Romeo is a Dead Man review – an offbeat action game that finds its groovy, gory rhythm

What combat done yonder Windows breaks?

Like the summonable, energy-shooting ghoul I cultivated connected my spaceship’s zombie farm, Romeo is simply a Dead Man is simply a spot of a grower. After an iffy commencement that exhibits plentifulness of Grasshopper Manufacture weirdness but not overmuch Grasshopper Manufacture charm, its disparate parts bash yet coalesce, forming a thin yet muscular hack 'n' slash with a playful endowment for mixing up its mediums.

God, truthful galore mediums. The communicative of Romeo – tiny municipality bull turned cyborg samurai, enlisted to hunt aggregate space-time variants of evidently evil ex Juliet – is told not conscionable done Unreal Engine cutscenes, but besides animated pulp comics, halt motion, and 16-bit pixel art, and that’s conscionable successful the archetypal fractional hour. It gets eclectic portion you’re really playing, too: bloody melee combat remains the prima but it’s seldom agelong earlier you’re dragged disconnected to bash immoderate 3D puzzling, oregon to upgrade your stats and items by playing arcade and mini-games.

It’s unfortunate that, successful the aboriginal stages, not each of it lands. Such assortment initially appears to overgarment a surface-level veneer of innovation implicit the action, which itself starts slow, lone pitting you against shambling undead and the occasional powered-up nutrient monster. Neither does it assistance that the crippled is mostly stakeless multiverse nonsense, adopting a blandly literal mentation of Suda51’s recurring Kill the Past taxable and repeatedly contradicting itself with cheerful 'Don’t interest astir it' handwaves. Game, I want to interest astir it! Worrying is conscionable caring with an other syllable!

Stick with it, though, and Romeo is simply a Dead Man develops a genuine capableness to surprise. In part, due to the fact that it knows erstwhile to perpetrate to the bit. There’s an extended series halfway done that dips into endurance horror, and alternatively of simply taking distant Romeo’s quality to plaything a sword, the full crippled shifts into a claustrophobic over-the-shoulder position portion introducing stealth and Resident Evil-style puzzle elements that ne'er reappear anyplace else. That’s a bonkers magnitude of concern for a azygous switch-up. I don’t privation to spoil the second stages, similar I’m seemingly consenting to bash for the fearfulness bit, but these besides tally further with the cross-media aspect, skillfully relieving immoderate of the much melodramatic moments with high-effort swerves into absurdist, visually divers comedy.

Also, y'know, it’s a beauteous bully enactment game. Combat recovers from its anemic commencement arsenic well, some trusting you to uncover the nuances of its combo swishing and gradually enlarging the menagerie of aggravated soma flappers – mostly successful a sensible bid of situation – to trial what you’ve learned. Romeo is nary Dante oregon Raiden, agility-wise, but what his warring benignant lacks successful flashiness is much than made up for successful tangible, satisfying weight. Even the default sword, possibly the astir purely functional limb among an arsenal of powerfulness fists and sci-fi spears, cuts done crowds and bisects behemoths with a moreish chunkiness. Romeo tin besides wield guns, though I ended up having capable amusive with the blades that I lone whipped retired my shotgun erstwhile necessary. As in, needing to sprout things that were either a) flying retired of scope oregon b) liable to detonate successful my look upon thwacking them.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Grasshopper Manufacture

The comparatively lengthy wind-ups and betterment times bash necessitate much than a measurement of timing, and bosses volition happily thatch a harsh acquisition successful it. But simultaneously, Romeo is simply a Dead Man is hardly ever astir passively waiting for an opening. There’s nary blocking oregon parrying, and palmy strikes capable a humor gauge that lets you lash retired with much almighty peculiar moves – which besides partially refill your health. All of this conspires to thrust you into highly aggressive, excitingly pacey brawls, wherever taking immoderate hits mightiness beryllium worthy it if you tin capable that humor barroom successful return. Dodging, too, often feels similar little of an evasive method and much an violative manoeuvre for shifting into the optimal backstabbing angle.

None of this is particularly groundbreaking. But it seems similar earlier you tin commencement layering connected novelty cinematics and genre juggling, it’d beryllium important to for your enactment crippled to person bully action. And Romeo is simply a Dead Man’s fighty parts are meaty, frantic, and terribly bully fun.

Truth beryllium told, it’s besides not conscionable the astir ambitious of Dead Man’s silly asides that tin extract a grin. Between missions, I ever enjoyed returning to the FBI’s spaceship hub (long story), wherever – successful speech for parting with the 3rd magnitude – you tin chat, trade, and upgrade with weirdo agents and amusingly out-of-place household members. Here, the 'Sure, whatever' humour works amended than successful main communicative beats; cipher questions the logic of increasing allied zombies similar carrots truthful you tin telephone them up successful aboriginal battles, which makes it funnier erstwhile you yank 1 retired of the ungraded to triumphant fanfare. And there’s thing some saccharine and entertaining astir having Romeo’s mum, settled wrong the ship’s galley, navigator buff-granting katsu curries utilizing ingredients you’ve recovered drifting successful space. As Yuri Gagarin said, "I saw however beauteous our satellite is, and besides however galore jars of cumin are conscionable floating astir up there."

I wasn’t rather truthful blessed successful Sub-Space, the loosely Tron-ish alternate magnitude that astir missions person you poking astir for keys and airy navigational puzzles. Its aesthetic, that of a Zen plot arsenic built successful a heavy shader-modded Minecraft, is rather nice. But whereas the remainder of the crippled got amended with time, the entreaty of yet different dive into Sub-Space lone waned. For 1 thing, a batch of these sections conscionable spell connected far, acold excessively long, slowing down advancement successful a mode that becomes ever much incongruous with the impetus-heavy combat. For another, going determination utterly knackered my framerates.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Grasshopper Manufacture

PC performance, successful general, lurches astir similar a Regent’s Park pedalo successful a Caribbean storm. At what is usually an casual 1440p, my RTX 3090 – moving Ultra settings with Quality-level DLSS 4 – couldn’t reliably clasp 60fps, with drops to 30fps and sometimes adjacent little successful immoderate Sub-Space areas. I besides tried the Steam Deck, utilizing the lowest imaginable settings positive FSR upscaling, and that fell heavy into the twenties excessively – adjacent successful existent space. This is thankfully not a repetition of the No More Heroes PC port, arsenic you bash astatine slightest get due mouse/keyboard enactment and, evidently, those customized graphics options. Still, it’s nary creaseless runner either.

Whether that’s a dealbreaker, I’ll permission betwixt you and your rig. If you can tally it, though, Romeo is simply a Dead Man provides smiles, surprises, and memorable swordfights, particularly erstwhile it warms up. It astir apt won’t spell down arsenic an all-timer successful Grasshopper Manufacture’s ouvre, and successful 20 years’ time, I uncertainty YouTube volition beryllium recommending maine Romeo videos arsenic often arsenic it presently does Killer7’s Russian Roulette scene. But that’s fine: prime slashing and integrated zombie gardening tin inactive number for plenty.