Gang Beasts

Game'scover

About the Game

Gang Beast is a beat em up Party game developed by an indie british studio Boneloaf. As of now their only game is in fact Gang beasts which is a game whose popularity only rose ever since it's initial release in August 2017.
Gang beast art direction and characters are ver simple and in fact many people can instantly recognise them. The game was originally published by Double Fine Presents who kept their deal for approximately three years before Boneloaf publish the game by themselves. Boneloaf collaborated with Skybound games in order to release a limited ammount of physical copies for the game for all three main consoles. Gang beast release was met with plenty of possitive critisism and a few awards susch as Multiplayer game at 2018 british awards and nominations for Multiplayer game. Nowadays, Gang beast became a standard multiplayer experience that pretty much anyone playing with a party of atleast 2-3 more people in a party will have someone reference it or even suggest it and theres plenty of influencers (youtube/twitch) who will get their friends and uopload or stream a game of Gang beast atleast once. What makes Gang beasts work is its crazy combat, the random elements that affect the battle and the genuine laugh and funny moments the game produces.

Game screenshot

About the Game

Gange beast is party beat em up game where the player gets control of their Beast. The game gives a default single coloured "naked" character out of plasticine. The players can then jump straight into the game or spent a few minutes in order to customize their hero.

Character cystomization:
The player can personalise their experience by creating their very own personal beast. In order to do so select the option Costumes. In the room, the game will offer the chance to make a new hero or edit a newly created one. Once the selection is made the game will place the beast in the center with three options and multiple arrows. The options apply and reset are self explanatory as one applies all the changes made where as resets returns the beast to each original form. The third option, random chooses different parts and places them into the beast on its own. The first sets of arrows "< --     -- > " represents the voice the beast can have . The second set represents hats, masks, haircuts and plenty of other objects that can be placed on the head. The third option is responsible for eye customization. The game offers a variety of face masks and plenty of glasses . The fourth set represents the facial hair such as mustaches, beards and face masks. The fifth set changes the top that the player can equiped. Some of the sets may be full body customizations that when selected will remove certain options. For example, wearing the cat pijamas with a hoodie will instantly remove the option to equip items on the head and also disable the option to customize the trousers. The sixth optiopns allow the player to place an item on the back such as capes and backpacks, on the neck such as jewlery or even equip items in the hand such gloves. The final set of arrows is responsible for the trousers. Before applying the changes, the player can select what color their hero will be by tapping the buttons displayed top right. Keep in mind the color of the beast does not imply that this color will be the one selected when playing, BUT it will give the player more chances of spawning in with that color.

Game modes

Gangbeasts can be enjoyed in both local Co-op and Online. It goes without saying though that the online version is where most of the fun can be found, as the Ai opponents are not that good and local multiplayer between 2-3 friends will not be as fun as the online option.
the game offers 4 playable modes:
  1. Free For All
    2. Free For All is the ultimate experience of gang beast. Everyone is up againts everyone with the goal of being the last beast standing. The goal is to throw all the opponents outside of the map. Very similar to the mainstream Royal Rumble found in WWE where the fighters have to eliminate enemies by throwing them off the ring. There is a total of 14 maps to be found each with their own mechanics. The last beast standing will receive a victory point. When searching for a lobby the players will have to select whether or not they ll try best to 3 or bet to 5. A game can consist of 2-8 gang beast fighters. Each time there is a winner or a tied round, the game will reset and change map.
  2. Gangs
    3. In Gangs Mode the player are split into teams. Unlike free for all this time the players are seperated in teams and they try to prove themselves as the superior team in the "ring" .
  3. Waves
    4. Waves is the only game mode where the player can play againts Ai enemies of various sizes. The player can play solo or with local/online teammates. This section can also be used for practise for any newcommer as they get to see what the game is all about.
  4. Football/Soccer
    5. This is a very bizzare mode where the players are placed within a court and they try to score the ball to the opponents goal. The player cas still beat each other up but unless they score atleast one goal the game will end in a draw. To score the player can punch/kick/headbut the ball around. Knocking out the enemies can help towards the process of scoring
Game screenshot

Controls

The game has clunky and hilarious controls. The player can move around, sprint and jump for their mobility abilities. In order to take down enemies the players can punch the enemies, kick them and use their heads to headbut them. Each gang beast has an invisible stamina bar that is affected by the hits. The more the player is being hit, the less the stamina will have which will cause their character to stay in the ground longer after receiving a stronger hit. When an enemy is knock down the player can crouch and use the punch button in order to punch downwords. However a punch is achieved by tapping the button, if held down the player will grap the oponent. There's a button responsible for lifting both hands up and when holding an enemy it can be used to lift the opponent up. The player holding the other can build momentum and then throw the opponent away (preferably off bounds). The punch/hold can also be used with objects such as barrels. The player can punch and hold on a barrel. They can then lift the barrel and throw it or even start spinning around. If the right momentum was build, anyone who approaches the player will be hit and pass out from the encounter. Another use of punch and hold is the ability to climp. The player can approach any wall or any object available and climp upwards or downards. This mechanic is usefull to master as theres plenty of maps where knowing how to climp will heavily affect the players surviving abilities. Kicking and headbutting can help the player recover from a drop or wake up from an enemy who is currently holding the character up.

Honestly this is all the mechanics given to the players in order to fight their way to the top with the minor exception of the maps.

Maps

The game has a total of 14 maps, each of them having their own unique gimmicks that can heavily affect the course of battle. In fact some maps may leave the players fate up to luck. For example, when battling in the elevators, some players will spawn inside the two machines where as others on top. Those who are on top can easily punch the cables holding the elevators in order to cause them to fall killing anyone inside it. The aquarium map and the boat map both have wild animals (Kraken/Sharks) which will radomly attack players who re phasing each other, sometimes killing them, others knocking them down and other times simply placing them in a dissadvantageous positions such as under water. I could spoil all the maps gimmicks and how each one is unique and very different to each other but I genuently believe that experiencing it on your own is better.

The Final Thought

Overall Gang beast is a game that may not look as impressive as other games but seeing how overwhelmingly possitive the reception towards the game is, it 'speaks' for it's self. The game proves that it doesnt need flashy graphics or complex gameplay or even complicated rules to make up for hours of fun. The game has been out for quite sometimes and it's impressive to see that the developers still update and add new things to the games, even though sometimes it completely breaks the game. To elaborate, the pc versison of the game had 3 maps which were not in the console version and it took them a couple of years to finaly add them. When they did, the game was so broken that it was unplayable. Needless to say Boneloaf expressed that they were aware of the issues and that they were working towards fixing them. Nevertheless it took them quite a while before the game was fixed.( the issues only occured when the specific three maps were loading ). The game is usually € 20 but it is often available in plenty of sales in the online stores on their respective platforms.

Other Links you might be interested in

Figures Video Games
  • Back to review selection