Bandai Namco and The Farm 51 released their psychological thriller Get Even today after a one month delay. The bottom line here is this a worthy game to play with its budget price. Check out our Get Even review for the full picture.
Get Even Review:
Today we’re taking a look at The Farm 51 and Bandai Namco Entertainment’s twisted psychological thriller “Get Even” which released on consoles and PC. You play as ex-military and general hard-nut Cole Black who at the start of the experience is abandoned in a strange and foreboding asylum for the mentally deranged with the task of saving a girl from a deadly predicament involving a chair and bomb set to a timer which is counting down. What initially seems like a straight forward action for our hero, turns out to be much more complex and sinister. For starters, there’s a strange device attached to Cole’s head which allows him to revisit past memories. With a guiding voice from an unknown entity calling himself “Red” the plot certainly thickens as you are made to feel like a trapped rat being controlled by the powers that be.
It’s perhaps hard to delve into any more specifics here regarding the game’s plot because to be fair, they are hard hitting when you experience them first hand. The twists and turns don’t immediately become apparent, but once you’ve sunk a number of hours into its shifting of gameplay styles, you begin to form a picture of what’s actually going on. The game constantly throws stuff at you to confuse and mask the truth with the same being said of its gameplay. To begin, the adventure feels like a stylized walking simulator with a touch of Condemned Criminal Origins investigation thrown in (you remember that game don’t you). Armed with a smartphone which functions with several extremely helpful modes such as UV light, real-time Satellite map and scanner you tentatively piece together the events of the past. It’s an intriguing approach and for some could have been the mainstay of the entire game, except it isn’t as Farm 51 appears to want to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades with their game design. So aside from the extremely imposing narrative, you’re handed a gun which means there’s an option for killing – except you’re ticked off by Red every time you act aggressively – something about distorting the memory is banded about. So you’ve choice to adopt a more stealthy approach if you have the patience to sneak around hot-spots avoiding patrolling guards and perhaps snapping a few necks silently without the need to cause a ruckus and the ensuing firefight. But it’s not that easy either and whilst everything that happens is just a memory being replayed, for Cole at least, it feels very real. For the player it means having to start a possible lengthy section again from a checkpoint which is a bit of pain sometimes.
So within the first hour of the game you will have experienced a chilling walking simulator, puzzle solving, stealth action game, psychological thriller and CSI style investigation but it doesn’t end there because at the heart of the story is a newly developed weapon called the corner gun which you steal from a company called ADS. Whilst its use is limited throughout the story, when you do get to play, it adds another layer to combat where hiding and shooting around corners without the danger is the order of the day. It has to be said, there’s never a dull moment with the changing gameplay and that’s not including when all hell breaks loose where you have no choice but to shoot back. For some, the master of none approach might feel a tad too disjointed but for others the pacing is possibly just right and means you’ll find something new at every turn. The only real gripe here is how unforgiving the game is in places where death comes pretty swift and sometimes unfairly.
So with all these factors to be mindful of here, is Get Even a good game? Yes it is despite a few bugs here and there in the build we played which we’ll assume will be patched – getting stuck on the scenery for example. The storytelling is top-quality with excellent voice acting, even though there’s a fair bit of reading documents to uncover the full picture. The stealth is fun even if the guards are super “on it” once your cover is blown then it becomes hard to settle things down – unless you’re killed which seems most likely. The shooting is decent too, although not the entire focus here. These features are all wrapped up nicely within a warped and often jarring element of bat-shit-crazy with pounding audio effects and deranged voices assaulting your ears which aim to haunt you long after you’ve finished playing. “The Par-tee…The par-tee…The par-tee”. It’s a horror game in places whether that’s intentional or not. The game’s visuals are also of a good quality running well in 4K on PC at 60 frames per second using a top end GPU. That said, the visuals are shrouded in an overall abundance of moodiness portrayed from start to finish. This isn’t a brightly lit colourful experience to marvel at because most of the play and its more obscure puzzle solving is covered in dimly lit graffiti drenched abandoned interiors.
Interestingly, you can replay completed sections again if desired where at the safe house you can track your progress and replay a memory to gather any info you might have missed the first time – possibly unlocking more clues and changing the story. Your actions also have consequences which have bearing on the end game results as well. So there’s option to replay if desired but this is an optional feature given the game’s fairly long duration.
Get Even is a great game for those after a more engaging first person adventure. There’s a variety of styles on offer here but at the end of the day this is still a hybrid walking sim even if it can boast a fair bit of action when needed. However, the real star is the storytelling and the premise itself with regards to the Pandora device which replays memories. Assassin’s Creed Animus this is not, and to be fair it’s a far more adult adventure with a much more twisted theme than Ubisoft’s offering. If you’re after a game that will keep you captivated, on edge and desperate to uncover the truths buried within, then this is well worth picking up. It will no doubt be lauded as one of this year’s better story experiences. Whilst is can appear a bit disjointed at times with its mish-mash of gameplay styles, for the most part this approach works in the game’s favour. Get Even is engrossing, fun to play and simply put a quality gaming experience from start to conclusion. Highly recommended.
Score – 9/10
