I Am Your Beast Review (Snufflegrunt)
(GOTY 2024. Original "pre-review" kept for posterity, detailed pros and cons at the bottom.)
Dear Diary...
I have a huge backlog. As a result, I don't usually buy games that aren't on sale or are over a tenner unless they're a Doom or Command & Conquer game, or a spiritual successor by the same developers. To get me to buy your game, you usually have to convince me that it won't sit in my backlog for 5+ years or be so cheap that it might as well be free. However, I bought this game more or less blind, not knowing what it really was other than an FPS with a cool art style with interestingly low system requirements. I've only played I Am Your Beast for 20 minutes and I'm terrible but I can tell that I'll get better and that it will turn out to be an incredibly special game for me.
That intro and first couple of levels were exactly what I needed from a psychological, nay, an *emotional* perspective at this brief juncture in my personal life. It was worth the money just for that. The game has already done its job for me. I will play it to 100% completion and edit this review accordingly, but for now, it's time to go and be The Beast in the real world.
I get that this isn't a real review and isn't the most helpful for potential "customers", but I want to thank the developers for that wonderful demonstration of the value of games as an art form. My first impression "review": it's essentially first-person Hotline Miami with a health bar that takes place in wide open areas, but holy **** these developers know how to do an introduction.
Update on my personal bollocks if you care: Mission accomplished irl. I did what needed to be done months ago, or at least got the ball rolling. Happy Halloween. Thank you dev! "I am your shit. You should be ashamed of what you have eaten." ROCK N ROLL...
Positives:
- The music is ace, 10/10.
- I enjoy the progression, although some may not. The game demands that the player improves as they make their way through the game, so you are sometimes expected to go back to previous levels to achieve higher scores or complete bonus objectives before the next level and/or cutscene unlocks. The reason I enjoy this is that it forces the player to play levels that they previously found difficult, only for it to be shown to them how much they've improved by getting the satisfaction of utterly wrecking a level that used to be a hurdle. I wouldn't have got a single S-rank if this wasn't here, and it felt amazing.
- From about a third of the way through the story, you begin to have options on how to approach combat scenarios. These options never include stealth, but direction of approach, combat style or even often (but not always) running straight past enemies.
- The story is engaging and compliments the gameplay, which is one big power trip but with an artistic purpose to said power trip. If you have a thing for government conspiracy theories, this one's for you.
Neutral:
- Lots of adrenaline. I can only play this sorta thing for an hour or so at a time, but 10 years ago back when I still had a soul I would've lapped it up.
- Main story missions will take around 4h but it really tests your FPS skill. I'd say that I'm a slightly above average FPS player, so make of that what you will. So kinda short, but honestly it's quality over quantity here and there is ZERO padding. There's plenty of postgame content, including challenges, which look like it could take a completionist around 20h. Beating only the main story will unlock all but two achievements.
Negatives:
- The AI is terrible when it's not scripted. Terrible to the point where it's so bad that they don't do what you'd expect if you've played other games with mid AI. The AI genuinely surprises you with how bad it is. I don't think it's programmed to try and hunt you down when left to its own devices, and if it is then it's very bad at it. This is obviously one of the reasons for the incredibly low system requirements, and having done some research on the dev and their other games, I think those requirements were a challenge that they set for themselves.
- Collision is a bit janky sometimes. I've fallen through the floor once and got stuck on a climbable cliff. I've been stuck on geometry (such as between rocks) 3-4 times.
Final thoughts:
10/10 from an artistic perspective, 7/10 for gameplay mainly due to what happens to the AI once they're free from their scripted actions. But 10/10 overall because I'm INFJ as hell. I Am Your Beast is my GOTY 2024, partly because it symbolises my personal experience of 2024 perfectly. My heart thanks these devs.