I really wanted to play something of the genre of run and gun and although I found several games of which I liked a lot and soon I will make their respective review, I opted for the one I will talk about today because it is quite different from the more conventional run and gun games, especially because we are facing a game with isometric view, ie, whose camera is up but with an inclination, type games like LOL and most tactical strategy games. This being a rather strange element in a game in which we are in constant action and shooting at our enemies.
Today's Retro Review is about: Skeleton Krew.
The story takes place in a futuristic apocalyptic world, in which the president of the company called Dead Inc (with this name we already know that these people are the villains of the game) has created a large number of monsters with very dangerous mutations, which are used to control the city and cause chaos and terror in every corner. Because these monsters are very strong, no group of police, army or any other control unit can cope with them and they are destroyed one by one, creating a totally uncontrollable situation, however, an elite group of mercenaries, known as Skeleton Krew will be sent to control this desperate and chaotic situation, returning peace to the city once again.
Graphically it is a game that stands out quite a bit, not especially for having excellent graphics, but for its "rough" art style and its color palette quite striking but dark in most scenarios. Skeleton Krew transpires the 90's in each and every one of its pixels, from its artistic style so characteristic of the time, as well as its plot. This game is based a lot on science fiction and it shows a lot in its timeless and in the design of its characters, basically our 3 main characters are cyborgs with aspects of characters from a Death Metal band.
The characters move quite fluid, with fast movements and very consistent for a game in which we will be in constant action and mobility, dodging attacks and attacking destroying our enemies by shooting. The artistic style of Skeleton Krew reminded me a lot to the one used in the movies of the Alien saga, because of this all "biotechnological" aspect present in some scenarios and which was so popular and characteristic of the movie saga. The design of our characters, as I mentioned, is quite characteristic, in fact, they do not look like the "heroes" of the story, it is quite the opposite, due to their aspects of "bionic skeletons" they look like the main villains of this story, also resembling members of a Death Metal band, with many black colors and intimidating appearance. The enemies also present good designs, very varied and being mostly mutants with grotesque aspect, but very well designed and some others are just quite threatening robots.
The soundtrack of Skeleton Krew is quite accurate with all its graphic aspect and argument, since throughout the game we will be able to hear melodies with "dark" tones, some of them mixing the characteristic elements of the "retro wave" music (so to speak), but much darker and even dense. With a soundtrack quite competent and that fits very well, Skeleton Krew manages to create an atmosphere full of action and freneticism from start to finish. Similarly, its sound effects are good and although perhaps a bit simple, they manage to complement the general atmosphere of this game very well.
Skeleton Krew is a game with a simple gameplay, easy to learn, but perhaps a little strange due to the perspective in which the camera is located. We are facing a game of pure action, a run and gun in which we will be in constant frenetic action from start to finish, shooting and eliminating any enemy that we have in front of us, being this a fairly linear game, but no less fun. Its isometric perspective makes it a game quite different from other games of the same genre (although in terms of mechanics and controls it is quite basic), but this element, quite characteristic and strange for a game of this style, makes Skeleton Krew quite original since it is out of the standards of the most classic of this genre.
We will have 3 characters at our disposal, having these 3 characters classic and even cliché characteristics of many games ranging from beat em up to run and gun: Joint is the representation of the "tank" of the group, being the most resistant and strongest, but in mobility is the slowest, Rib, which is the only woman in the group, occupies the most popular feature of video games: it is a much faster character than his other companions, but is the least resistant and finally we have Spine, which would be the character with the most balanced stats. And with these 3 characters, the most cliché and typical characteristics of the videogames are already fulfilled. Being able to choose any of these 3 characters, we will go through a series of scenarios full of enemies looking for us to eliminate them, with a slightly high difficulty curve, this game will be a fairly entertaining challenge on many occasions.
Skeleton Krew is a game that I didn't know until not long ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a game quite peculiar in many aspects despite the fact that in terms of mechanics it is quite simple, but it is certainly a very entertaining game and worth playing.
