Strange Scaffold has been releasing a wildly diverse set of indie games lately (over two years): from El Paso, to Elsewhere, to Life Eater, to Clickolding, the indie studio represents the best of tight and focused gaming and most experimental. Its latest version, I Am Your Beast, may be less weird A bunch, but that doesn’t make it any less rare.
After a disappointing September with a slew of highly anticipated indie games (the other half being a bunch of really great big games), I Am Your Beast feels like Like a breath of fresh air. It’s simple and not overly popular, but also achieves a high degree of replayability in an extremely satisfying and simple way.
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Sure, many indie games fall into this description, but few are narrative-heavy first-person shooters. Yes, at first glance, I Am Your Beast looks totally arcade-y, with a lot of its DNA getting the brain excited about scores, ratings, and crazy multipliers. But it also happens to be packed with a very compelling story and perfectly defined characters via text and audio. There are almost as many cutscenes as there are main story missions, and they’re written and edited with as much rigor as Dangerous itself.
It’s also the type of game that doesn’t sell well on screenshots and written praise alone. So, first things first, check out the wild and straightforward launch trailer below:
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Do you hate the idea of the military-industrial complex, but are unfortunately attracted to weapons and the digital murder of dozens of thugs? I guess this is your game. The story follows retired agent Alphonse Harding, who is happily studying birds in the middle of a deserted wood. Rejecting “one last job” (we know how this works) sparked a fierce guerrilla war between him and the Covert Ops Initiative (COI). There’s some John Wick and Rambo stuff here, and you’re destined to play the Predator on COI’s ass.
In these games you are a rock hunter. At least on a basic level. Of course, the developers have to make it fun. The problem is, they’re usually slower-paced and more tactical than the usual action games. I Am Your Beast is the exact opposite, feeling like a cracked version of Titanfall 2 (but sadly without the mechas). Bullets are flying, sliding and jumping around the scene is just as important as killing these enemies, and often you have to get creative to survive and/or achieve your goals before the time counts down.
Those Warzone streamers might lose their stuff if they stopped playing AAA games for an hour and checked out this little gem. This is what I call a crazy level of “offense-based sport.” Kill those fools, stab them, dice them, and rush to the level exit. Want to perfect your skills? There are bonus goals. Want even crazier levels? Challengers are waiting for you. It’s a very sweet package, even for strict completionists, and is only a few hours long.
Even if the main story suffers from additional goal-related obstacles that unfortunately kill some momentum, I Am Your Beast feels unlike any game I’ve played this year, big or small. There’s zero fat in this orgy of bullets, knives and blood. This also applies to the visuals and original sound design: the entire content simply pops off the screen and speakers, feeling readable even in the busiest moments. I can’t speak for Weird Scaffolding, but I bet this has been tested to hell and back because it just works and flows Very good.
I guess, what I mean is, even indie projects tend to fall into some of the trappings of the genre and the ever-present influence of larger games. I’m talking about narrative-oriented games that don’t need an open world to do what they’re really interested in, or roguelikes that can’t quite figure out how to tie a bunch of flexible mechanics together Maybe we didn’t belong together in the first place. In the face of these creative shifts, Strange Scaffold’s game is one of the most focused and “creatively stable” I’ve come across in a while.
While baby boomer shooters are enjoying a second life thanks to many indie studios and indie developers’ love for ancient FPSs, retro-style games like I Am Your Beast or Ultrakill still have a unique Stunning and surprising with style and focus on the moment – real-time loops that feel lifted straight out of a character action game. Yes, they have a classic and arcade feel, but they’re pushing the genre forward in meaningful ways. The substance is there, too; I Am Your Beast made me care about its central character more effectively than countless games that try to fill it with walls of text or spoken dialogue.
There’s beauty in simplicity, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice theme and character. It’s a difficult balancing act, especially for artists making video games. But Xalavier Nelson Jr. and Strange Scaffold seem to have found that really sweet spot, delivering just the right amount of “bang for the buck” time and time again and keeping players in the game with more problems than they first booted up more often. It’s amazing how people participate in every new crazy experiment they launch. That’s what you do.
“I Am Your Beast” is currently a PC exclusive game. It’s available on Steam and GOG.
