worlds in each campaign side which each only contain six missions, so it’s a fairly short experience but will kill some time and let you experiment.
Campaign hub worlds feel like a different game. Disposable hordes come at you and act as your playthings, accruing points to progress in the storyline. It can be cathartic, but when enemies can’t take a combo it is undeniably shallow. I suspect there will be factions that love the single player and dislike the multiplayer, and vice versa. Both are a shift in styles at times, the multiplayer more ruthless and technical; the single player more mindless and aggressive.
By beating up the cannon fodder, you get entry into two different types of mission: ‘Main’ and ‘Free’. Free missions are basically just time-fillers to accrue points and pad out the campaign mode, whereas main missions advance the story. Most such missions are simply fights with characters to unlock them. The story is pretty uninspiring though, and besides some humorous dialogue, is not particularly compelling. Nor should you have expected it to be, though, given the style of the game and the pedigree of Platinum. If you’re an achievement hunter, though, you’re gonna have to pull yourself through the story, as all 1000 points are tied to the campaign. This seems like an odd choice for a multiplayer focused package, but Platinum likely recognised that scenes can die and games become incompletable while simultaneously encouraging play of a mode they clearly put time into, despite not concentrating on it.
It also doesn’t help that the visuals are not that exciting or particularly well-realised. Obviously, the focus is on mechanics, not polish, but it’s got some rough edges which will disappoint some. It may also be a consequence of the sheer amount of action often happening on screen. The soundtrack, however, is an intriguing mix of jazz and hip-hop styles out to get itself noticed, not hide in the background.
Combat versus more equal opponents flows well, and in one-on-one requires that you mix it up, balancing your offensive needs with some defensive restraint and adding your dodging prowess to your combo ability. Sometimes, though, you will feel jarred and thrown out of sync by another’s movements. This is largely due to balancing issues, and occasionally down to handling issues. As a result of the multiplayer having the potential to get too crazy to even understand what’s happening, the engine feels somewhat slowed down in comparison to what it might have been during Bayonetta. The consequence of this is that being interrupted is that much more excruciating, and with the invincible 360 attack almost always at your opponents disposal, this can happen more often that not. You will also quite frequently see yourself trapped in a throw or cinematic you couldn’t possibly see coming. You can break said throws, but when they come from behind you better be alert. As such, it can be easy to try and go into your shell and just wait onslaughts out, but that invariably does not work.
The main multiplayer mode, suitably called ‘Battle Royale’, is a twelve to sixteen man points battle, where you earn points by killing and lose them by being killed. It is during your first experience of your mode that the name will click, and you will feel the true anarchy therein. It sounds simple, but there are extra factors, such as who you kill mattering (in that you steal points from the person you kill), killstreaks giving you more killer weapon gauge and health, and bonuses once the match is over. Of course, mechanics are not the only complicating factor. The difference between mindless brawlers, ruthless predators and devious tacticians mean you never know quite what you’re up against, and therefore must embrace that and be able to become a chameleon of styles (unless you find something cheap, of course). Also, remember the amount of people squashed into not that large of a space. These 16 combatant are seperated into 4 groups at best, so you’re going one on one. Instead, you are generally faced with limbs in all directions. Developing coping mechanisms when you have absolutely no idea what is happening to you is necessary.
There are a few holdovers from FPS Deathmatch modes in the overall multiplayer ruleset, which allows those more familiar with guns than fists to be slowly introduced into the fold. That sense of momentum you get from a killstreak is prevalent, and it is a rush to get past three kills with barely a scratch on you, no matter how you do it. In that same vein, you will inevitably have matches where you find yourself unable to build any momentum and just wallow into your doom, picking the wrong spots and squaring up to obviously superior opponents. These peaks and troughs are an essential part of anarchic life. There’s also kill stealing, and it’s quite prevalent. Even when people are on team, they’re still out for themselves, and you always need to keep that in the back of your mind, lest you never be truly successful. Anarchy is ruthless.
If you’re just into multiplayer, you don’t really have to play the campaign, as all characters are unlockable by ranking up in multiplayer. This is much appreciated, as it is a longtime bugbear of fighting games in particular to lock characters behind unwanted single-player modes. You can then take these characters into Training mode and figure out how best to achieve good damage output with each. The characters are varied enough that each feels distinct, with generally rather Japanese designs and three female characters that look very similar, but each fits a slightly different approach. All of the fighting game stereotypes are here: the all-rounder, the nimble glass cannon, the brutish grappler, and most of the spectrum in between. As such, finding the character for you is very important. Also, there’s a transformer, that turns into a plane when he dashes. What’s not to love about that?
If that didn’t sound overwhelming or overly chaotic to you, I think you’ll fit in perfectly. Still, if you’re after a complex storyline and an engrossing single player experience, I’d tread lightly on this one. If you want to beat up friends and strangers alike with rockets, chainsaws, explosive barrels and various swords though, welcome to Anarchy. We hope you enjoy your stay.