And that's how it should be! I love when I can play a demo to try before I buy, and I will definitely be buying this game. The action is fast and brutal. Overall, if I could use only one word to describe Trepang2, it would be "engaging". The demo starts with your character in handcuffs, with no weapons. You run through the environment, dodging soldiers and trying to stay alive. To me, it made me feel like I was playing a modern remake of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. But anyway, once you get your gun and body armor, it's off to the races. The dark environment really pulls you in as you stay in the shadows to avoid detection. You can grab an unsuspecting soldier from behind and have three options on how to take him down, depending on the button you press while holding him. Of course, if you're like me, the real fun comes in taking down a soldier in silence then taking a shot at another soldier to start the gunfight. And really, the gun battles are engaging as well. The weapons feel good, especially the shotgun, and they offer different attributes: the pistol is for accuracy, the machine gun sprays bullets but isn't as accurate, and the shotgun just mows down your enemies. You can only carry two weapons at a time, but that's no different than Halo, so it's fine, and it adds to the strategy of figuring out which two weapons you want to carry. Oh, and you'll also pick up grenades, of course. As I said, you pick up body armor, which keeps enemy shots from taking away your health right away. There are health packs to restore health, and body armor can be found or picked up from dead soldiers, along with ammo. During battles, you can also employ a cloak (to become invisible) or focus (to slow down time). Overall, I had so much fun with this demo. I didn't want to put it down, but eventually, I had to get back to real life. If you're on the fence with the game, just download the demo. It's free, and it's totally worth your time.
I was about to buy this game on sale, but luckily, I thought of looking for a demo first. I found one on Steam, installed it, and was ultimately disappointed. This is a game that wastes way too much time with gimmicks, to the point that the gimmicks become the center of the game over playing actual football. For example, if the other team bribes the ref, no matter what you do on the next play, even score a touchdown, the ref will call a 10-yard penalty on you (and remove any points scored). To counter this happening again on the next play, you'll have to bribe the ref as well, or attack the ref, and since the ref survives the first attack, and calls a penalty on you, you'll have to attack the ref again on the next play to kill the bribed ref and get a new ref. So now, you've gone through three or four plays surrounding the ref, had two or three penalties called on you, and have to sit and wonder if you're going to get to play some actual football. Not to mention, when the opponent hits me with a gimmick like electric shock powers, I then to have to figure out which gimmick I need to hit them back with. So, the game becomes more about figuring out which gimmicks to pull off and when. Also, players die or get injured way too quickly. The gameplay needs a lot of restructuring in order to make it fun. There's really no excitement around the game of football; it's simply a game about gimmicks that happens to use the sport of football as the background. If the gimmicks excite you enough to enjoy the game, that's cool, but I certainly wasn't into it. I'd rather the game be centered on playing football but with the gimmicks being more of a side show rather than the main show, like the classic NFL Blitz games. If you're coming into Mutant Football League expecting an NFL Blitz-like experience, you're not going to get it. In short, buyer beware. Play a demo before you even think about buying this game, even on sale.
