Breakneck City [Xbox]
Developed by Renegade Sector Games, Breakneck City is an old-school styled 3D beat ‘em up, where you can play alone as either Justine Jacobs or Sydney/Sidney Flintlock (the spelling fluctuates within the game and across official store pages, promo material, etc.), or with a friend, where you’ll each take on the role of one of the duo, with both characters playing identically. After a local gang known as ‘Ultragang’ tries to burn down their favourite video store, Film Fools, the girls want revenge.
The controls are oddly satisfying, with it being difficult at times to get a good aim on an enemy due to the lack of a lock on (which it sorely needs), but when you land a powerful kick it feels great. Dodging is tied to the right stick, and makes it feel like your character should be wearing skates; it’s a slightly strange choice, but somehow still feels fun to dart around. You can swing on lamp-posts, and hit enemies into certain environmental objects such as dumpsters, and you can pick up dropped weapons, which makes for a pleasing crack whenever you hit an enemy with a bat.
Visually, the limited colour palette on environmental designs works really well, giving the levels a striking look, and well differentiating the areas from one another. Enemy designs evolve as you progress, with each level introducing new enemy types, as well as how they attack, such as using weapons such as lead pipes or guns; as well as taking more effort to knock them down. There are a number of different ways to utilise the environment whilst fighting, such as kicking through elevator windows, and cutting down chandeliers, and these are some interesting and fun additions. The soundtrack is very retro feeling, with chirpy tunes and synth beats - though these can sometimes feel a bit disjointed in context with the levels.
The combat can feel quite challenging to begin with, but you soon get the hang of things, with most enemies being easily taken down by simply moving to attack them from behind. Swinging on poles, whether in clubs or lampposts outside, is an ultimately over-powered move, as there doesn’t appear to be any interrupt animation for enemies to stop you, so you can just keep on spinning and smacking them across the room until they’re all wiped out, wherever these are available. Bosses are sadly laughable, with none of them offering much in the way of a challenge up until the last two levels, with Frankie Abaddon - a cybernetic soldier referencing one of their previous titles, Kill the Superweapon - requiring use of environmental damage to defeat him, and the final level having multiple bosses return before you take on the final - and he doesn’t take all that to work out, either.
Overall, Breakneck City is a decent time, though at the price of £8.39 on the Xbox Store, it does seem a little on the expensive side, with only six levels that can easily be completed within about an hour or so. The gameplay is interesting, if a little rough around the edges, and provided us with a fun, if slightly forgettable, time. It would have benefitted from having secrets to find, or upgrades to unlock, as well as having some variance between the two playable characters to maybe encourage you to give it a second playthrough.
Having a more fluid combat system, with combos - or even just the ability to easily get within range of enemies without having to pray you’ll be facing the right direction - would have made a huge difference, as the frustrations with getting a hit in on enemies is the biggest issue with the controls. The fighting ends up quite underwhelming due to this, along with the slow, clunky animation - which really is a shame, as there’s a lot of great ideas here. If you’re looking for a retro arcade beat ‘em up, and think Breakneck City looks like something you’d like to try, I’d recommend waiting on a sale if you’re hoping to get some value for your money.
In the end, we decided to give Breakneck City the Collecting Asylum rating of 6/10.
Are you interested in Breakneck City? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the Breakneck City Xbox review code!
