A snow coated cyberpunk city provides the backdrop for this top-down twin-stick shooter. Although our gruff private investigator protagonist Yanus – who has a penchant for strong liquor, along with anything else he can get his hands on – carries a machine gun, I don’t think we’ll be debating whether SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is a Christmas game or not on social media. Turns out splashes of blood soaking into fresh snow aren’t quite as festive as yelling “ho ho ho!”
The storyline here sees Yanus following a lead on a shady corporation stealing data, with info provided by an unscrupulous individual known as Rodent. Much of the plot hangs on how trustworthy this character is, and whether they’re leading Yanus into a trap. Yanus is fighting his own demons too, with one stage involving a heavy night on the booze, temporarily blurring the screen until the effects wear off.
From start to finish, your thumbs are going to be proverbially glued to both the controller’s analogue sticks – with shooting intuitively mapped to RT. One stick is used to line up shots perfectly, with gang members usually in Yanus’ sights, while the other is used to spin the camera around. This is something you’ll be doing often to gain a clear view, with the cyberpunk city densely constructed from action-obscuring overhead pipes, air ducts, neon-lit billboards, and police drones. A battle outside a bus depo had us spinning the camera around constantly, with only half the screen visible at any given time. Not exactly the best location for a raging firefight.
Thankfully items of importance, such as ammo boxes and power terminals, have silhouettes to help them stand out. Another helpful touch is the ability to increase the size of the UI, although there are still telling signs that this was a PC game originally, with text-based dialogue hard to read on a TV screen.
SlavicPunk: Oldtimer mostly boils down to following a linear path through dilapidated complexes, slums and facilities, occasionally stopping to power up generators, hack computers to open doors – via two different mini-games – and battle waves of enemies. Unique set-pieces are infrequent, and although there are a few different enemy types and their AI is generally robust, there isn’t a drip feed of new adversaries either. Most battles involve crouching behind cover, rolling behind shielded enemies to get a clear shot, backtracking from frenzied melee attackers, and occasionally dashing out of harm’s way.
The number of missions can be counted on one hand (I was able to see the ending in two 3-hour sittings) with a lot of time spent traversing the open world hub, which takes the form of a ramshackle city square with a few item stores and the occasional gang war. Due to the lack of a map, locating said stores can be tricky, forcing you to memorise where landmarks are. Following objective markers is an easier task, with a pointer always on screen to show where to head.
The star of the show here isn’t Yanus, but rather the weapon selection. Unlike the enemy roster, these are on a drip feed, with more becoming available over time. You’ll get to weld a revolver, assault rifle, shotgun, SMG, and a heavy hitting railgun – and ignoring the similarities between the AR and SMG, they all come in useful at certain points. Moreover, they can be upgraded and customised as you see fit. This is easily the game’s best feature, as the improvements are highly noticeable. Upgrades such as larger mags, silencers, armour piercing rounds, and EMP bullets come in three grades with each weapon having three slots. There’s a degree of flexibility, as it’s possible to mix graded items. Early on, I sunk a load of cash into upgrading the shotgun with incendiary rounds, making Yanus delightfully overpowered for a mission or two.
If you were to take away the weapon customisation, there wouldn’t be a great number of ideas or mechanics left. It’s possible to ‘hack’ enemies by slowing down time, selecting one or two, and then inputting a three button combo to implement damage or a statis effect, but this isn’t explained well initially and only comes in useful when faced with gun turrets. It’s a mystery why the developers didn’t run with the idea of hacking, turning police drones against people and such. There’s a lot of untapped potential. The final boss battle – the one and only boss fight, no less – also left a sour taste, auto-saving when I had next to zero health and generally feeling badly implemented.
I went into SlavicPunk: Oldtimer expecting it to be challenging and mechanically rich, much like The Ascent, but it ended up being far shorter than anticipated and undecidedly casual. The upshot is that the pacing is quite swift, with a decent sense of progression, and it’s also very easy to get into. An effort has also clearly gone into creating a tense atmosphere, with the city’s inhabitants severely downtrodden and the police oppressive. In some places it looks reasonably impressive, while in others, it is quite hazy – it uses a muted colour palette, often with only the neon billboards standing out within the cluttered, snow covered, environs.
Shoot first and ask questions later – that’s not only Yanus’ way of thinking but SlavicPunk: Oldtimer as a whole. The twin-stick shooting elements are more than functionary, but I was constantly questioning why the developers didn’t expand on the few ideas present. You may not be slumming it through this cyberpunk city for long, but chances are you’ll feel ‘done with the slums’ even before the ending credits roll.
Red Square Games’ SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is out 6th November on PS5 and Xbox Series. A PC version launched in 2023. Published by Gaming Factory.