This holypunk brawler is a good vs evil mashfest that may appear repetitive at first, however the more you play, the more you unlock,the better the game gets. This 3D brawler has a premise of heaven vs hell and the game comes from Error 404 Game Studios and Blowfish acting as publisher.
You play as Vanessa Held, a soul huntress who along with her hellhound talking doberman Monty travel through the open city consuming souls of your enemies and restoring the balance between heaven and hell. There are cutscenes with story that showcase audio over comic book style picture cells. To be honest the story is there but it doesn’t provide any deep insight into the characters or the world. This game really is all about the action.
There are different levels of attacks with standard, ranged and heavy attacks. You can also warp and use all these abilities together to perform combos. Using the combo system isn’t as easy as it sounds, some of them require the attack button to be held for a few seconds while the attack powers up. This isn’t ideal in intense situations when you need to get a lot of enemies cleared out quickly. There is so much happening on the screen and a barrage of enemies all coming for you at once, the luxury of charging up a combo is practically non existent.
Monty the Hellhound has his own skill tree as well so a lot of my play was focused on levelling up my doggo. Using shards Monty can transform into different forms and if you upgrade enough, can be a formidable assistant. If you are planning on having a second player join you, they take control of Monty so it is also worth doing if this is going to be part of your play. Monty can be controlled when in single player mode and can be commanded to attack certain enemies and combos and charges can be combined to deliver devestating blows to enemies.
Apart from brawling, you collect weapons along the way to add to your collection. Every weapon has its dedicated skill tree that allows you to upgrade combos and skills. Each weapon carries a primary and secondary attack which can also be upgraded and used in combos. The big test here are boss battles. They are hard, not just like hard hard but ridiculously hard. It presents the challenge of is this game too hard or is it an appropriate challenge, particularly when you take into account the story portion that is pretty light. Fortunately I found it entertaining and a joy to play. Both in single player and co-op the battles and action kept me engaged and motivated to keep playing.
While the combat is great, the enemy design is a little lacking. Demons, Zombies, the usual hell fare is largely uninspired design wise. Fortunately the dark background of the game does give light to the neon characters and gun fire that fill the screen. Each level had skimly decorated backgrounds leading to others of similar quality. This is an indie game and the budget I imagine isn’t huge, it can’t help but feel a little undertouched. Some of the levels feel a little out of touch as the design feels unfinished. It’s not a big thing but it is noticeable.
Obey Me is a beautiful brawler that is a lot of fun, particularly in co-op mode. The dazzling visuals and addictive gameplay will keep you coming back for more time and time again. A lot of thought and effort has gone into the AI doberman character Monty who you can use as your main weapon or grind through upgrading your weapons and abilities you collect along the way. While the game is pretty light on the story, the action and visuals balance this out delivering a solid new action brawler for your collection.
Obey Me is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC now.
