Murderous Pursuits Review: High Concept, Poorly Executed

<p>In theory&comma; <em>Murderous Pursuits<&sol;em> should&&num;8217&semi;ve been amazing&semi; its premise basically boils down to a multiplayer-only <em>Assassin&&num;8217&semi;s Creed<&sol;em>&comma; but with some extra twists thrown in&period; Based on how its closed beta was originally received&comma; it looked hopeful that the full release would be spectacular&period; However&comma; this isn&&num;8217&semi;t the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game serves as somewhat of a spiritual successor to <em>The Ship&colon; Murder Party&period;<&sol;em> However&comma; despite the connections&comma; the new game isn&&num;8217&semi;t as high-quality as <em>The Ship&colon; Murder Party<&sol;em> might imply&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"3JhYicXnLG8" title&equals;"Murderous Pursuits Launch Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;3JhYicXnLG8"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;3JhYicXnLG8&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Murderous Pursuits Launch Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The Concept<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em>Murderous Pursuits<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; core concept is that of a number of players being dropped into the one area with a bunch of lookalikes in order to&comma; you guessed it&comma; murder each other&period; Building upon this&comma; players are given quite a few unique ways to kill the other players while scouring through the NPCs&period; In fact&comma; the game encourages players to get creative&comma; offering extra points for more creative kills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a concept&comma; it works pretty well&semi; players have to use cunning and ingenuity rather than simple reflexes and offers an enjoyable competitive experience&period; It can be exhilarating when you’re caught up in a close match&comma; deftly maneuvering through the crowd to reach your target while you keep a wary eye out for any other players who are also hunting you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Cracks In The System<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>In the transition from beta to full game&comma; Blazing Griffin added two forms of progression into <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;638070&sol;Murderous&lowbar;Pursuits&sol;"><em>Murderous Pursuits<&sol;em><&sol;a>&colon; unlockable skins for each playable character &lpar;skins which can only be unlocked by earning favor points as that character in Quick Play&rpar;&comma; and a more traditional XP-based system that allows players to level up by completing Quick Play matches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The problem is that neither of these progression systems is very deep or compelling&period; The skins are mostly just color swaps of the character’s normal outfit&period; There is also a collection of more unique-looking &OpenCurlyQuote;Mr&period; X skins&comma;’ but they can only be obtained by purchasing the game’s &dollar;29&period;99 deluxe version &lpar;non-deluxe is &dollar;19&period;99&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"9nm6UjfJqKg" title&equals;"Murderous Pursuits Announcement Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;9nm6UjfJqKg"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;9nm6UjfJqKg&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Murderous Pursuits Announcement Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Despite its flaws&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;murderous-pursuits-set-steam-release&sol;"><em>Murderous Pursuits<&sol;em><&sol;a> can still be an enjoyable game&comma; eventually&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s only been released and isn&&num;8217&semi;t long out of closed beta&comma; so it seems like it&&num;8217&semi;s only upwards from here&period; As much as I wanted to like it&comma; in its current state&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s bogged down by multiplayer quirks and shallow progressions&period; Hopefully&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;ll be updated and patched pretty soon to fix these problems&period; Until then&comma; the game is going to languish with very few players&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;