Sift Heads: Cartels 4 – Review (WIP)
Played all the original Sift Heads games as well as the newer Steam releases. Honestly don’t know how this one slipped past me for so long, but here we are.
Overall, I think the game is fun—but it definitely has its own issues. Compared to the earlier entries, it kind of feels like a black sheep. It tries some new things, but at the same time it’s missing stuff that the older games just did better.
Gameplay
Movement / Exploration
Movement is done with WASD, and you’re free to actually move through levels instead of being locked into static screens. That part is fine and does make the world feel bigger.
Problem is, there’s not a lot of clarity on where you’re supposed to go. You can explore, sure—but the game doesn’t really guide you well. You end up wandering a bit more than you probably should.
Maps
Local Map:
Very basic. It shows where you can go, but not what’s actually there. No indicators for items, doors, or anything worth checking out (like locked doors, buttons, etc). It does show ladders and save points, but that’s about it.
World Map:
This one’s better. You access it through the car, and it shows where you are and what locations are available. Areas are highlighted, and you can see how much you’ve explored and if items are still out there. Solid, no real complaints here.
Items / Loot
Boxes are always present, but what’s inside them is random—healthkits, ammo, scrap, etc.
I get why they did it, but it can get annoying. You might rely on a healthkit being somewhere, die, reload, and suddenly it’s just scrap. The randomness works against you in a game where you’re loading saves instead of starting fresh runs.
Combat
Combat is split into two parts: Shooting and Melee.
Shooting:
Simple and works. Aim with your cursor, line up the dot, and fire. It’s fun, but gets frustrating when enemies are far away and can hit you while you struggle to land shots on them.
Melee:
Very basic—Punch and Block.
Issue is, you can only block unarmed enemies. If they’ve got a weapon, you’re just going to eat that hit unless you already figured that out the hard way.
Cover System
You can take cover to avoid getting shot, but you can’t shoot from cover unless you unlock the skill for it.
So most of the time it turns into:
Hide
Stand up
Shoot
Repeat until all enemies are dead, or one of them have wandered close enough for you to do something else, or they've managed to enter the exact spot where you're no longer protected by cover.
Also, destructible crates don’t count as cover, which feels weird and inconsistent.
Skills
Skills are where the game starts to open up more:
Carry more ammo
Faster HP recovery
New abilities like dodging or blindfire
Extra melee moves
These actually help smooth out some of the rougher parts of combat, especially things like not being able to shoot from cover early on.
Frustrations / Issues
- Armored Enemies
These are probably my biggest issue.
Instead of just having more health or damage resistance, they are completely immune to bullets. Your only options are:
Blow them up using the environment
Run up and punch the armor off
Problem is, getting close—especially to ranged enemies—is basically asking to die on higher difficulties. So most of the time you’re forced into using explosives or just waiting for the “right moment,” which slows things down and limits how you can play.
Saves
You save using desktop terminals scattered around the map.
Functionally fine, but visually they feel out of place half the time. Some of them are literally just floating in weird spots (like one in the sewer area above a bush).
Would’ve been nicer if they matched the environment more. Something simple like:
Different save objects per location (Laptops, Phonelines, Notebooks, etc)
Even something like an ashtray (since Vinnie smokes) would’ve fit better in some areas
Enemies
Design-wise, they’re fine. Mechanically though, there are a few issues:
Enemies don’t reload
They don’t react to getting shot (no flinch, no stagger)
Gore doesn’t feel as impactful as older games
That last one especially stands out if you’ve played the originals—they just had more “weight” to them.
Also:
Melee enemies can delete your HP very quickly (found that out the hard way)
They can chain hits before you really react
Ranged enemies don’t switch to melee at close range—they just keep shooting you point blank
Weapons / Reloading
All guns use the same reload animation, which feels off. Pretty sure older Sift Heads games had unique reloads per weapon, so this feels like a step back.
Presentation
Music: Honestly great. No complaints here.
Graphics: Clean, looks good.
Cutscenes: Characters are more detailed, which is nice to see.
This is one area where the game definitely improves over the older titles visually.
Overall (So Far)
The game is fun, no doubt—but it feels like it’s caught between two directions.
It adds things like:
Exploration
Skills
Larger levels
…but at the same time, it loses some of what made the original games feel good:
Impactful combat
Clear direction
Smaller details like animations and reactions
So instead of feeling like a straight upgrade, it ends up feeling a bit mixed.
I’ll probably update this once I finish the game and see how it holds up later on, but for now:
Good game, a tad frustrating, just not a clean evolution of what Sift Heads used to be.
