3 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 197.0 hrs on record (40.4 hrs at review time)
Posted: Oct 22, 2021 @ 3:02pm
Updated: Oct 22, 2021 @ 3:23pm
Product received for free

Got it from a friend, and i must say, it's going in my top 3 favourite games of all time.

Origins

This game originates from a series of old flash animations about limbless featureless characters murdering each other in increasingly violent ways, birthed from no other place than Newgrounds.
This game is in fact a sequel to a 2D flash game of the same name, now renamed to Madness: Project Nexus Classic.

Now what makes this game good?

Unlike its predecessor, this game actually stands on its own, MPN: Classic was more of a novelty than a game, not being too incredibly in-depth combat wise. Now, however, this game has become a truly skill based experience, with parries, dual wielding, grenades and all the arsenal a fellow grey cross man would ever need. There's actual skill to be had in this game, and it isnt just clicking on bad guys

Alright, cool, what about game modes?

The game offers 2 game modes (and possibly a 3rd as dlc, however it isn't set in stone, and could actually be cancelled), that being Story Mode and Arena Mode.
Story Mode is your basic meat and potatoes game mode, following the main protagonists of the original Newgrounds series (Hank, Deimos, Sanford, Christoff/Jebus, Hofnarr/Tricky) trying to take down the infamous, all powerful "Project Nexus", a Project that if inherited and harnessed, could be too powerful to handle. Not much else to say about it, kill bad guys, do objectives, and pilot the kick ass protagonists of the Madness universe.

Now, Arena Mode is where its at for a lot of people. Arena Mode starts you off as a dinky no good grunt with hardly any combat skill and no weapons to boot, and you grow them to be a be all end all killing machine. You get to pick an Origin for your character, that give them a backstory, perks and even weaknesses. OOOOOOR, alternatively, you can pick the Noob Origin, which means you have no backstory, no perks, and also no weakness.

The story for Arena Mode is pretty simple, you wake up in a bus, instructed by a character only known to you as "Doc" (2BDamned canonically) to "build an empire" in order to "begin the enmeshment procedure" with "the Mandatus", in an unclear daze, you get off the bus to an empty, dusty, dreary building you apparently have to take over, and turn into a massive money pumping business for Doc. you work your way through, knocking out squatters, and making friends with a guy named "Bossman" who helps you to get started and begin business, he shows you the "Sleepwalker Program", which is a pod that puts you to sleep, and as you dream, lets you train your combat skills. From there on out, you snowball your way to freeing a pilot, doing missions for cash, and so on so forth. There's even more than that to the story, but it's already too much to cover

Alright then, so what about the gameplay?

Oh boy, where do i even start? The best parallel i can give you is playing a modern day DOOM game. It is visceral, bloody, gruesome, but most of all, BAD. ASS. This game finds the best way to make you feel like a cold blooded murder machine, ready to tear down people 10 times your own size, and treats it like its nothing but a classic Tuesday mornin'. This game is gratifying in every way. The crunchy sound design of blunt melee weapons piercing the skulls of your enemies after being thrown, the sharp "CLING!" of an empty gun, the goopy "PFLASH" of brains being blown out, it truly satisfies the animalistic desire for death and violence.

Now that you think im a murderer, why dont we move on to the actual gameplay?

Your skillset consists of a couple simple mechanics like dodges to get out of harm's way, punches to tenderize your fellow fleshy punching bags, melee weapons blunt and sharp, to cave or chop heads, guns to paint the walls with the childhood memories of some poor bastard, and best of all, grenades, to make every room suddenly be colored in strawberry jam (funny how that happens).
Everything i've just mentioned feels SOLID, and to boot, you can even block and parry, to get a skillful edge over your opponents, and dual wield weapons, whether it'd be 2 guns, 2 baseball bats, or mix n' match like a sadistic build-a-bear, it's all up to you!
The game also features MAG enemies. Big, bad, unstoppable hunks of meat for you to burn through. These big guys will give you a struggle, being the main reason for my deaths, despair, and suddenly dissapated will to live. The trick to most of the MAG enemies is to melee them until they try to grab you and dodge, at which point a sword icon will appear over their heads, then, move behind them and execute them to deal heavy damage. Doesn't work on all of them though, some are just too chonky to be stunned by a missed grab.

You can even tag your friends along! Sadly, its only couch co-op up to 4 players, and its only available in Story Mode, but the option is there if you ever want to share the experience with a pal, or three!

I see, so what about graphics and optimization?

The game is gorgeous, however, its definitely nowhere near TF2 in optimization, you'll need a decent rig to play it at a good resolution with good graphics, though, being someone that owns a GT 710, i can tell you, as long as your willing to play at 1366x768 resolution, with medium to high graphics, you'll be just fine, it can get choppy, but never in the middle of action, just in some rooms

And what would you rate this game?

Well, it definitely wouldn't be a 10/10, the game, although amazing, is not perfect. There are points where the game feels downright unfair, or even buggy, and the game just isn't worthy of a 10/10. I'd say this game is somewhere in the ball park of 8-8.5./10. Most definitely worth a buy if you enjoyed DOOM 2016 or Eternal, and even more so if you're a Madness Combat fan.

Probably one of the most fun and exhillarating games i've ever played

TL;DR

It's an amazing game, reviving a series thought to be dead, and brings deep gameplay and is a game i would recommend to people that enjoyed DOOM 2016/Eternal, ULTRAKILL and other such violent and visceral games.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award