Write a comment
Whenever I browse the Xbox storefront, I’m mostly looking for sales on games I’ve missed out on or possible hidden gems I can recommend to gamers. Rightfully, Beary Arms is one such title and it’s one that really took me by surprise. Not just because I kept calling it “Rightfully, Bear Arms” but because its simple premise hooked me right from the get go.
“Gentlemen? Lock and load!”
I should begin this review by stating that if you are tired or just outright hate roguelites, then this game is not for you. In fact, to sum up the gameplay rather quickly, this is a roguelite bullet hell shooter; which means you spawn, you try to survive for as long as possible until you either beat the run or get pixelated (this game’s version of dying), all the while powering up your character so that he’ll have a better surviving chance the next run. There is nothing here that’ll revolutionize the gaming landscape nor is there anything that will blow your mind with dazzling innovation. No, this is a basic roguelite game and, honestly, I’m fine with that. I do enjoy complex games (for the most part) and I do love it when a game gives you tons of options to better your experience. But, sometimes, I just want a game that I can just boot up, turn my brain off, and just kill some hours and relax. Rightfully, Beary Arms excels in that area ten-fold, though it’s not a PERFECT game by any stretch of the meaning. If anything, I would describe this game as “Fun but slightly flawed”. What I mean is that while there is a lot of fun to be had here, it does have some minor issues that did affect the game for me. Not enough to fully ruin or hurt the game, but it was enough to get me to take notice.
For starters, I feel the weapon selection is a mixed bag. Despite a decent selection of guns on offer, from pistols to heavier weapons, I found myself gravitating towards a small handful as they dealt the most damage and were, honestly, a bit more fun to use. Like the Mac 10 And Cheese, which that name made me giggle like a hyena when I first saw it: This is a fully automatic SMG with a surprisingly small ammo pool that helped me survive most of the maps on offer, thanks to its fast firing rate and ability to fire more projectiles when upgraded. Yes, there is an upgrade system for weapons and, thankfully, it’s very easy to understand and figure out. Every so often, you’ll find Gear pickup icons and, when grabbed, you’re given the option of upgrading one of your weapons. Beary himself can also be upgraded as well with two types of upgrades, those being the permanent ones like more health and higher damage output and stuff called Runtimes. These Runtimes are only good for the current run and can aid you by either giving you more cash to spend at the store or bettering your survivability for that run. Be warned, there are also “upgrades” called Calamities and these will aid your enemies during a run, which I think is a pretty cool idea and would like to see more games do this. In fact, I would love to see a game where whenever you level up and choose stats, you’re actually leveling up the enemies and choosing their stats instead of yours as your character is already at max level and power. Be an inverse Dark Souls!
Where the game does falter just slightly is in the overall difficulty. Yes, it is a roguelite so it’s supposed to be difficult at times, which I fully understand. However, here, it felt like the game was either too easy or just very slightly challenging. I honestly think most of my in-game deaths came from either misjudging a dodge and getting hit or accidentally falling in the water in the second world, which happened more times than I can count. Now, you could argue that I’m just getting better at playing these types of games after having played similar titles for so long, which I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But, here, it really does feel like the difficulty is just weirdly balanced. I do like how, before you progress to the next level of a stage, you can choose what rewards you can earn in said stage but, throughout my time with the game, I rarely was able to earn those rewards as the chest that holds them never really dropped a lot. I get there has to be some level of randomness but the rate the Rewards Chest dropped felt way too low at times. I’ll also say the enemy selection is spotty at best. While there are some interesting enemies here, like a fish that actually respawns as a ghost when killed and you have to kill it again, there are some that are either just slightly annoying to fight or just plain confusing (I swear the one enemy in the first world is a sentient butt). Actually, speaking of the fish ghost, I need to bring something up. During one of my runs, I had killed the fish and it spawned back as a ghost. Despite my best effort, it did manage to get me, resulting in my screen turning a weird shade of purple-ish static. Now, I thought this was a temporary effect and tried to play the game normally, except I couldn’t as not only did I not know where anyone was, but for some reason my cursor went all funky and I couldn’t do jack, resulting in the run ending. But, when I returned to Beary’s room, which is where you buy upgrades and choose a starting weapon…the screen was still purple and I couldn’t do anything. Now, I was able to fix this by exiting and loading back in, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t supposed to happen when the ghost fish attacks.
“Come on, feel the noise!”
When I first loaded up the game, the first thing I immediately noticed was the artstyle and overall sound. Yes, it’s a pixel art game and these are, admittedly, a dime a dozen now, but I do like the pixel artwork done here. Beary, for example, is pretty adorable and his running animation is pretty cute and I also like how, every time you beat a boss, you can wear said boss as pajamas, which leads to something that is both utterly cute and utterly hilarious to see, while also being a bit disturbing if you really think about it. The enemy design, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. While some of them have interesting looks and they are easy to tell apart from the environment, a few just look kinda cheap or are just confusing to look at, like the, what I believe to be, sentient butts. The environments are nice and all, if not simplistic in design, but it wasn’t enough to really hurt the overall artstyle. If anything, the simplistic environments actually add to the game’s overall charm. The same can be said about the music. While a few tracks are just OK at best, the rest of the game’s soundtrack is downright catchy and fits the mood perfectly. There were even a few songs that reminded me of the cult classic N64 title Mischief Makers and any game that reminds me of that classic instantly gets a +10 from me, as well as a reminder that my backlog is forever getting larger everyday. Oh well, such is the life of a gamer.
“I’m smarter than the average bear!”
Rightfully, Beary Arms really surprised me. When I saw the game, I was thinking it was going to be just another roguelite that I’d play and honestly forget about. That wasn’t the case here as I legitimately had a good bit of fun with the title! Yes, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table and I get that this genre is starting to be a bit tired, but I still feel this is a fun game, especially for its low price. If anything, the fact you are playing as a bear in pajamas shooting guns should be enough of a selling point right there!
Thanks to the developers for a Review Key. Rightfully, Beary Arms is available on Steam & Xbox Consoles
