Screencheat Review
First and foremost Screencheat is a TON of fun, and for the low asking price of $14.99, is packed with great content. It is the first game to be released by the Australia based developer Samurai Punk for console, and it is excellent. The game is incredibly unique and I believe it is described accurately in the developers own words when they said “Screencheat is the ultimate party FPS.”
Screencheat is developed around one key concept, you cannot physically see other players in the game. The only way to find where another player is at is to, in essence, “cheat” by watching their screen and determining their location by their surroundings. Thanks to excellent map design and visuals, this could not have been better executed.
As you can imagine the game is played solely in a split screen environment, as it should be. This holds true if you are playing multiplayer or online multiplayer. You will need to find a good balance between watching your own screen and the screen(s) of your opponents in order to succeed. This was very difficult at first, but really made for some high intensity gameplay as we found ourselves ambushing, and being ambushed by, our invisible foes.
The gameplay is very well done all around. From the weapons, map design, and game modes; everything runs smoothly and fits perfectly into the “Screencheating” formula. The Maps in particular deserve special recognition for how well they are laid out and provide such excellent land marks to tell your opponents location from. The art style is kept purposefully simplistic, and in order to orient the players each map is divided into various colored sections. For most maps this meant having the playable area quartered into 4 separate colors, while on other maps each floor would be a different color. To go even a step further to this sense of recognition each unique map location provides small landmarks as well. Things such as statues in a museum or off colored rugs and curtains always ensured we were able to tell the approximate whereabouts of another player by just glancing at their screen.
Each of the game’s 10 weapons are also very unique and serves their own purpose to an individual’s gameplay style. I, for example, relied quite heavily on the short ranged spread of the Blunderbuss, while our other editors here relied on things such as the speedy dashes of the Toy Horse or the pin point accuracy of the Revolver Rifle. Each of these weapons, coupled with a number of unlockable skins, proved to be just as fun to use as they were useful in any given situation or game mode.
The many unique game modes kept our enjoyment going strong as well as we jumped from games like “Capture the Fun”, “Murder Mystery”, and “Bombs Away” to some of the more traditional Deathmatch and Hillcampers modes. Each mode was fun in its own unique way and kept us entertained for hours. However, to every couple of great game modes, there were a handful of modes that just fell short of the level of quality we had come to expect from the rest of the game.
Over all with an asking price of $14.99 (at the time of writing, currently on sale for $11.99) there is a wealth of great content and hilarious multiplayer reminiscent of classics like Goldeneye, that make Screencheat a game definitely worth buying. A well polished presentation and great attention to every gameplay detail by the developers will keep you and a group of friends entertained for hours and hour. We will be coming back to play this game for quite some time as it really is the “ultimate party FPS” the developers claim it to be. We look forward to playing Samurai Punk's future projects and are very confident after some time in Screencheat, you will too. If you’d like to try it out for yourself, codes for the game can be found at Amazon.com below:
