On a launch Xbox One, it drops frames when action gets hectic and crawls whenever glass is shattered. When all of its pieces are aligned, Gang Beasts beliefs are almost impossible to doubt.ĭespite officially leaving early access in 2017 and coming to the PlayStation 4 over a year ago, Gang Beasts is still kind of a mess. In our session, Gang Beasts produced a density of laughter and screaming not present in many other four-player (or two teamed) competitions. It looks so damn stupid, and its basic operation narrows the gap between novice and professional. It’s in the company of Sportsfriends, Nidhogg, and Samurai Gun of straightforward games tuned for parties and focused gatherings. Making a dangerous mess and somehow finding a way out was a thrill on par with any of party-gaming’s most valuable moments.Ĭombining three friends with three hours of Gang Beasts quantitatively provided one of the best multiplayer experiences I have ever had. From there almost nothing happened on purpose, leaving the rules of death and victory open to a personal belief system. By hanging onto the Ferris wheel’s spokes, we ended up using Gang Beasts’ physics system to break the cars off the wheel and create a dangerously unstable playing field. Each player begins the match in a different car, and the challenge is supposed to lie in finding a safe way to navigate to another player’s car so you can beat the shit out of them there. Then there’s the Ferris wheel level, which, in our experience, created an exhibition closer to performance art than open fighting. Fighting (or taking advantage of) the environment is as important to survival as trying not to receive a concussion. Soon you can move onto two opposing elevators, the aforementioned area loaded with meat grinders, one with a fan contraption that throws players into the sky, and another with two trucks accelerating down a highway. These are opportune places to learn and practice the basics. A wrestling ring is the vanilla layout, with similar low-stress options on a rooftop or on the catwalk of a roadside billboard. Gang Beasts’ collection of levels present different angles to explore its potential. You can never count someone out, often in spite of the effort on either side. Watching someone either pull themselves out of a meat grinder or dangle below a moving truck reflects panic and desperation on both sides of the equation. Inevitably, said opponent always comes to life at the last second and clings to life in a mad scramble. This creates a small window of time to pick an opponent up and use your momentum to hurl them out of the arena and win the match. Either a properly cocked punch or a fierce head-butt can knock an opponent out cold. The absence of a normal control model does not preclude the development and application of skill.
It’s a bunch of goofy blob people fighting each other, a post-modern version of Bum Fights where nobody actually gets hurt and empathy isn’t sacrificed in the agreement. It’s sloppy by design and stupid by necessity, creating a volatile mixture of artistry and luck perfected to match Gang Beasts’ maniac aesthetic. Of equal certainty is the negative impact it would have had on Gang Beasts’ performance. These are the primitive instruments in which Gang Beasts allows its players to orchestrate comic pandemonium.Ĭertainly, a more intuitive control system could have been developed. For some reason, double-tapping B deploys a vicious head-butt. Y lifts a held object (almost always another player) above your head. X and B are responsible for ducking and a half-assed kick, respectively. Pushing the A button jumps, but only when the button is released. Holding down the same shoulder button turns your arm into glue. Tapping the left and right shoulder button issues a left or right punch. Gang Beasts, which was first released to early access in 2014 at the peak of this phenomenon, seeks to apply this principle to an arena-based fighting game. Surgeon Simulator, Octodad, and Job Simulatorpleased a remote audience as well as they entertained a local player, but this trend felt stale by the time the wrapping came off in I am Bread. Obfuscating control in the pursuit of creative anarchy is a proven, if not rapidly decaying, approach to game design. The eventual product is Gang Beasts, a multiplayer brawler more interested in coddling chaos than honing control. Inspire it with the will to live and the instinct to destroy. Insert it into a dangerous arena with three companion abominations. Shape the wreckage into an anthropomorphic body, and somehow keep the limited points of articulation. Melt down an action figure to its primordial goo.
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