[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you somehow like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote]
It is no secret that I didn't like playing Akane, the previous game of the developers of Kate: Collateral Damage. I did enjoy the basic principles of gameplay, but was ultimately bored of it as it was just about facing the same 4 enemy types in the same arena, fighting the same boss over and over again and getting killed in one hit. The unlocks didn't feel like they were worth it either as they were very grindy to obtain.
Kate takes the same gameplay formula, changes a lot of stuff, and adds some small, incredibly light rogue-lite elements to the mix to form its own gameplay style and if I'm being honest, I like the version we have here much more. Although I only recommend this game if you meet a certain requirement. Read on or just take a look a TL;DR to find out why.
[h2]Akane, but a little bit more accessible[/h2]
The core of the gameplay is similar to Akane. The main character has access to a melee weapon, a gun and a dash move to get out of harm's way. The melee weapon only hits whatever that's in front of the character, and the amount of times you can attack with it is bound to the stamina meter; If it runs out, your character won't be able to attack anymore. At this point you can run away, or resort to using your gun which has limited number of bullets. But you have to be careful while fighting enemies as you die in one hit. Now from here onwards, Kate adds a lot of new stuff and removes a few things as well.
For starters there are 4 melee weapons in the game, each with different reach distance, and all of them now have a durability meter. After striking enemies with your weapon for a few times, a flashing exclamation mark will appear at the bottom of the screen, signifying it will break on the next hit. You then have the option of striking the next enemy anyway, which breaks the weapon and leave you to fight with your fists, or throw it at the nearest enemy to kill them instantly. The same applies to the guns. You encounter 5 different guns in the game and you have to throw them at the enemy after they run out of bullets or you won't be able to pick up another one. The special kill moves in Akane have also been replaced with two stun abilities (one affecting the enemies in proximity and one affecting every enemy on the battlefield) which need to be unlocked first.
And then we get to the new stuff. The main character is under a time limit in each level that constantly ticks down, with hurting enemies stopping its countdown and killing them replenishing a bit of it, forcing the player to get close and personal instead of running away. The timer running out or taking a hit from enemies will kill the player, unless you have spare stimulant needles which work as extra lives. Although there are exceptions to this rule, with enemies' normal SMGs and katana attacks allowing you to endure one or two hits before dying. Finally, there's the small, incredibly light rogue-like elements in the form of collectable money for spending on upgrades, and skills you can pick up mid-game.
Overall, I had a good time with Kate: Collateral Damage, with my favorite moments being when I was fast enough to quick shot an enemy who was targeting me and immediately taking care of the others. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to go back to it, now that I have finished the game.
[h2]Good game, but not flawless...[/h2]
One of the most disappointing aspects of Kate is that the amount of available content is not that high. It only takes about two hours to beat the normal story mode (which goes on and ends in a very abrupt manner, probably because I haven't seen the movie) and after that, there's almost nothing left to do. You can try the infinity mode which is a harder version of the normal mode that constantly loops after beating the final boss, or you can try to max out every upgrade in the shop. That's it. There's not even a survival mode to lock yourself in one arena and deal with constant enemies like Akane, even though the devs literally had the opportunity to use it.
Then we have some issues of the annoying, but not game breaking type. None of the guns seem to hit enemies at point blank range. If an enemy is literally in your face, your gun will fail to hit them and you'll take damage as a result. The enemies don't enter the battlefield normally, but suddenly teleport in front of spawn points and immediately rush at your location, which is always a nuisance if you happen to end up near them. And lastly, there's no way to rebind the controls to make them suit your needs, even though such thing was already present in Akane.
[h2]And then there's the enemy visibility issue[/h2]
The game has a really annoying enemy visibility issue, for two reasons.
It's not very noticeable at first, but some of the enemies in this game are color coded. The enemies with white clothes always wield katanas and attack rapidly on their way to you, the enemies with red clothes throw grenades in the second area and use SMGs in the third area, the enemies who have no clothes on always throw axes, et cetera. This is a nice touch, but ultimately causes some frustration as well. When you kill an enemy, their corpse will ragdoll to the ground, become darker in color and remain there. Now if you kill many of them at the same location, the corpses will start piling up and camouflage some of the enemies who wear darker color shades, especially since the player and enemy models are so small and skinny-looking.
As for the environment, the game has a not very useful way of telling you an enemy is behind cover. When the enemies get behind something in the environment such as walls, trees or anything else, the game will just display a pink triangle in front of them, showing you which direction they are facing and will attack you from. This causes complications as you'll never know what type of enemy is there or how to properly attack them. Is it a normal enemy, someone with guns or a katana-wielding one? You won't know! What makes matters worse is that the main character doesn't even have that indicator. So if she gets behind cover, you just need to trust yourself and the buttons you are pressing.
[h2]Not gonna lie, I want to see more of this[/h2]
Ludic Studios is, at the time of writing this review, working on a new game called Wind Runners, which is very different from what they've released so far. But I really want them to go back to Akane/Kate's formula sometime in the future. From what I've played, they have a solid foundation for a much bigger game with the same gameplay style. I like the evolution of gameplay from Akane to Kate, however some of the audience seems to not like it, according to other reviews of this game. All the issues aside, I ultimately had a good time playing this game and would love to see the developers take another shot at making something truly great with the foundation laid here.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
It's hard to recommend this game to other players. I had fun with it while it lasted, but can't deny how short it is and some of its problems get really annoying. Give it a shot if you are interested.
