Review: Immortal Redneck
- Platforms: Xbox One (Reviewed), PS4, PC
- Developer: Crema
- Publisher: Crema
- Release Date: February 27th, 2018
Every now and then there comes a game with such a ridiculous concept that you think “there’s no way that could work”. A good example of this would be Crema’s Immortal Redneck, a game focused on a mummified hick from Kansas storming through the pyramids of Egypt. While some of the comedic elements of the concept fall flat, Immortal Redneck is one hell of a surprise once you dive in.
In Immortal Redneck you take on the role of a redneck who crashes their dune buggy while cruising through the deserts of Egypt. The redneck wakes up from the crash to the realization that he’s been mummified and cursed, and vows to take his revenge by gunning down anything that moves.
Immortal Redneck is a first person shooter in a roguelike, dungeon crawling setting. As the redneck, players will enter a pyramid with a procedurally generated floor plan, with the goal being to destroy the boss at the pyramid’s apex. Upon entering a room the door will lock behind you, and a horde of enemies will spawn. Once you’ve mowed down the enemies in your path the doors will unlock and you’ll repeat that process until you reach a room containing a staircase. The more levels of the pyramid you ascend, the higher the enemies’ damage and health pool become, but you will also reap more rewards. In typical roguelike fashion, if you die at any point throughout the pyramid you’ll be transported back to the main hub of the game, where you can spend your currency on skills from a pretty extensive skill tree.
Like many games in the Roguelike genre, there are some features that can make or break your current playthrough. In Immortal Redneck this feature is the scroll. Scrolls can be found randomly in chests or dropped from a fallen enemy, and picking them up is a huge gamble. These scrolls can be insanely beneficial, increasing the amount of gold you pick up, your ammo capacity, or even weakening the bosses. The scrolls can also completely screw you over by replacing your weapons with random ones, or even limit you to carrying just one weapon. It’s that gamble that will make you second guess yourself whenever a scroll lands in front of you.
Immortal Redneck‘s skill tree has many of the upgrades you can expect from a Roguelike, such as health, attack, defense, and critical hit chance, which can all be upgraded anywhere from 25 to 75 times. The most intriguing skills however are called “favors”, which are essentially Egyptian spirits that possess the redneck and give him new passive and active skills, along with a new weapon loadout. These favors are quite diverse and act basically the same as classes in any other first person shooter. If your style is more long range you can select Neith, who is equipped with a sniper rifle. If you’re more of a spray and pray player you’ll likely want to select Apis, a favor focused on pure firepower and is equipped with a gatling gun.
The overall FPS mechanics in Immortal Redneck are pretty solid, minus a few annoying quirks. Immortal Redneck does not feature a melee attack for pistol whipping/rifle butting, which at the beginning hours of the game can be a major pain. Seasoned shooters will likely click the right analog stick in a frantic close quarters firefight, only to have the redneck hurl the gun to the ground and have you chase after it.
Picking up weapons can also be somewhat of a nuisance, especially when it is accidental. There are no button prompts to pick up an item, you simply walk over the weapon and you will toss the one you’re currently holding for the one on the ground. This can often lead to picking up an unwanted gun by mistake, while chucking the good weapon you were using at the time.
What should be Immortal Redneck‘s biggest selling point may actually be its biggest flaw, as the redneck character lacks the charisma to stand out. His quippy one-liners and voice acting often falls flat and gives the impression he’s trying way too hard.
Overall Immortal Redneck provides an enjoyable FPS roguelike experience, despite its minor technical flaws and lackluster leading character. If you’re looking for an addicting roguelike that is great value for its price tag, look no further than Immortal Redneck.
An Xbox One review code for Immortal Redneck was provided by Crema
