I am Weapon: Revival
Preview
Gore but no fest
EA SCOUT the last line of defense for buying on Steam's Early Access
by Preston Dozsa
previewed on PC
Testing your fears
Some people find clowns scary. For whatever reasons the painted, grinning faces of clowns frightens a portion of the population. In I Am Weapon: Revival, those fears will be tested as you face an onslaught of clown monsters conjured from dark recesses of the mind. Or at least that’s what you would do, were it not for I Am Weapon: Revival being such a bore about it.
I Am Weapon: Revival is a run and gun game, where you utilize a small loadout of guns and other tools to mercilessly murder hundreds upon hundreds of creepy clowns through a nightmarish dreamscape. An interesting concept to be sure, but the game doesn’t attempt to do anything special with the premise. The enemy design is limited to a small handful of models, which are not that detailed to begin with, and the clowns could be replaced by any number of creatures or faceless people and no one would be the wiser.
The dreamworlds you travel through are not much better either. Levels contain a black background that constantly reminds you that you are travelling through an artificial location in suspension rather than a true nightmare. The presence of carnival related imagery does spice things up somewhat, but taken as a whole there is nothing truly inspiring aesthetically.
Not writing home
There is a story, mostly told through a slideshow in between each of the levels. It’s mildly interesting, but it takes a backseat to the primary focus of the game: killing a lot of things with a bunch of guns. Unfortunately those are nothing to write home about either. Aside from a half dozen or so unlockable weapons, which are entertaining but inconsequential, the two primary weapons you will be using are an assault rifle and a machete. Each weapon is upgradeable, with multiple upgrade levels for each and even come with some separate skills to unlock as you progress through I Am Weapon: Revival. Now, the assault rifle which serves as your primary ranged weapon, is oftentimes difficult to aim. This would not be so much of a problem were it not for enemies having extremely tight hitboxes, requiring precise motions to land a proper hit. Changing mouse sensitivity did not help, but any problems with the assault rifle were nullified because of the machete.
The machete is your close quarters weapon, perfect for situations where the enemies get too close to you - which is far too often I might add. But it is a powerful tool, assisted (unintentionally) by the Early Access nature of the game. You see, there are often moments that you swing the machete and take no damage from enemies. This allows you to swing it quite recklessly, enabling you to kill enemies much, much quicker than you would otherwise. Swinging a machete repeatedly without the tension of being in harm’s way is not a fun activity however.
Spawning
Apart from some framerate drops that occur when more than half a dozen enemies are onscreen - which is often - and the occasional crash to desktop, the main issue I encountered was the rate of enemy spawns. You’ll often walk five or ten steps down a hallway and be rushed by a decent number of enemies. After dealing with them with my machete, I walked back to the original point where they spawned, took one step forward and was promptly rushed by another small horde of enemies. For every few steps I took, a new enemy group would spawn. This eventually becomes so tedious that I was forcing myself to complete each level as quickly as I could without exploring.
I Am Weapon: Revival certainly has an interesting premise, yet its flawed execution results in a game that is both frustrating and unexciting. There are plenty of other good run and gun games on Steam right now, and I suggest you take a look at those before considering I Am Weapon: Revival.
Avoid
It pains us to say this, but we don't see how this game will mesh. At the current stage of development the game should be much farther ahead than it is.
