Arcadegeddon Review: Sticking it to the Man

We can all agree that Mega Corporations suck, right? Like, no one actually likes them or enjoys being a part of them unless you’re some rich, old white dude? Well, if you ever wanted to stick it to the men in charge while playing video games then, you should check out Arcadegeddon by Illfonic, the developer behind Friday The 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds.

Info:
Developer: Illfonic
Publisher: Illfonic
Release Date: July 5th, 2022
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series

Calling All Gamers:

In Arcadegeddon, the world is ruled by mega-corporations, and (despite the name) the evil Fun FunCo is buying up everything and just plain ruining them. Uncle Gilly’s arcade is the last of its kind, and the FFC is trying its hardest to take it from him. In order to keep the FFC away from his arcade, Uncle Gilly has come up with a revolutionary new game in order to get new, loyal customers flocking to his arcade. The FFC being the bad guy and all, has caught wind of this and infiltrated the game in an effort to ruin it. So, Gilly called in some family and the city’s local gangs to defend the arcade.

As Plug, it’s up to you to help your uncle and prove your worth to these local gangs who are offering their help. In order to do this, you need to dive into Gilly’s game and cleanse it of the FFC’s presence. While you’ll usually be rolling through Arcadegeddon solo or with three other players, the world is full of quirky and goofy characters willing to aid Uncle Gilly, like the edgy ninja gang called Grim or rebellious Punks. Unfortunately, though, there’s not much in the way of a story. There are some cutscenes, and most of the dialogue is centered around the gangs asking you why they should help you out.

What story that does exist, is silly and fun but it isn’t the main focus of the game. It more of less serves as a function to drive you to achieve specific milestones and use certain weapons. That should not be taken as a complaint either as the gameplay is so much fun, the rewards for completing all of an NPC’s challenges feel that much better because it was fun to do them. It’s rare when a game can sideline its story and deliver a solid gameplay experience but Illfonic manages to achieve that.

Scanning for Viruses…

To put it simply, the shooting mechanics in Arcadegeddon are top-notch. There is a wide variety of weaponry made by different manufacturers at your disposal, and they’re all incredibly fun to use. Most manufacturers make guns with specific elemental effects like Infernal, for instance, who produces incendiary weapons. However, if you’re feeling old school, there is always Militech, who makes your basic, run-of-the-mill type weapons that sacrifice special effects for more damage.

Another great thing is that while it isn’t trying to be a rogue-lite, Arcadegeddon has incorporated some mechanics of the genre. Each stage is procedurally generated, and there are a ton of crates to break open as well as tiered chests scattered throughout them. Looting them will reward you with hacked cartridges that provide stat boosts for the remainder of your current run, Gilly coins to use at vendors, and guns. By picking up most of the guns and using them, they’ll gain experience. When they level up, players can then equip them to their starting load out, back at the arcade. Subsequent levels will unlock higher-tiered versions to equip as well, so it’s entirely possible to start an Adventure Mode run equipped with Legendary weapons in all three slots.

Where Adventure Mode is concerned, I do have some complaints. My biggest complaint is that gang challenges require you to complete them in one run. Some of them feel impossible to do with random players, and it becomes increasingly frustrating when you’re looking for a certain event or need to rack up hundreds of kills. Currently, there is also a lack of bosses, with only four being available to fight. While they do get increasingly harder as the difficulty rises and you defeat the first one, chasing the collectibles you receive for defeating all four of them is only so fun for so long.

The Gangs of Arcadegeddon:

When dealing with the gangs, they’ll offer you a set of challenges, with one being required to progress and three optional challenges. They usually range from killing a certain amount of enemies in certain ways, defeating the game’s bosses, getting to a certain difficulty in a certain amount of time, etc. The challenges do tend to repeat themselves, but thankfully, the gameplay alone is enough to keep you going back into the fray and messing with the FFC.

The customization in Arcadegeddon is surprisingly varied as well. Each weapon has multiple skins, and Plug has a wide multitude of clothing, color palettes, skin tones, and hairstyles that can be unlocked through the main quests and optional challenges. Uncle Gilly also has a store where you can buy new skins and weapons, but it seems to recycle the same items quite a bit. The game also supports microtransactions. So far, they’re probably the least intrusive form of micro-transactions I’ve seen in a long time. As I said above, you can unlock new weapons to equip as well as plugins that work like perks and new Surge Gauntlet abilities which launch power attacks at enemies.

The Graceful Sport of PvP:

There is a PvP side to the game as well called Battle Mode. It works a bit like Fall Guys in that four players compete in eight rounds of varying modes. One round might be a free for all where players fire laser beams at one another using the powerful BDE, while the next will pair two players up and ask them to score goals against the other. My favorite is the mode where players need to destroy the blocks under other players’ feet in an attempt to be the last one standing.

What I don’t like about the PvP, however, is that it can also interrupt the flow of Adventure Mode. Battle Mode stations are located at each vendor, and if you’re playing with a team of random players, there’s no way to avoid being dragged into a match without quitting the run entirely. It would be nice if players had the chance to vote on whether or not they wanted to fight each other in adventure mode, except there simply isn’t. One nice thing from this is that you get loot for playing through these PvP matches once you return to Adventure Mode.

Arcadegeddon also supports cross-play between PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. I played on the PlayStation and PC and never felt like there was a shortage of players either. It usually took around thirty seconds or so to find a co-op session or PvP lobby.

Anyone Remember Reboot?

If you’re old enough to remember the show Reboot, then you’re going to feel a similar vibe from Arcadegeddon’s visuals. The game sports a whimsical, cartoony, cyberpunk coat of paint that heavily reminds me of that cartoon I watched as a kid. There are six different biomes, with my favorite being the mystic isles. It’s a series of floating islands that just has a fun, laid-back vibe when you aren’t blasting away at the game’s wide variety of enemies.

All of the gun skins are fun, if not a bit repetitive, and each player can separate themselves from the others. During my time with the game, I never really ran into another player that looked like me or anyone else, and I really appreciate that sort of individuality. One downside I did notice is that players can’t select Plug’s body type. What determines that is the clothing you select. You’re not limited to anything, but if you want your Plug to sport a body type that identifies as female, you have to wear specific clothing. That really should just be a separate option.

It’s impossible for me to find anything negative to say about the game’s soundtrack. The music in the game is superb, with each stage having its own catchy EDM tunes to get down to. You can mark it down as another reason I love the Mystic Isle stages so much as I love the island-themed music. Arcadegeddon’s art style and soundtrack go together to form a holy matrimony that creates an incredibly fun atmosphere for killing viruses in your video games.

Anti-Virus Software that’s Worth It:

I’d like to see from Arcadageddon going forward with healthy support from Illfonic. The game is incredibly fun and can be even more amazing with some good content updates. There are some visual bugs that are sure to be fixed soon as well. It was hard to find anything negative to say outside of how challenges are handled and the lack of body-type options. Otherwise, it’s an absolute blast, especially if you have friends to play with or players who provide solid communication.

Even then, hooking up with four strangers and smacking the taste out of the FFC’s mouth is still worth the price of admission. Its PvP options are also fun if you’re looking for a break from Adventure Mode. If you are a PlayStation Plus Essential member, the game is currently free until August 2nd. There’s no reason not to claim it while you can if you want to experience the game with the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive triggers. I’m seeing that it’s the smaller, lower-budget titles that are really stealing the show for me this year, and I highly recommend Arcadegeddon.