Clawpunk
Review
A CATastrophic turn of events
by Alex Moretti
reviewed on PC
A CATastrophic turn of events
The game starts with a silly plot about some evil cat mobster guy who used to be a friend of yours that has taken over the town, and it's up to you to liberate it. Nothing spectacular, but it is serviceable enough to get you pumped to play it with its catchy music and stylish visuals. You start the game playing as one of nine cats in a central hub that acts as the base. This base allows players to purchase equipment for your characters, as well as take on side quests later on. After leaving the central hub, you will be provided with a selection of four levels to choose from, each containing nine stages followed by a boss fight. Each of the four levels has a unique art style and a character to unlock. The game is a roguelike, so the stages are randomly generated to provide some variety as well as increase the challenge since you can't just play a level and try to beat it from memory.
SINK YOUR CLAWS INTO THIS
To incentivise you to play methodically and not just go guns blazing, there are two types of currency to scour for in each stage: Gold coins and Chaos coins. Gold coins are used to buy things in the stages themselves, such as guns, ammo, and health at whatever store you might happen to come across in the stages, whereas Chaos coins can be used to buy permanent upgrades as well as unlock the remaining playable characters in the central hub.
To add even more incentive to explore the levels, there's Rage Mode. Certain boxes contain rage points that allow you to activate rage mode when full. While in rage mode, your feline soldier is invincible, and their attacks do more damage as well as reach farther. The rage mode only lasts about 15 seconds with a full rage bar, so I recommend only using it as a last resort or if you want to plow through part of the level quickly.
Many of the stages can be breezed through by ignoring the enemies and not destroying any of the environment; however, the less damage you inflict in each stage, the higher chance an elite enemy will spawn in the next stage. These elite dog enemies are no joke, as they can inflict several points of damage in a single blow. Sometimes it might be worth finishing a level quickly, even if the next level will spawn elite enemies, if you think that you can either avoid or beat them.
APAWS FOR EFFORT
The learning curve can be a bit steep for newcomers, which I can appreciate as it felt like it was respecting my skill. The characters are also fun to play as after you've unlocked them. They each have varying gameplay styles and occasionally have fun quips- each unique to their archetype.
As for bonuses, there's really not much outside of buying and equipping different power-ups to see which playstyle works best for you, and it would have been nice if there were a bit more to do in the central hub, but I appreciate what we got.
With fun characters and an incredibly fun gameplay loop with a good amount of variety and unlockables sprinkled in, I can see Clawpunk being a fun time for lovers of both classic and contemporary titles.
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8.4
fun score
Pros
A fun cast of characters. Good music and atmosphere
Cons
Not much replay value after completing the main story
