Randall Review – Ambitious But Sorely Lacking

<p>A dystopia is like&comma; the worst kind of &&num;8220&semi;topia&period;&&num;8221&semi; They don&&num;8217&semi;t always start off terrible though&period; Typically&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re creation is grounded in creative ideas and good intentions that seem great on paper&comma; but then just don&&num;8217&semi;t really work out and everyone involved just ends up angry and sad&period; Unfortunately&comma; <em>Randall<&sol;em> is that kind of &&num;8220&semi;topia&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Created by Mexican-based indie studio <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;randall-pax-east-2016-hand-preview&sol;">We The Force<&sol;a>&comma; <em>Randall<&sol;em> is a single-player&comma; metroidvania&comma; 2D-platformer set in a dystopian future&comma; hence the previous metaphor&period; The mysterious protagonist&comma; Randall&comma; is a slightly schizophrenic telepath who awakens from a blackout to battle an oppressive&comma; ever-watching government&period; Like many platformers&comma; the narrative is completely inconsequential to enjoying the game&period; However&comma; if you do want to understand what&&num;8217&semi;s going on&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d better read an external description as <em>Randall<&sol;em> offers little in-game explanation and what clues it does provide are muddled by an abundance of spelling and grammatical errors&period; If I hadn&&num;8217&semi;t learned elsewhere that the protagonist had a <em>Deadpool<&sol;em>-like multiple personality&comma; I never would have realized that the majority of conversation dialogue was actually just Randall arguing with himself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126202" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126202" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126202" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;06121010&sol;randall&lowbar;game&lowbar;04-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126202" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Randall&comma; We The Force Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The combat is straightforward&comma; consisting of a basic brawler moves set&period; By attaining a high enough combo&comma; you can replenish a certain amount of health&comma; but whereas the combat offers no motivation for varying up attacks&comma; combat typically just breaks down into spamming the punch button and intermittently dashing&period; The classic <em>Double Dragon<&sol;em> ability to punch&comma; kick or throw enemies at each other after grappling them would have made combat far less tedious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Things get more interesting after the first hour and a half&comma; when you finally begin to unlock Randall&&num;8217&semi;s psychic abilities&period; After stunning an enemy with a psychic blast&comma; you can catapult yourself off of them in any direction&comma; or control their minds for a limited time&period; Using the toughest bad guy in the room to beat up on his friends is a lot of fun&comma; but combos can&&num;8217&semi;t be attained this way and therefore no you get no health bonus&period; Also&comma; when psychically commandeering an enemy&comma; Randall literally rides them&period; This makes sense on enemies that have a beneficial means of conveyance like flight or walking on ceilings&comma; but when you see the tough-as-nails&comma; badass protagonist taking a piggyback ride&comma; it seems hilariously out of character&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126205" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126205" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126205" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;06121038&sol;randall&lowbar;game&lowbar;14-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126205" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Randall&comma; We The Force Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Like <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> and other great platformers&comma; <em>Randall<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s platforming requires pinpoint accuracy when dodging traps or landing jumps&comma; which makes it&&num;8217&semi;s inconsistent controls feel all the more unfair&period; For example&comma; to grab a ledge you&&num;8217&semi;re told to press R2&period; By pressing and holding R2 when you&&num;8217&semi;re mid jump&comma; you will automatically grab some ledges&comma; while other ledges demand that you press R2 the instant you reach the ledge&comma; leaving you to plummet to your death if you&&num;8217&semi;ve pressed it too early&period; To wall jump&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re told to press X&period; Although it&&num;8217&semi;s not necessary&comma; I felt a natural inclination to press away from the way with the left stick when jumping&period; Sometimes&comma; pressing a direction like this is inconsequential&comma; while other times it appears to prevent the jump input entirely&comma; again letting you plummet to your doom&period; Sporadically&comma; pressing the grapple button will grapple and then ungrapple&comma; leaving you vulnerable to attack and even advancing the dialogue screens requires you to pound on the X button multiple times to get any response&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126204" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126204" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126204" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;06121028&sol;randall&lowbar;game&lowbar;11-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126204" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Randall&comma; We The Force Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>More frustrating than the inconsistent controls and more confusing than the narrative is the level design&period; The hallmark of metroidvanias is unlocking previously unreachable areas by using newly obtained abilities&period; The layout of <em>Randall<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s different &&num;8220&semi;levels&&num;8221&semi; and how they are interconnected is not only very confusing&comma; but there is literally no overworld map to explain it&comma; making it very difficult to purposely return to specific areas&period; The individuals &&num;8220&semi;levels&&num;8221&semi; are divided into multiple areas that do thankfully include mini maps&comma; but they are stationary in each level and can&&num;8217&semi;t be taken with you to be consulted on the fly&period; I eventually resigned to literally taking a picture of my TV with my phone when I&&num;8217&semi;d find theses maps&comma; but even they are so vaguely labeled they weren&&num;8217&semi;t all that helpful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126203" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126203" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-126203" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;06121018&sol;randall&lowbar;game&lowbar;07-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126203" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Randall&comma; We The Force Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Adding to the frustration is that the game&&num;8217&semi;s glitches are not limited to the occasional screen tearing&period; At least once during every play session I had to restart from a previous save point because <em>Randall<&sol;em> would simply vanish when transitioning from one area to another&period; This wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be a game breaking frustration if save points were prevalent&comma; but they aren&&num;8217&semi;t&period; Exiting to the main menu and restarting from your last save point because of a glitch is infuriatingly unfair&comma; especially right after successfully completing a difficult platforming puzzle you&&num;8217&semi;d been throwing yourself at for an hour&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;oCpAT4eMpcU" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A tough&comma; metroidvania&comma; action platformer with telepathic combat and a rad looking protagonist sounds fantastic on paper&comma; but <em>Randall<&sol;em> falls short and ends up frustrating for all the wrong reasons&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s uncompromising demand for precision without providing the proper means is akin to tackling a bobsled course full of hairpin turns in only a Radio Flyer red wagon&period; Perhaps with more development time and a few more levels of polish&comma; <em>Randall<&sol;em> could&&num;8217&semi;ve achieved the greatness it was admirably chasing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>Randall<&sol;em> is available now for digital download on both Steam and PS4 for &dollar;14&period;99&period; A PS4 copy was provided for this review<&sol;strong>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;