At the end of 2007, the strange and captivating trailer for the Italian Spiderman was published on YouTube, a film directed by the elusive Gianfranco Gatti and starring Franco Franchetti in the tight role of the local superhero characterized by a showy pair of mustaches and a paper physique. Absolutely shocking. The film, according to the owner of the channel on which the video in question was published, dates back to the 60s and, still unpublished, was finally ready to be released after a miraculous recovery and careful restoration.
The aforementioned feature film, which would later be distributed on YouTube in several episodes, was actually the ambitious and very successful project of an Australian film school, an exercise in trashy style, which not only managed to accumulate millions of views on well-known platforms, not only helped showcase Dario Russo's directing skills, but also emerged as a perfect example of meta-storytelling.
The period film that was not a period film at all resonates today Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Slayer's Revenge, the result, as narrated in the game's intro, of the vision of a sixteen-year-old young man who, finally an adult, managed to give shape to the video game of his dreams, the one he had already designed in a notebook, while pretending to take notes during the games. school lessons.
Not only. This deliberately classic and retro FPS is also the (more or less) direct sequel to the lysergic Hypnospace Outlaw, a bizarre Internet simulator from the 90s in which, among many other things that happened, you also had the possibility of learning Zane, "developer" of Slayers
The guys big z studios inc.In short, they wanted to infuse from the premises a clearly meta component that characterizes and at the same time justifies the very existence of their creation, an SPF with a spicy flavor and suitable only for a limited and well-selected audience. , as well as the object of analysis of this Review of Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Revenge of the Assassin.
shitty sales
Murderers revenge. Good Zane is a budding vigilante in his teens. He plays in a band, enjoys school his way, in his free time he learns to be a hero, falls prey to some delusions of omnipotence and above all trains himself to curse with the right timing and tone of voice. . His world is completely turned upside down when a group of ill-intentioned punks, including talking turds and flying demon heads, decide to set his small Central American town on fire, killing his mentor and his mother at the same time.
The plot, certainly obvious and devoid of well-characterized characters, is developed with few dialogues and fewer films, which nevertheless have the great merit of reproducing Style and aesthetics of the first 3D video games.. Transitions that are now blurred, now clear, connect together scenes characterized by timid and nervous camera movements, non-interactive sequences through which virtual actors are filmed who are obviously stingy with details, mono-expressive, with complexions and clothes that flaunt acid colours. In short, you need to appreciate a certain type of aesthetics, style, atmosphere to fully enjoy these narrative interludes. The lovers of Horror B-movie, 90s action movies., those who grew up discovering the plots of their favorite video games by reading them in the instruction booklets and through some brief dialogue will love Zane's foul-mouthed jokes, the basic cinematography, and the grainy images that characterize the pace of the plot.
Don't expect who knows what twists and turns eight hours necessary to reach the final credits, nor to witness particular emotional evolutions of the protagonist. The depth is the same as any horror movie and should be approached in this spirit. In each line of dialogue, dubbed into English but subtitled in our language, the refinement of the wordplay, the double meaning, the effective joke are missing. We laugh at the absurdity of the context and our simple foul language, do not expect brilliant concatenations of words and rhetorical figures.
The retro style evidently also resonates in the graphic front. Assassins The reference model is Wolfenstein, Doom, the old Duke Nukem. The environments lack details, the animations are not fluid at all, the textures are low resolution, the special effects are reduced to the basics and are characterized by retro rendering. Just as the Italian Spiderman recovered the aesthetics and style of the police films of the 60s, the creature from Big Z Studios Inc. wants to be confused with an FPS released during the 90s.
Even from this point of view, in short, this is not a game aimed at commitment. There is no middle ground: either you love the adopted style or you hate it. The artistic design of the rest, between posters, bizarre enemies and residential neighborhoods made up of charming villas, follows in every way the trends, fashions and tastes of the aforementioned decade. The overall result is coherent, credible and pleasant, as long as you are in tune with the aesthetic dictates that the game promotes.
Retro disembowelments
The illusion of having an FPS from the old days in your hands is not broken at all when you savor the game. Compared to the founding fathers of the genre, the only openness to modernity that Slayers Completely free and seamless aim management..
Otherwise, that is, what was true for 1993's Doom, including the pace and the taste for collectibles hidden everywhere, the same applies here as well. The levels, which are relatively small in size, offer the same combination of shootouts, platforming phases and puzzle solving mainly linked to finding keys or mechanisms to activate to clear the path and thus reach the goal.
There is no room for who knows what type of interaction with the scenario, nor is the control scheme divided into complex or numerous commands. You shoot, change weapons, interact with the environment through the only button assigned to the task, stop. The same arsenal it is not made up of many fire outlets. The sidearm, a pair of pistols, a sort of shotgun, a bizarre grenade launcher, a missile launcher and a gatling cannon represent the range of instruments of death that the protagonist can use during his carnage.
However, at its core, Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer keeps you glued to the screen. The limited recoil required in the levels, the rhythm with which the enemy hordes alternate, the relative variety of proposed scenarios, the good response of each weapon, capture the player in a pleasant vortex of furious shootouts and moments in which they explore inch by inch. inch I pat the stage in search of the hidden path.
In any case, it is certainly not in this game where you will find something original, given the declared intention of the developers to follow, in every possible way, a path already taken in the past, creating, in any case, a tribute with a character familiar. and appearance already familiar to long-time fans of the genre.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, Xbox Store Price 16.49 € Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (11) 7.2 your voteGraphically backwards, nothing original, vulgar. But it also has flaws. Murderers Precisely for this reason it is difficult to advise against it to those who lived through those years and today regret them. The art design, the pacing of the action, and the concept of the level design are deliberately derivative. The developers have consciously and deliberately followed and re-proposed the same formulas that made games like Doom and Wolfenstein successful. The six or seven hours that it will take you to carry out Zane's revenge are pleasant, full of adrenaline and fun in the right measure, but you will only be truly passionate about this game if you lean towards the proposed style. If you are looking for something original, innovative and in keeping with the times, look elsewhere.
PRO
- Old school through and through
- Adrenaline-filled shootouts at the right point
- Many hidden paths to discover.
AGAINST
- Not everyone will appreciate the old school approach.
- Arsenal too small
