Posts Tagged ‘social’

Bird Assassin is an XBOX Live Indie Game from Social Loner Studios. It’s described as a “single player Platformer / Shooter where you as the player are set on avenging the murder of your Pa by a sinister Ostrich.” Considering the topic and the general design of the game, I didn’t go into this one expecting to get a Kill Bill-level revenge story. However, I was surprised by quite a few things I encountered.

Let’s start with the negatives. The “humor” – and I use the term humor loosely – is based completely around poking fun at rednecks. I’m all down for this, believe me. However, it isn’t done in a way that’s clever or in the slightest bit amusing. In fact, the result is hair rippingly bad anytime the developers attempt to be funny. It’s a bit like having your friend tell you the same joke over and over and botch it each time.

Pushing the bad comedy aside, we’re left with a game that’s actually a fantastic value. For 80 Microsoft Points ( or $1.00 USD ), you get ten levels to work your way through. There are also mini-games and boss battles built into these levels to keep things varied and they do break up the monotony of shooting, keeping the game fresh as you play. As you play, you accumulate money which can be spent at the Gun-Mart, allowing you to make your redneck into Rambo incarnate with a whole host of lethal things at your disposal.

The gameplay itself provides a nice challenge, which can be lacking in some shooting games. I recommend playing Bird Assassin at the normal difficulty since dropping it down to easy makes it nearly impossible to die unless you outright hurl yourself onto some thorns. Still, grinding through this is both satisfying and fun. For 80MSP, Bird Assassin packs a great value … if you can tolerate lousy jokes.

RATING: Violence=3/3, Sex=1/3, Mature Content=2/3.
PRICE: 80MSP/$1.00 USD.
DEVELOPER: Social Loner Studios.

[Article By Vira Gunn]