Action Henk Review

<p>Speed running is a phenomena that has raced off gleefully into celebration&period; With Games Done Quick doing a victory jog around the games of old&comma; finding new&comma; unintended shortcuts to sprint down&comma; it is unsurprising that other games are trying to slipstream behind the marathon parade&period; I&comma; myself&comma; have jogged behind&comma; but beyond doing a few runs of Forest in <em>Lemma<&sol;em>&comma; I was always out of breath&comma; hot and bothered with the whole affair&period; After playing <em>Action Henk<&sol;em>&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve still yet to get the runner&&num;8217&semi;s high&comma; sadly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Action Henk<&sol;em>&comma; beyond a title to infuriate those with a fanatical devotion to spelling&comma; is a speed-running title by <strong><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;ragesquid&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">RageSquid<&sol;a><&sol;strong>&period; Playing as a character from an 80s action film inspired by<em> Toy Story<&sol;em>&comma; you must run from one end of the track to the other&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be racing against medal time limits &lpar;or&comma; in the case of multiplayer&comma; other players&rpar; to see if you are the Actionest Henk to Henk Action games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8230&semi;Okay&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m sorry for that weird garbled message at the end&period; Maybe the editor wants to cut that&quest; He&&num;8217&semi;s shaking his head with a disapproving look&&num;8230&semi;Okay&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s carry on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortunately&comma; you have tools up your sleeves beyond running&period; You can slide across the floor like a rock-star&comma; which can speed you up if you&&num;8217&semi;re going down slopes but also slow you down if you&&num;8217&semi;re going up-hill or horizontally&period; Running may slow you down faster than sliding if you&&num;8217&semi;re going incredibly fast&period; There are also some levels that require you to swing around a grapple hook in an arc&comma; using your momentum to hopefully continue on your journey to shave seconds off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;100459" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-100459" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-100459 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;03231822&sol;ActionHenk1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"action henk 1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-100459" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Action Henk&comma; RageSquid&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This shaving of time is the entirety of the game&period; While the levels are roughly around a minute or two long&&num;8211&semi;some are shorter and a few are longer&&num;8211&semi;this only serves to allow you to frustratingly try and try and try again in quick succession&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be watching the ghost of each of the medal times dart in front or behind you as you slide or trip&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is due to this focus and attention to detail that makes each of the levels feel sleek and smooth to race through&period; There is a satisfaction in leaping through even a 10 second segment flawlessly&comma; knowing that by the end you may land yourself a gold or even a rainbow medal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only exception to hitting this ecstasy of time saving is when you&&num;8217&semi;ll fall into a pit or trip up because you had no way of knowing what was up ahead or where to go&period; Sadly&comma; the game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t do a course-wide camera pan and keeps the camera zoomed-in too tightly&period; You can&&num;8217&semi;t entirely be sure up what is up ahead if you&&num;8217&semi;re going for the fast speeds needed to hit a new record&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s that Sonic 3D problem&comma; coming around to slap you across the face as you make a mistake you couldn&&num;8217&semi;t quite see&period; The only way to avoid this is to&comma; well&comma; learn the course&comma; which the fast reload time helps out with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Due to this focus of speed running&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s not much left&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s not much story to speak of&comma; besides cutscenes that have a shockingly low resolution&comma; nor any real additional gameplay modes except the rare &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;collect the coins” challenges&period; There are costumes to unlock&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s all they really are&colon; Cosmetic alterations&period; While this creates fairness&comma; it also leads those wanting a mechanical progression out in the cold somewhere in Bradford&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;100460" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-100460" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-100460 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;03231733&sol;ActionHenk2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Action Henk 2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-100460" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Action Henk&comma; RageSquid&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Before we leap into the conclusion&comma; I have to give a confusing thumbs up&period; <em>Action Henk<&sol;em> apparently features not only online and offline multiplayer but a level editor&comma; as well&semi; all of these breath life into a game&period; However&comma; Action Henk is a fussy 80s action hero&comma; so he wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t flaunt his entire strut everywhere&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The PS4 version&comma; which my copy of <em>Action Henk <&sol;em>is&comma; currently has offline multiplayer and&comma; well&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s it if you&&num;8217&semi;re excluding the leaderboard&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure if the developers are locking stuff away for the upper class PC Gamers so the proletariat Console Gamers don&&num;8217&semi;t grub up the works&comma; or online aspects were locked away for pre-release playing&period; Either way&comma; that may be good or bad&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know because coaxing people off the street to play games with me is starting to get me shifty eyes from the neighbours&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The final score for <em>Action Henk<&sol;em> is a 5&period;5&sol;10&period; <em>Action Henk<&sol;em> is a game that I think may potentially misunderstand its audience a little&period; I believe often a game that clicks with the speed-running community is one that primarily may have been designed with a different purpose &lpar;e&period;g&period; a story&comma; a gameplay style&comma; etc&rpar; in mind&comma; but have particular characteristics which allow for a fair speed run time &lpar;e&period;g&period; consistency&comma; tight controls&comma; and different ways to approach the same problem&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Action Henk<&sol;em>&comma; bizarrely due to its focusing on speed-running&comma; sadly lacks the ability to hook players into a state of trying and trying again&comma; shaving seconds off&period; It will live or die based on if a fan-base will be created by roaming speed-running marauders&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s hard to passively assert your dominance when you&&num;8217&semi;re the only name on a leaderboard&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s the only trick in town here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 code for Action Henk was provided by Curve Digital for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;