For all the in-depth stories, high definition graphics and astounding audios that come with the vast majority of videogames nowadays, there are times when you just want to sit down with a controller and take in a mindless blast for a few hours. Blue Estate gives you the chance to do just that.
Set as a prequel to the first season of the comics with the same name, you’ll get the opportunity to play through the story of Tony Luciano, an LA crime bosses son and Clarence, a for hire ex-navy Seal who tries his best to clean up after him. This hugely funny, on-rails shooter from HeSaw gives you a prime opportunity to take in some reasonably fun shooting action.
And you know what? It ain’t all that bad.
But in the same breath, it’s not exactly something you’ll be playing over and over again.
Luciano is one of LA’s finest. Someone who is more than happy to go to war with everyone and anyone in an attempt to rescue one of the finest lapdancers in the region. He’ll also get the chance to go after a gang of Eastern European mobsters in order to find and retrieve his fathers favourite racehorse…Blue Estate. But not everything Tony touches turns to gold and a few moments with hotshot Clarence quickly gives you the chance to see how totally inept and out of his depth T really is.
Split into a number of quick fire levels, the action and story is narrated lovingly, humouresly and unpredictably by the most clueless of Private Detectives, without whom would see Blue Estate rise above nothing and quickly disappear into obscurity. In fact, the humour that the Federal Bureau of Procrastination brings just about saves Viktor Kalvachev’s Blue Estate from being very swiftly forgotten.
On rails shooters have died a bit of a death in recent times but that doesn’t mean its been a mistake to run Blue Estate through that genre. With the choice between a controller or indeed Kinect for Xbox One dishing out the justice, the control scheme in itself sees the game come with a bit of a split personality.
Bigged up as a Kinect title, you would have thought the motion controlling tech would be the optimum control system but, truth by told, the half hour level lengths and constant need to hold a hand or two out to the screen at all times makes it a bit of a chore. Indeed, unless you’re some super fit, muscle bound superhuman, then I’d be hazarding a guess at your arm taking too much of a strain only minutes after really getting started. As movement is completely controlled for you (and scenes are more than pre-determined), using Kinect boils down to nothing more than aiming over the enemy with your right hand and hoping the game notices your action and fires out some quick fire auto-shooting. Pointing down with your hand gives you the option to reload and even though you’ll have access to a pistol, a rifle and a shotgun at various times, reloading is something that you’ll need to master very quickly. Swiping away with your left hand gives you the chance to grab numerous pickups, ammo and health, you know, the essentials that will help keep you alive in what can sometimes be a bit of a manic armwaving affair. Your left arm will also be used to quickly melee away those gangsters who get a little too close for comfort and means that you can’t really relax at any point. I really wanted to enjoy the Kinect controls but due to the sheer agony it brought (yeh, maybe I need to tone up a bit!), it didn’t take me long to get the control system switched over to a a standard Xbox One controller.
And it was then that I began to really enjoy Blue Estate.
Again, the action still plays out in front of you as a number of set piece scenes, but when using the controller the auto-fire that was associated with the Kinect controls is gone, instead being replaced by a swift pull of the trigger. It makes Blue Estate play out much more like a normal generic shooter and gives the opportunity to let the player get through each level in record quick time. In fact, if you decide to run with the controller configured, you’ll have Blue Estate completed in a little over three hours of gametime, with very little need to worry about what you’ve just taken in.
Enemies come at you in various forms but for the most part, as soon as you see a yellow prompt over an opponents head, you’ll want to target that one as fast as possible. The quicker you aim, the quicker you shoot and the quicker you dispatch the enemies, the more points you’ll earn and the higher your combo will rise. Hit enough nutshots and headshots and you’ll find yourself racking up scores higher than you’ll ever believe. And believe me, besides the humour, Blue Estate really is just about the scores.
And it’s only really here where you’ll find any sort of replayability with you perhaps wanting to go back over the odd level of two in order to increase your combos, your fire rate or your overall score in the arcade mode. I say ‘perhaps’, because personally leaderboards of this ilk don’t really appeal and don’t tempt me into a replay. Of course, the addition of two extra difficulty modes, ‘Abnormal’ and ‘Crazytrain’ gives those who wish to go back for a harder challenge a few more hours of play but whether you really fancy going back through things, with a quicker, much tougher set of opponents running at you, is all down to personal taste.
Additionally, whilst Blue Estate very much works as a single player title, the inclusion of some local co-op for those times a friend is over is a welcome one. Again, either player can control the situation in hand via either Kinect or the standard controller, and that sees the battle ahead of you quickly turning into a fastest finger first firefight. A pretty decent fun one at that and a great way of increasing the time you’ll get to spend with Viktor Kalvachev’s railer.
I have to admit to enjoying my time with Blue Estate; at least once I’d ditched the Kinect controls. However, I can’t say there was an awful lot that stood out above and beyond any other shooters and without needing to write this review, would probably not have bothered going back to look at it more than once. Not at any point will you see your gaming skills tested (not even with the handful of end of level bosses that are occasionally included), but if you need a half hour blast for a laugh, you should find Blue Estate just about scratches the itch.
Blue Estate is just one of those pick up, play and quickly forget blast through the on-rails past. And we all need to do that every once in a while.
Just make sure you use a proper controller.
