This game is great. I can only confirm the other five star reviews. The game ran perfectly on my PC.
The story is you are a killer robot á la Terminator sent to exterminate the last vestiges of humanity in a war against humanity. The problem is, on anything but the easiest difficulty the roles are clearly reversed gameplay-wise: The game plays like YOU are the last human on earth and all your enemies are killer robots with lightning-quick reflexes and you barely make it out alive. On anything but casual difficulty, the game is ridiculously hard. Unless you are a masochist or an Asian with microsecond reflexes, you will not have a good time. The smallest advances in the story take forever, since ammo is scarce and enemies kill you quickly if you don´t play very defensively. There are no checkpoints within levels and you need to replay large stretches if you die. Enemies start unloading on you as soon as line of sight is established or somersault in your direction if they are melee fighters. Sometimes they even teleport on top of you. On top of that, the game is pretty bland visually. The pixel art is okay most of the time, but the color palette is mostly black, brown and grey. The weapons are nothing revolutionary except the railgun which needs to charge up between shots. The sound design is quite good: Enemies scream in pain when they get shot or wail in anguish when set alight with the flame thrower. The gun sounds on the other hand are servicable, but nothing too noteworthy. I really like pixel art, but the resolution in this game is too low for my taste. CASUAL difficulty remedies all of the aforementioned problems: You are very resilient to damage, have loads of ammo, health and armor and can live out all your Terminator power fantasies. This way, the game is great fun for the 2 HOURS that it lasts and doesn´t overstay its welcome. There are no replay incentives except some Skull collectibles. Unless you want to support the small devteam, get BUTCHER when it is discounted.
The game is great fun. Big array of weapons, great enemy variety, lots of pop culture references, interesting story, fantastic level design with many secret levels. The game has sadly been banned in Germany for many years, but finally I could play it.
+ Interesting world, inspired by Fallout and Metro 2033 + Crafting systems are interesting + Lots of different character builds possible - The "map" is just terrible, might as well draw a paper map because it can´t be zoomed or panned around. Why anyone would do that is beyond me. - No real fast travel, you instead pay for train and boat rides. Fallout 1 already did it better. Why do such a thing in 2019? - Vendors only buy certain items and only a few of them. Realistic, but totally stupid. Sitting on piles of loot without being able to sell them. - Ugly graphics - Uninspired and boring story, except the telepathy bit - Forgettable and bland characters - Walking speed is way too slow - Crafting supplies shouldn´t have weight - - - Combat is terrible and absolutely gamebreaking. I can´t fathom how you can do a combat system in such an absolutely atrocious way: - Consumables have cooldown, stupid. - Grenades have cooldown, stupid. - Melee weapon variety very limited - Enemies can debuff your strength so your heavy weapons become useless, Why? - Certain enemies will poison you and then vanish into another dimension until the poison paralyses you so they can poison you again. Realistic, but not fun to play against. - Unless you min-max your build and read tons of guides online you will not get anywhere on a first playthrough without being in constant pain from facepalming 24/7. - You enter a room and are attacked instantly. You can´t even enter the room in combat mode to counter that. - Shooter enemies will run away from melee builds and shoot you from far away - No companions and enemies frequently swarm you. - You can´t have the first strike in a fight unless you use throwables. Characters can´t be targeted when they aren´t aggroed. - When playing the game on the easiest difficulty, with high combat skills and the best available gear I except to breeze through the game, but no, isn´t possible here. When combat is 90% of your game, it better be good.
The story is your average "from taxi driver to mafioso" story with gang wars, betrayal, revenge and a guy raising up in the ranks by performing increasingly difficult tasks for a Don. Whatever, nothing memorable. Rather read The Godfather. The driving is a clunky mess with your car skidding around the road like in a soapboy derby, completely turning 360 degrees when you drive a little bit too fast. You actually get damage when bumping into street lanterns? You are forced to constantly drive a measly 40mph or the police will flag you down for a fine. They tell you at the beginning that all the cops are on your payroll, so why is there a mandatory speed limit for you? The worst part are the shooting sequences and car chases, so basically every part of the game where any action happens. The levels are incredibly inconsistent, every combat sequence and car chase will play out differently. every. single. time. If you hit an enemy with a gun, they get "stun-locked" and you can just spray them to death with one mag from a 1911. The problem is, enemies will also do this. There will be sections where enemies with Tommy Guns wil completely annihilate you from 100HP to 0 HP in 3 seconds. From 20 meters away. And not just once. Enemies will either quickly finish you off or never hit you. You have a sideways dodgeroll, but you will only trigger it involuntarily. In car chases you will encounter road raging drivers that will behave like a steamroller in traffic and will make other vehicles in their path literally flip into the air. I only beat some levels due to the enemies bugging out or getting stuck. After a certain point in the game you will not play a mafioso game anymore, but Call of Duty where you blow up buildings and kill dozens of enemies one-man-army style. The game is a bug-ridden mess. Every good memory is overshadowed by loads of moments of rage and frustration. How can anyone say "this is the best Mafia game"? I regret wasting 8 hours of my life on this.
