Anarchy Reigns - Limited Edition PlayStation 3

Released on 11-Jan-2013

• Review Roundup: Anarchy Reigns

  The name Anarchy Reigns may not have been on your radar, but judging from reviews popping up this week, that should probably change. A relentlessly paced third-person arena combat game from PlatinumGames - home to Bayonetta, Vanquish and the upcoming Metal Gear Rising - it's a frantic multiplayer mashup that offers a distinctive change of pace from the usual FPS deathmatch model. It's also budget priced, at just £17.99, so you can give it a try without breaking the post-Christmas bank.

  "To say this is a game about kicking a*** undersells it," reckons Eurogamer's bottom-violence obsessed 9/10 review. "This is the Colosseum of a***-kicking, an arena where huge numbers of a***s are kicked with a gigantic boot, and then there's some more a***-kicking to follow." The review goes on to praise the "substantial" singler player story modes - there are two of those - as well as the balancing of the multiplayer. "Exceptional" is the final verdict.

  Metro Game Central hails it as "one of the most unusual online action games for years" but warns players that you'll need to put your time into the story mode to master the fighting before throwing yourself into the online arena. "An inspired reinvention of multiplayer brawling, that carves out a whole new action genre for itself and those brave enough to learn its ins and outs," is Metro's final word, accompanied by another healthy 9/10 score.

  Destructoid is also impressed, comparing it favourably to SEGA Dreamcast classic Power Stone. Special mention goes to the game's ability to create "amazing picture-perfect moments" from its chaotic mayhem. "Brawler fans should find everything they're looking for with Anarchy Reigns," the 8.5/10 review concludes. "It's ridiculous, it's fun, and it's packed with enough content to last you a long while."

  Anarchy Reigns is out now for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, priced just £17.99.

  Published: 11/01/2013

• Anarchy Reigns - Review

  
  

  

  Tough Guy, Huh?

  If the idea of a massive brawl set to amazing rap music sounds interesting, then Anarchy Reigns might be the game for you. Slamming its way onto Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, this is one of the defining meetings of boot and bum in videogame history, an online fighting game from the creators behind classics like Bayonetta and God Hand. In fact, that almost undersells Anarchy Reigns. This is the Colosseum of bum-kicking, and by God it is brilliant.

  Plane Nuts

  Anarchy Reigns offers up not one but two sizeable single-player campaigns (Light & Dark) that introduce most of its roster, usually by having you plant their face into a nearby surface. The environments are gigantic, and range from chunks of ruined cities to aircraft carriers, all of which are tied together by zooming jump pads, teleporters and airlifts. Every one is jammed full of crazy stuff that happens during fights: escaped trucks crashing through the battleground, planes crashing, Krakens rising, and hurricanes blowing.

  Here's a typical mission description: "Jack meets up with the Baron. But their male bonding session is interrupted by a ninja assault!" Anarchy Reigns' single-player doesn't mess about and massive brawls make up the majority of the campaign, but there are also one-offs like hanging from a helicopter while firing its gun, or drop-kicking giant bowling balls through hapless thugs.

  

  Killer Choice

  In total, there are 18 player characters available, and though they have distinct styles the controls are shared across all and are fairly simple; the most important thing is that any fighter's basic combos can be instantly enlivened by their 'killer weapon'. You know, little things like a chainsaw or lightsab- light sword, sorry.

  Anarchy Reigns introduces a unique rhythm to third-person combat with its multiplayer element - in singleplayer games like Bayonetta, long combos are what you strive to master. But here there needs to be more back-and-forth, so every character has a 360° attack which costs a little health but clears out the immediate area. Flowing and devastating combos are still a part of Anarchy Reigns, but fighting between decent players tends to involve shorter, more explosive flurries.

  Love Hurts

  It's a brutal world online, and your first few brawls will likely end in crushing defeat. But this is when Anarchy Reigns separates the men from the boys - mastering its combat is all about keeping your head in the midst of a tornado, and punching off someone else's. The huge depth of the controls starts to come to the fore, as you learn the precise timings involved in blocking or dodging, when to wait, and when to really let loose. Basically, you'll have to choke down a few knuckle sandwiches before you're ready to hand out your own.

  

  Is it worth it? Is it ever. Online, Anarchy Reigns swiftly becomes magnificent, the fights going all the way from Rocky-style comebacks to Royal Rumble extravaganzas atop skyscrapers. Sometimes it is literally chaos: all you can see is dust and limbs, a flying truck sails by, and the next thing you know there's a pole sticking out of your head. It happens. Sometimes you're on top, and sometimes you're not.

  The core action of Anarchy Reigns is fantastic, and as you'd expect from PlatinumGames this is matched by a wealth of unlockables, and an incredible OST: vocals delivered with machine-gun speed over pounding synthesizers, it turns out, is a great soundtrack for a ruck.

  Platinum Standard

  Anarchy Reigns is the kind of game that never lets up, offering a huge and challenging single-player campaign alongside a set of matchmaking modes that keep changing the rules around. Online it can put you in big team battles, or objective-based modes that play out like a kind of ultra-violent rugby match - and it even spices things up with the odd one-on-one cage match.

  The developers of Anarchy Reigns, PlatinumGames, are responsible for some of the best fighting games in history. Add one more to the list. Anarchy Reigns is one of the most satisfying and deep brawlers you'll ever play, the kind of virtual world that swallows your focus entirely. In other words, it's an absolute knockout.

  GAME's Verdict:

  
  

  The Good:

  • Deep and rewarding combat!
  • During natural disasters!
  • An amazing OST

  The Bad:

  • Characters need unlocking
  • No local multiplayer
  • That's it!

  
  

  Published: 10/01/2013

• Anarchy Reigns - Preview

  
  

  

  Anarchy in the UK

  Mad. Crazy. Over-the-top. Wild. All these words have been used to describe a fair few video games recently, but never have they seemed more apt than with Anarchy Reigns. This brawler throws a bunch of PlatinumGames characters together with the loosest of story-telling reasons in order to get some of the maddest, craziest and wildest over-the-top fights seen in a long time.

  Anarchy Reigns is already out in Japan, with the much-demanded 'western release' coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in January 2013. This week we were able to get our hands on the game for a few hours, trying out both the single-player campaign and the various multiplayer modes and seeing just how wild it could be.

  Why Does It Always Reign On Me?

  Campaign came first, as our way of finding our feet with the controls and the world of the game. The plot is quickly set-up - Jack Cayman, last seen in MadWorld, is simply trying to drink quietly in a bar when obvious bad guy Nikolai and his agents turn up to cause trouble. Jack steps in to do the right thing, and... you're off! You can choose to play as the Black Side (Jack) or White Side (rival character Leo), with each offering different cut scenes, objectives and bosses to fight, but the gameplay is much the same - brawl your way through hordes of bizarre-looking enemies, most of whom explode into splotches of blue blood when you kill them.

  

  Different missions will crop up as you're fighting your way around. Free missions, which are almost like tutorials with a purpose, can be re-played to increase your skills and earn XP, while the main missions push the stories forward and see you take on - and unlock - boss characters for multiplayer. But whatever the objective, from killing 50 enemies in under five minutes or taking on a boss, the gameplay and tactics are very much the same - brawl your way through!

  The controls are easy to learn, with strong and normal attacks and a grab function which often results in some sort of hardcore wrestling move. On top of these are your Killer Weapon moves where Jack will pull out a double chainsaw from his robot arm to give him that little bit extra when needed (Leo has a couple of charged positron blades). Like all fighting 'Special Moves', use of the Killer Weapon is limited so it's best to save it for multiple foes or the truly big bads.

  The environments themselves are also a big part of the gameplay. Each location has all the nooks, crannies, and various levels that make running around them lots of fun, complete with dangers like quicksand or industrial smelting to avoid, and various items you can use in your attacks. Feel like mixing your style up a bit? Pick up an oil can, or crate, or forklift truck and attack with it. The game will mix things up for you as well, triggering Action Trigger Events - ATEs - which can include driving a truck into the battle (stay out the way), transporting everyone somewhere else with a Black Hole (you get used to it...), and more. All this serves to help keep things fresh, and keep you on your toes.

  

  It's Reign-ing Men. And Women. And Robots.

  The 'practice' we got in the Campaign Mode was a good primer for the multiplayer, where all the controls, environmental mayhem and ATEs all carry through. On the competitive side, there's standard squad-based melees which we tried as four-on-four. Things got a bit more hectic in Capture The Flag with three teams of two all scrambling for said flag - which can also be used as a weapon. Teamwork came to the fore in Deathball (think indoor rugby, cranked up to 11), and grudges were made and settled in one-on-one cage fights. Pure co-op modes include Survival, where the enemy hordes just keep on coming (and where the ability to wield a forklift as a weapon comes in very handy).

  Unlike the Campaign, multiplayer offers a much wider range of characters to play as, from slinky lady assassins, to cybernetically enhanced bounty hunters, to what can only be described as a transformer. This cast of characters is part Tekken, part Borderlands, and like the best fighting games, each has a different style and a different Killer Move, and you'll soon find one that suits you (and learn, to your cost, which ones don't!). Again, the better you do, the more XP you earn, the more you can unlock, with individual and team-based rewards coming from each mode. Online multiplayer supports up to 16 players, so the potential for really wild and scrambled combat is almost too much to think about!

  All in all, Anarchy Reigns is, indeed, wild and crazy. The couple of hours playing was just a dip in the ocean of the mayhem that could ensue with the multiplayer, and the Campaign shows potential to be just as unpredictable. Everyone came out of the session grinning from ear to ear, and looking forward to grinning a lot more come January 11th.

  Published: 04/12/2012

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