I stab people…- Shank Backlog Review.

Wow! It’s been a long time that I have done one of these. I should have been playing something else, like something on a disc, not an XBLV arcade game. Oh well, another one down. Shank is a man with a knife and a score to settle, with enough animated blood to paint every house in the neighborhood, red.

Story goes like this…it’s sort of a weird Kill Bill reference. Shank, you, is sent to kill a woman for Caesar, assumedly a Mexican crime lord, but you can’t for plot reasons and are “killed” by Caesar’s lieutenants. This begins the story of revenge and let the hunting begin. You move though each lieutenant, slicing and chain sawing your way to Caesar. The characters are a colorful bunch, from a Mexican wrestler who has a penchant for meat called the Butcher; to masked gimp called Denny. Strange, bloody and funny death battles ensue.

The game play is a melee knifefest; you start with your trusty shanks, a chainsaw and pistols. Different weapons become available to you progress thought the fight; machetes, katana, chained fists, shotgun, grenades and Uzis. Each of these weapons has a little different play style to go with them. You have the ability to pounce on your enemy from afar, which makes for an epic scene as you jump with knives brandished. You can also grapple an enemy and make use of your weapons to cause direct angry, bloody destruction.

The action is fast and heavy as you knife though foes, executing combos from your range of weapons. Enemies are armed with guns, knives themselves, batons and then there’s the bruisers; men of large stature that they mixed in for some challenge. You can’t grapple with them, they usually have a move that will surely knock you down and some have guns; not just guns, but chain guns, grenade launchers, riot shields and door battering rams. Most of the action is crowd control; you try to kill one or more whilst keeping your backside from being overtaken by the hordes of cronies.

Shank is cell shaded, which makes the blood splattering even more animated. Excellent cut scenes of death and introductions to characters with cartoon flair. The developers never shy away from showing death and dismemberment.

For anyone looking for some bloody violent fair, Shank is it. The action takes a minute to accustom oneself to the intense action and strategy for staying alive. The first time I played this I didn’t like it at all and only got to the second level; then decided to quit. I don’t know why I picked this one up again, but I can say after adjusting to the learning curve I thoroughly enjoy Shank. Sitting there playing it I related Shank to the Metal Slug series. Running and knifing (instead of gunning), left to right. 4 INUS out of 5. If anybody has this and wants to play some co-op, I’m down. I guess the co-op story is a prequel to the events in the single player campaign of Shank. Good, bloody fun.