March 03, 2021
In the heading "Direct text" The authors express exclusively their own opinion, which may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial office (or may coincide). They are free to do it as they like and in any format convenient for themselves. Everything is possible here.
Parododies in games are not often found, and already full-fledged spun games are generally a unique phenomenon. Because a good parody requires considerable effort. It is not enough just to put on a similar grimace and start grimacing: you need to be able to carefully notice the subtleties and witty details. Rustler does not bother himself with this approach (at least in his current state). She fervently dumps dead memes, clumsy references and toilet humor into one pile.
Medieval quality
Rustler literally from the threshold calls himself "medieval GTA ", And at first glance, she does everything perfectly. Open peace, robbery, robbery and theft of horses, drunken peasants are funny in the mud. An isometric chamber with a classic look from above impresses nostalgia for the first parts of Grand Thet Auto. Yes, and the main character, a rootless guy named Gai, goes the same way as many other great car agents. In pursuit of his dream, he dives with his head into the criminal world and with his own eyes sees the decomposition of all layers of society. Conocracy, corrupt politicians, wars of gangster groups and disassembly with guards – all elements seem to be on the spot, and all of them are suitable for setting.
Do not hope much – such madness rarely leaves the borders of Kitszen
But the pleasure of nostalgia quickly gives way to disappointment. Almost all (few) mechanics rustler either do not work as it should, or are simply done poorly. Two main gameplay elements – horse riding and a combat system – came out depressingly boring. There are enough varieties of horses and wagons, but they differ only in the speed and appearance. The double-button combat system is completely broken due to inadequate artificial intelligence of opponents, who either randomly flicker in front of the player, then tightly stand in the block and refuse to attack; The complete absence of at least some weight in animations does not help-from strokes, that from clashes during riding. The only thing that pleases in the fighting is a variety of weapons, but even you can hardly enjoy the full. Upon death or arrest, the entire accumulated arsenal is selected, and each time to go for new tools – an unbearably tedious lesson.
The pumping tree is made obviously for the box and does not offer anything interesting
And you will often die or fall under arrest. The local guard does not doze off and causes a lot of trouble: to break away from the chase without the help of special objects on the map (Sarayev on the “repainting” of horses or announcements about the search for the hero) is almost impossible. The guards are not only used to funny fast horses, they also have the habit of appearing right in front of the main character, no matter what deaf -haloma he left them. However, a couple of times I also noticed the opposite effect: the servants of the law simply tired of chasing the main character and calmly disappeared right in the middle of unnecessary fields.
Catching up with the “police” in Rustler only cause irritation – but how otherwise, if almost every element is broken. In addition, an empty and absolutely static map repels the desire to explore the world and arrange a branded GTA-stand-free in it. Chaos, fun, burning peasants and cows on the roofs of houses are only in the opening Katsen: in the gameplay there were only dull trips from point A to point B.
Biba, Bob and the Holy Grail
Rustler has just been accessed to early access, and at the moment there is absolutely nothing to do in it, except for plot tasks and rare side activities such as racing and fighting clubs. If the second, like everything else in the game, is completely broken, then the first still has some kind of hope.
Although the first few tasks cause boredom, the developers quickly give themselves will and in the future try to supply each quest with some funny context. Here we change around the courtesan to arrange a sabotage in the French camp, and a little later we shoot a cow from demands or threats we drive the embroidered parishioners to the church https://the-vic-gb-casino.co.uk/. True, due to the scarcity of game mechanics, no matter how inventive the context is, you still have to engage in the same. For example, the mentioned mission with a courtesan only at the beginning gives hopes for something interesting: it is worth changing and crossing the threshold of the French camp, as everything rolled up in a dull brawl and an amusing chase pursuit. And so every time.
Funny names are so funny
The mechanic finally spoils pleasure and the imperfection, which often make missions simply impassable. The character constantly and at the most inappropriate moments stuck from scratch, the guards are literally from the void endless stream, and the only checkpoint for the mission (at the very beginning) does not work. As a result, the only element of the game that has at least a hint of a creative idea often turns into medieval torture.
But all of the above, in general, can be attributed to early access, especially since the game came out less than a month ago. All this is quite possible (and it is necessary!fix, and the developers have more than plenty of. But what to fix it is much more difficult is humor. Rustler is so desperately trying to squeeze out a laugh out of the player, which completely loses a sense of proportion and taste. The characters communicate with stale memes, the most obvious references to pop culture stick out on each corner. Each dialogue is trying to be ridiculous, but almost all jokes in the game come down to “something from the present has been transferred to the Middle Ages” or to the toilet humor. You hear the sounds of belching and starting the winds so often that at the second hour of the game you can go crazy: they, in half with slurred muttering, come from every second passerby, quickly mixing into disgusting cacophony. For which you can not hear the excellent, in general, music and rare really successful jokes.
References to Rustler are more elegant than ever
So far, Rustler looks pretty weak: both GTA, and as a parody of it, and as an independent game. If the authors make an effort, then from Rustler it may well come out exactly the bright and original project, which it was conceived. But for now, the game is not pulling on the Renaissance of the old GTA, but rather on the epidemic of bubonic plague.
- We played on it Takes Two. A new cooperative adventure from the authors A WAY OUT
- What to play in March: Maquette, It Takes Two, Monster Hunter Rise
- Hands from the shoulders. Cool games in which you can learn something useful