Charlie Murder Review

Punk rock, demons, blood and guts – that’s a summary of Charlie Murder, but there’s a little more to it than just that. It’s a lovechild parented by many other titles including Castle Crashers, The Dishwasher, and Scott Pilgrim the Game.

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BEAT ‘EM, SMASH ‘EM

Charlie Murder falls into the beat ‘em up category but it has a few shallow RPG elements thrown in to the mix. In this game you’ll pick one of the band members to play as and you’ll immediately be bombarded by skeletons, zombies, giant monsters, and anything else you can think of. You can smash ‘em with your fists, pick up grenades, guns, and even a freshly severed limb. It’s a bloody mess when you’re finished, but it’s a lot of fun.

RPG? STICK TO BRAWLER

There are some light RPG elements that they tried to implement into the game, but really it’s pretty basic and almost non-existent. You can use a number of spells against your foes, but unlike a traditional RPG, you won’t earn these by leveling up your character. Instead, the game features a number of tattoo shops and getting inked will earn you these new abilities. You’ll also earn cash and some other small items just by defeating enemies throughout the game.

A COLORFUL, BLOODY MESS

The graphics in this game are actally pretty sweet. It uses vibrant colors to bring the world to life, but at the same time it keeps that creepy tone that was used in The Dishwasher games. As for the levels themselves, they’re usually pretty beautiful, though sometimes things you see in the world won’t exactly make sense.

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ROCKIN’ OUT

The most noticeable part of Charlie Murder is clearly its soundtrack. Seriously, it’s a game about a punk rock band so obviously it’s gonna have a kickass soundtrack. There’s even a few Guitar Hero-esque moments in the game, but they’re a little slow-paced. Hardcore beats and screaming can come in at any time, and even if it’s not your style of music, it just fits into this game so well.

TOUGH STAINS, DISHWASHER SAFE?

Charlie Murder isn’t an overly easy game, but it’s nowhere nearly as difficult at The Dishwasher games. What makes this game a little harder than most is a somewhat unforgiveable checkpoint system. Checkpoints are few and far between and if you’re not keeping up your health then you should prepare to replay a lengthy portion of the game.

ONLINE? TYPICAL XBLA

Sure, Charlie Murder features up to four person multiplayer on Xbox LIVE, but like any typical XBLA game, the community just isn’t there. It’s not impossible to find a match right now, but in a week or two it’ll be a dead feature for the game. XBLA games should really try to focus more on their single player experiences because not many seem to survive once they enter the web.

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THAT’S A WRAP

Basically, Charlie Murder isn’t a bad game, but it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table and all its ideas and features are just borrowed from other games. That being said it’s not a great game either – it’s mediocre but fun. The soundtrack is the most enjoyable part of the game, and of course the bloody punk visuals are pretty cool too, but it seems like Charlie Murder tries to do too many things at once, never really becoming great in any single area.

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