Treachery in Beatdown City (Nintendo Switch)

I’m a huge fan of retro beat em ups like double dragon and river city ransom, so it was the screen shots of Treachery in Beatdown City that initially caught my attention, but it was reading the games description as a “turn based brawler” that really piqued my interest.

Treachery in Beatdown City fuses the classic game play of a beat em up with a turn based battle system from an RPG. This sounds crazy but in practice it actually feels really intuitive. You move around the playing field and can throw a standard punch attack like any brawler, but hitting X freezes time and allows to select a combination of attacks based on how full your FP is and how many action you have available. Hitting X again unfreezes time and unleashes the satisfying combo.

These meters refill over time and are boosted by previously successful combos. You can also gain temporary stat boosts and inflict status ailments on your enemies by chaining specific attacks together in the correct order. This is all well and good but remember the enemies can attack you with exactly the same opportunities. When this happens you can brace, block or counter depending on how many actions and how much FP you have remaining when an enemy is attacking you, which adds a cool layer of strategy to a genre that can be somewhat mindless at times… As the game will frequently reminds you “winners don’t mash buttons”

The story is the area I thought this game really excelled. On the surface it’s nothing ground breaking. The president is kidnapped and it’s up to you and your crew to save him. The tone of the game however is very unique with its dark, comedic take on serious social and political issues such as racism, police brutality and political corruption. It’s clear to see these are all issues that the devs care deeply about, but the playful way in which it’s presented never leaves you feeling like you are having a political agenda forced on to you. It feels more like social commentary of the crazy world we live in, and the comedic approach to the presentation only helps to highlight the absurdity of some of the real world issue people have to deal with daily. 

I also have to mention the absolutely stellar sound track to the game. If you're a fan of chip tune, the sounds track alone is worth the asking price.

I did find the game more enjoyable in shorter bursts, as the gameplay can get a little repetitive when played for longer sessions. I found the game quite linear too with no real opportunity to explore and no reason to revisit previously trodden ground. The witty writing was compelling enough that these two minor points where never really an issue, but adding some side quests to give you a reason to revisit previous areas, and some variation in game play from time to time might have been cool.

Overall I absolutely enjoyed Treachery in Beatdown City. I love the presentation, its completely unique to play, and story deals with serious real world issues in a way that never feels too heavy. In my opinion the asking price of £14.89 at launch is a fair value proposition for such an original and niche gaming experience and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to anyone looking for something fresh to break up monotony of AAA experiences if like me  you’re finding them a bit stale.