To me, it is very weird to see games that feature historical figures who were alive when I was around. It doesn’t really phase me when I see Leonardo Da VInci or George Washington, but bringing Ronald Reagan into the video game universe vexes me a tad. These are historical figures who I remember seeing on the news. The others not so much; I’m not that old.
Moving on from my own trepidation, I downloaded Reagan Gorbachev and found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. The game is set in 1986, during the height of the Cold War, and both President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev have been kidnapped during a summit. They find themselves trapped in a prison and must team up to save themselves and the world.
The controls are very simple in Reagan Gorbachev. You use the left thumbstick to move around and such. To switch between Reagan and Gorbachev you simply click on the Right Bumper, this allows you to solve puzzles and trick enemies as you escape. The Right Trigger is attack. You can use Reagan as your tank with his samurai sword, or silently kill from afar with Gorbachev’s blow dart gun. Don’t fret, though, those are not the only weapons you get to use. You can pick up pistols, silent pistols, shotguns, and so on as you fight your way to freedom.
As with any other game you are given a tutorial as you progress. You find out that Gorbachev can hack computers to doors that are Green, doors that are Yellow must be opened with a key, and Red doors can be lock picked by Reagan. While you have a gun, you can lock onto enemies with Y and cycle through the enemies with Left Trigger; this helps when you have kill guards quickly. If you alert a guard you can be killed with one hit. However, if you tap the Left Bumper, the character you are not using will come to your aid. This game is, of course, built for two players, but sadly I have no friends and had to play alone.
Reagan Gorbachev has a very nice retro feel to it; I felt like was playing my Super Nintendo again. The sprites are nice and the animations aren’t too wonky. The little avatars of Reagan and Gorbachev are done pretty well, as is the in between conversations you are privy to after you beat one of the thirty two levels.
The game even likes to educate by asking you questions about the two past leaders. So far I’ve been nailing every question, but I was alive when all this was going down. The music fits the game but can grate on one’s eardrums after awhile. Once I beat the first level I went and turned down my television so that I wouldn’t get aggravated by the music.
The game has a great sense of humor, as well. Instead of using the usual humor we see in games today, Reagan Gorbachev makes you think about the jokes because of its puns or little rips on the time period. I enjoy that imaginative humor so much more than the in your face kind of humor we have now. The look and feel of the game is great. It really pulls on those nostalgia strings if you grew up in 1986 and remember these fellas, or if you grew up playing the Super Nintendo.
The one thing that really hurts this game is the fact that it is extremely repetitive. While killing guards as a sixty year old president has its charms, it gets boring after while. I can only samurai sword so many people to death before I ask myself, “Is there any more to this game?” Unfortunately, there isn’t. I groaned a bit when I found out that there were thirty levels. I realize they wanted to give some bang for the buck–it’s too bad that the bang is the same thing over and over.
I may have had more fun if I had a buddy sitting next to me, blow darting people into oblivion, instead of switching characters over and over again. Sadly, I may never know–much like I’ll never know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
The novelty of Reagan Gorbachev is what really sold me on it. The added perks were the trivia questions and the well written dialogue between Reagan and Gorbachev during the cutscenes. I could have done without the terrible music and repetitiveness. If I was going to play a top down one hit kill game, I’d much rather go with Hotline Miami; that one was less about stealth, more about action, and more about masks. If you are a history buff or a 16-bit fan, I would suggest Reagan Gorbachev for you. However, if you are unaccustomed to 16-bit or you were a child left behind, you shouldn’t get this game.