PLAYING WITH FEAR - DEATHWISH ENFORCERS (PS4/SWITCH)

Here at Macabre Daily, we love all forms of macabre media, including video games. While it seems that with each passing year, there is less and less time to devote to them, that hasn’t stopped publishers large and small from innovating in the realm of AAA to indie gaming. While film and gaming are naturally different mediums, they both thrive off of keeping the viewer/player engrossed in what is going on either by way of exciting visuals and/or interesting narratives. The history of horror/cult classic films in gaming is a long one, and it shows no signs of stopping. This is why we are debuting a new series here at Macabre Daily, one that we hope to be able to devote more time to and hear contributions from different members of our ghastly staff on how they’re playing with fear!

For our inaugural entry in this tome of terror, we are focusing on the exploitation flick-influenced side-scroller DEATHWISH ENFORCERS. Released on MAY 14, 2023 from LIMITED RUN GAMES, is Deathwish Enforcers a cult classic throwback or just another attempt at inflated senses of nostalgia?

HOW IS IT?

DEATHWISH ENFORCERS is a game that wears its inspirations proudly on its sleeve. Those inspirations are sometimes quite literal, and in other cases adjacently familiar, but in every case it is clear that the developers behind Deathwish Enforcers are big fans of the Cannon/New World/AIP films and have infused those aesthetics into every pixel and level. In addition to the throwback themes at play, Deathwish Enforcers also opts for an “old-school” arcade-style approach to the action which makes things punishingly difficult for those playing alone, and overwhelmingly action-packed for those playing with friends.

When it comes to a plot, there isn’t much of one in Deathwish Enforcers and that’s a-okay. Much like similar games like Streets of Rage or X-Men: The Arcade Game the story is secondary to the action which should be familiar to anyone who ever played any of the old TMNT beat ‘em up games back in the day. The point of this whole affair is to wipe out the bad guys, beat the boss, and progress to the next level. Deathwish Enforcers gives you the option to select one of four “enforcers” who all have the same run, slide, shoot, and jump abilities. There is also a button assigned for a “special move”, although it wasn’t used as much as the others. Each level changes the scenery, enemies, and overall theme to accommodate some kind of familiar cinematic backdrop. While most of these are quite anonymous, some of them elicit a very specific sense of nostalgia for a character or film. This keeps the levels fresh and exciting, even if the gameplay doesn’t change a whole lot aside from a couple of levels where you’re on a bike versus on your feet.

What will make or break your experience with Deathwish Enforcers is two-fold: difficulty and playing with others. On the former, the default difficulty in Deathwish Enforcers is punishing, to put it mildly. On default settings, I was barely able to get through the first level with enough continues to keep me going onto the next stage, but the good news is, you can change these settings to give yourself a better shot. In the settings menu, you can configure how many continues and lives your character gets, with the max being 9 for both as well as a difficult gauge. Even at the easiest difficulty, with continues and lives maxed out I was barely able to complete the game in one playthrough alone. This kind of ruthless challenge is spearheaded by a hit system that is quite unforgiving, one shot and you’re dead. Unlike similar games such as Contra there is no life bar here, so if you get hit, you’re dead. This makes for a frustrating experience alone, but certainly a much more engaging and frantic one with friends.

On the whole, Deathwish Enforcers is a lot of fun if you consider yourself a fan of old-school side-scrolling action games. It doesn’t do much to innovate, in fact, some gameplay often feels intentionally retroacted to amplify the difficulty, which can be both endearing and infuriating at the same time. Modern games that attempt to recreate retro gaming often give the player the benefits of modern gameplay, but Deathwish Enforcers opts to keep things squarely in the late 80s with respect to freedom of movement and aiming. And there are some parts that are head-scratchers in relation to what you’re supposed to do next. In one instance, I thought the game was broken because I didn’t realize I had to shoot out the tires on a bus hurling barrels at me as it seemed there was no other way to take the bus down. Nevertheless, the charm of the old-school look and feel as well as the varied settings, enemies, and music to accompany make Deathwish Enforcers a great party game for cinephiles who enjoy a challenge with some cult classic cinema vibes.

LAST RITES

Deathwish Enforcers is a brutally difficult and outrageously nostalgic beat ‘em up aimed squarely at fans of exploitation and genre cinema. While the difficulty and decidedly retro gameplay may be a turn-off for some, for others this is the closest we will ever get to a Cannon Group video game and one helluva great party game to play with your cult cinema comrades!

THE GORY DETAILS

Deathwish Enforcers is available NOW from Limited Run Games. It is available on PS4/PS5/Nintendo Switch in both physical and digital versions.

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