Speed running is a phenomena that has raced off gleefully into celebration. With Games Done Quick doing a victory jog around the games of old, finding new, unintended shortcuts to sprint down, it is unsurprising that other games are trying to slipstream behind the marathon parade. I, myself, have jogged behind, but beyond doing a few runs of Forest in Lemma, I was always out of breath, hot and bothered with the whole affair. After playing Action Henk, I’ve still yet to get the runner’s high, sadly.
Action Henk, beyond a title to infuriate those with a fanatical devotion to spelling, is a speed-running title by RageSquid. Playing as a character from an 80s action film inspired by Toy Story, you must run from one end of the track to the other. You’ll be racing against medal time limits (or, in the case of multiplayer, other players) to see if you are the Actionest Henk to Henk Action games.
…Okay, I’m sorry for that weird garbled message at the end. Maybe the editor wants to cut that? He’s shaking his head with a disapproving look…Okay, let’s carry on.
Fortunately, you have tools up your sleeves beyond running. You can slide across the floor like a rock-star, which can speed you up if you’re going down slopes but also slow you down if you’re going up-hill or horizontally. Running may slow you down faster than sliding if you’re going incredibly fast. There are also some levels that require you to swing around a grapple hook in an arc, using your momentum to hopefully continue on your journey to shave seconds off.
This shaving of time is the entirety of the game. While the levels are roughly around a minute or two long–some are shorter and a few are longer–this only serves to allow you to frustratingly try and try and try again in quick succession. You’ll be watching the ghost of each of the medal times dart in front or behind you as you slide or trip.
It is due to this focus and attention to detail that makes each of the levels feel sleek and smooth to race through. There is a satisfaction in leaping through even a 10 second segment flawlessly, knowing that by the end you may land yourself a gold or even a rainbow medal.
The only exception to hitting this ecstasy of time saving is when you’ll fall into a pit or trip up because you had no way of knowing what was up ahead or where to go. Sadly, the game doesn’t do a course-wide camera pan and keeps the camera zoomed-in too tightly. You can’t entirely be sure up what is up ahead if you’re going for the fast speeds needed to hit a new record. It’s that Sonic 3D problem, coming around to slap you across the face as you make a mistake you couldn’t quite see. The only way to avoid this is to, well, learn the course, which the fast reload time helps out with.
Due to this focus of speed running, there’s not much left. There’s not much story to speak of, besides cutscenes that have a shockingly low resolution, nor any real additional gameplay modes except the rare “collect the coins” challenges. There are costumes to unlock, but that’s all they really are: Cosmetic alterations. While this creates fairness, it also leads those wanting a mechanical progression out in the cold somewhere in Bradford.
Before we leap into the conclusion, I have to give a confusing thumbs up. Action Henk apparently features not only online and offline multiplayer but a level editor, as well; all of these breath life into a game. However, Action Henk is a fussy 80s action hero, so he wouldn’t flaunt his entire strut everywhere.
The PS4 version, which my copy of Action Henk is, currently has offline multiplayer and, well, that’s it if you’re excluding the leaderboard. I’m not sure if the developers are locking stuff away for the upper class PC Gamers so the proletariat Console Gamers don’t grub up the works, or online aspects were locked away for pre-release playing. Either way, that may be good or bad. I don’t know because coaxing people off the street to play games with me is starting to get me shifty eyes from the neighbours.
The final score for Action Henk is a 5.5/10. Action Henk is a game that I think may potentially misunderstand its audience a little. I believe often a game that clicks with the speed-running community is one that primarily may have been designed with a different purpose (e.g. a story, a gameplay style, etc) in mind, but have particular characteristics which allow for a fair speed run time (e.g. consistency, tight controls, and different ways to approach the same problem).
Action Henk, bizarrely due to its focusing on speed-running, sadly lacks the ability to hook players into a state of trying and trying again, shaving seconds off. It will live or die based on if a fan-base will be created by roaming speed-running marauders. It’s hard to passively assert your dominance when you’re the only name on a leaderboard, and that’s the only trick in town here.