December | 2018 | stephensopinions

Hotline Miami was an incredibly influential game in the indie scene that revitalized the top-down shooter genre. One of the games that obviously took some inspiration from Hotline Miami is the hand-drawn western adventure 12 is Better Than 6. The concept of one-hit kills and fast paced firefights is shared among these games, but 12 is Better Than 6 does have a few things that set it apart from similar games. Unfortunately, many of those differences come in the form of negatives and frustrating issues that permeate the experience. At times the game shines and you can get those intense moments where you are dodging bullets and returning fire, but most of the time 12 is Better Than 6 is a slog.

In this black, white, and red Western you play as Juan, a Mexican who lost his memory. You play through small areas, shooting and sneaking your way through to the exit. You’ll be fed tidbits of story at regular intervals and uncover the truth about Juan. While I did enjoy the Western setting and the accompanying music, the story was a mess. Riddled with typos and confusing plot lines, it quickly became difficult to follow what was going on. That’s not such a big deal because dialogue is skippable and in a game like this, gameplay takes precedent over story. Unfortunately, while there are a few high-octane moments in gameplay, 12 is Better Than 6 is chock full of game ruining issues.

12 is Better Than 6 is a top-down shooter akin to Hotline Miami. One shot is one kill. This results in frantic firefights where you must constantly be moving or risk getting hit by a stray bullet. There are four main weapons: The revolver, shotgun, rifle, and bow. Additionally, you always have a knife for melee combat. Sometimes you will be given some dynamite to blast through large groups of enemies. The idea and concept of 12 is Better Than 6 is solid, all of this on paper sounds great. However, a slew of minor issues and few larger ones kill whatever potential 12 is Better Than 6 had.

The first thing that sets 12 is Better Than 6 apart from its contemporaries is that you cannot furiously fire bullets. After every shot you must cock the hammer of the weapon by right-clicking. I genuinely cannot fathom why this was included. It takes awhile to even get used to this mechanic, let alone get good at it. It is incredibly easy to mess up the rhythm of left-clicking to shoot and then immediately right-clicking to cock the hammer. One slight mistiming and the entire cadence is thrown off, leaving you wondering why your gun isn’t firing. Towards the end of the game I got used to the mechanic for the most part, but it just felt like an unnecessary addition. Its inclusion does not add much.

What enticed me to play 12 is Better Than 6 was its black, white, and red hand-drawn style. Truthfully, it looks great in screenshots and trailers, but it does not translate well into actual gameplay. It can be difficult to distinguish enemies from the background and obstacles as they do not “pop” or stand out. At least a few times I walked straight into an enemy that I just did not see. Additionally, when you start dashing through levels and the screen starts quickly moving, everything just starts to blend into each other. Its hard to distinguish anything when it all looks so similar.

Something else that bugs me about the game is that while is mostly operates similar to Hotline Miami with the idea of one-shot kills, sometimes this rule is randomly broken. Sometimes enemies will inexplicably survive a shot and will kill you before you can cock and fire your next shot. Even worse is the fact the melee combat suffers heavily from this problem. Much of the time a slash from the knife doesn’t kill the enemy, combine this with the knife’s short range makes melee combat high-risk and inconsistent. When an enemy survives a bullet or stab, you don’t even realize what happened before it is too late. I do not know whether this inconsistency was a glitch or an intentional inclusion, but either way it hurts the game.

Another fairly “minor” issue in the game is its AI (artificial intelligence). Sometimes enemies would completely whiff their shots, run in circles, or ignore the player entirely. Other times they would track me through walls and instantly kill me on sight like the damn terminator. Again, this lack of consistency breaks the flow of 12 is Better Than 6. Speaking of inconsistency, this game also regularly suffers from technical issues such as crashes. At least 4 or 5 times the game crashed on me.

While it is evident that 12 is Better Than 6 has a load of these small problems, what really kills the game are the three major design flaws: level design, repetitiveness, and ammo management. The level design of 12 is Better Than 6 would benefit greatly from focusing on smaller and more compact levels. One-shot kill can get aggravating when you are getting shot from offscreen and before you can possibly react. This happens fairly frequently when there are long corridors or wide-open spaces, both of which are abundant in 12 is Better Than 6. This forces players to tackle levels far slower are more cautiously to prevent getting killed by something you can’t see. What made Hotline Miami great was how quickly you could blast through rooms and levels. You ran through like a maniac, befitting of the tone and theme of the game. This same level of speed and risk aren’t possible in 12 is Better Than 6, because you will just get shot from offscreen.

Even as just a quick, four-hour game, 12 is Better Than 6 manages to overstay its welcome. It gets repetitive fast. Levels blend into each other and the small variety of weapons makes everything just feel the same. No levels really stood out. Some of the maps are even repeated and reused as filler. The first few levels of the game are basically the same as the last few levels. There’s no variety in any aspect. The art style, the lack of diverse weaponry, and the boring level design all contribute to this feeling of repetition. If you’ve played thirty minutes of the game, you’ve experienced everything the game has to offer.

The most frustrating issue with 12 is Better Than 6 is by far its archaic ammo management system. You carry around some ammo for each of your four main weapons, but the method of obtaining this ammo an incredibly tedious and mind-numbing experience. If you want to pick up ammo from fallen enemies, you must drop your weapon, pick up their weapon, unload it, and pick up your original weapon. You have to do that for every single enemy that you kill if you want their ammo. In levels where you fight dozens of enemies. Why? In most games, when you walk over a dead body you automatically pick up their bullets. This saves the hassle of painstakingly sifting through every body to scrounge for ammo. This issue puts the nail in coffin of 12 is Better Than 6 for me. I want to be able to quickly rampage through levels, and having to repeatedly stop to tediously unload, swap, and reload weapons slows the game to a crawl. Especially since you will probably die a lot as a result of the one-hit kill nature of the game. You will have to go through this entire process every time you fail a level. How anyone thought that this method of ammo management was superior to traditional methods is beyond me.

I tried really hard to enjoy my time with 12 is Better Than 6. It’s a genre that I enjoy, and I try to support indie developers. Most of the smaller issues are just minor annoyances, but combining them all makes the game feel inconsistent and incomplete. More importantly, the three major problems absolutely ruined the game for me. The level design, repetition, and outdated ammo management system were just too problematic to ignore. For these reasons I give 12 is Better Than 6 a 3/10. It’s a shame that a solid concept had such poor execution.

If you read my reviews of Dishonored 2 and Prey, it should be apparent that I am a fan of Arkane studios. I hold those 2 games, as well as the original Dishonored, in high regards. Arkane is renowned for their intricate level design which facilitates a variety of paths and playstyles in every level. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is a standalone continuation of the series that mostly follows its predecessors’ roots. Despite this, I can’t help but feel the experience was notably hollow and sterile.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider may be a standalone experience, but it is essentially an expansion of Dishonored 2. The same engine, characters, controls, and even the same areas suggest that Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is a large DLC (downloadable content) for its predecessor. There are only 5 campaign missions, and although they are supplemented by a few additional side contracts, the game is fairly short. Fret not, because it is priced appropriately even with its low play-time. Still, the game felt a little barren and uninspired at times. The straight copied areas from Dishonored 2 add to this sentiment and make Dishonored: Death of the Outsider feel even shorter and lacking in fresh content.

In Dishonored: Death of the Outsider you play as Billie Lurk, an assassin on a mission to take down the Outsider. The Outsider is the source of all the mystical powers that exist in the world of Dishonored. Billie and her mentor Daud believe that the Outsider is responsible for much of the evil in the world and resent him for their magical prowess. To achieve their goal, Billie must uncover the secrets of the void and the Outsider. The player spends most of the game stealing knowledge of how to reach and deal with the enigmatic Outsider. Rather than assassinating or “taking down” targets like in the previous games, you mostly operate as a thief. In addition, unlike previous games there is no chaos system that alters the story depending on how many people are killed. The lack of decision making and game-altering repercussions contributes to the lifeless and uninspired feeling of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

The gameplay of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider mostly mimics Dishonored 2. You traverse large areas, trying to stay hidden and use gadgets and magic to avoid detection. Apart from a few new abilities to play around with, it’s mostly the same old Dishonored. Which is a good thing. Sneaking around, picking off guards one-by-one, and using gadgets are all still integral parts of the game. One big change is that mana quickly automatically refills. You no longer have to go scrounging for things to refill your magical abilities, and this allows for a lot more freedom to test out the new abilities. Some new additions that I enjoyed were Billie’s two new magic abilities. One of them allows the player to briefly “steal” the face of other characters. This is occasionally useful to sneak past a guard or two, but it depletes the mana-bar very quickly and can’t be maintained for long. The other ability, Foresight, is a godsend and an amazing addition to the series. This ability allows the player to briefly freeze time and enter a “spirit” state which allows them to explore their surrounding area. This means you can scout rooms, mark guards, highlight valuable items, and plan methods of attack before ever entering a room. This ability encourages the player to use methodical and strategic approaches that the series is known for.

What really disappointed me about Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was its level design. Following up the creative genius and intricate levels of Dishonored 2 such as “Clockwork Mansion” and “Crack in the Slab” is not an easy task. Unfortunately, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider does not live up to this legacy. None of the levels are particularly creative and most seemed somewhat generic. There also seemed to be a distinct lack of multiple paths and routes through any given level. The 3^rd mission was the standout for me, the game offers a few points of entry and a multitude of creative solutions to the task of bank robbery. Apart from that level, I felt the game was sorely lacking in options and interesting approaches.

Another odd departure from the rest of the series was the larger focus on combat. It may not be implicitly stated that combat is expected in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, but the combination of a few factors leads me to believe that pure stealth was disincentivized. The first reason is obviously the lack of a chaos system. In previous games, killing enemies would change the state of the game and more rats or blood flies would appear in levels. More importantly, different chaos levels resulted in vastly different endings, and the “best” endings were achieved by having low chaos (not killing many people). Since this no longer exists in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, the player can kill freely with no consequence. The next indication that stealth is less accessible is the lack of stealth upgrades. There are very few bone charms and upgrades that help the player remain undetected, but there are plenty of combat focused ones. Lastly, level design seems to tend towards combat encounters. There were plenty of instances where there is only 1 way into an area, and it is heavily guarded. After playing the first two games as well as this game trying to be as stealthy as possible, it was evident that it is far harder to go undetected in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

Despite its shortcomings, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is still a Dishonored game. Lackluster level design and recycled content makes Dishonored: Death of the Outsider seems far less inspired than its predecessors. Still, it’s a ton of fun to be an elite assassin wielding the powers of the void. For these reasons I give Dishonored: Death of the Outsider a 6.5/10. It’s still a Dishonored game, but it lacks the creativity and heart of its ancestors.

stephensopinions

Month: December 2018

12 is Better Than 6 (2015)

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)