One of my favoutite scenes from the office is the infamous “Knock knock”, “Who’s there?”, “KGB”, “KGB who?” *SLAP* “WE WILL ASK THE QUESTIONS” scene between Dwight, Michael and Jim. Now imagine if that joke formed a life of its own and became a video game. Only it’s anthropomorphic people in place of the KGB and with *KICK* instead of *SLAP*. That’s Anger Foot, a brand new IP from Free Lives published by Devolver Digital.
You can check out the adrenaline-fuelled, action packed and stomp-kicking trailer just below, with less than a minute all that’s needed to show off it’s colourful mayhem in all of its ludicrous glory. Anger Foot is a lightning quick title of one shot kills on everything, including you. Like living on the razor’s edge, you’re never more than one hit away from certain death. You’ll careen your way through a caffeine-fuelled fever dream of the somewhat appropriately named Shit City, shooting, kicking, stomping and decimating everything in your path.
As you barrel and smash your way through the slums, sewers and skyscrapers of Shit City, murdering every anthropomorphic soul that stands in the way of your gargantuan sneaker boot, you’ll find new weapons, get new abilities and even find new sneaker pairs with their own powers. Nike Airs ain’t got nothin’ on these bad boys. If Hotline Miami met Superhot and chugged about 500 litres of coffee en route it would probably come out something a little like this.
In fact, so much of a blast did it look, that I couldn’t help but try out the Steam demo available right now. It’s a generous demo indeed, with 11 levels to complete, about half of the collectible sneakers to unlock and a bunch of ass-kicking gameplay to get sucked into.
The demo fully delivers on the rapturous gameplay trailer for sure and I had an absolutely awesome time curb-stomping and getting equally bashed in, a lot. Your kicks will send enemies flying, doors blasted from their hinges into a poor sucker’s face, pasting them onto the wall. Whip up one of the enemies’ guns and mow them down in a hail of bullets, blood and furious kicks. Each stage gets progressively harder, introducing new enemy types (who are easily identified thanks to their repeating models) to blaze through. Luckily, you also pick up their guns once disposed of, so pistols, SMGs, shotguns and the like can pair with your terminator kicks very nicely indeed.
Pace-wise, it’s insanely quick. Missions can be finished as quick as 45 seconds if you know what you’re doing and have enough Monster raging through your veins. After a couple of jaunts through the first level I was eviscerating everything in sight. No door posed a threat anymore, no baseball-wielding croc menace a fear for me. It’s super slick and runs beautifully (I was hitting 200 frames throughout), and while the core gameplay remains pretty static, the ferocious nature of the combat keeps you locked in like a rollercoaster. You’ll die lots, you’re meant to, what with everything being downed in one strike (two for gunshots), but one hit of the left mouse button and you’re back in the action immediately, ready to slay some animal ass.
It’s a super fun but intense experience. The nonchalant style may not be everyone too, full of beer-chugging, enemies shooting while having a dump (literally, every second room is a toilet!), the story is about the main character’s sneaker getting nicked. It’s irreverent, it’s stupid, it’s nuts. It’s wholly immature in that Duke Nukem picking up shit kind of way. But having said that, it’s a manic, addictive thrill-ride of a gameplay style and one I’m thoroughly looking forward to when it releases in 2023 on PC.
If you’d like to check out the demo for yourself it’s currently available for free through Steam. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of Red Bull, but you can’t deny the satisfaction of dropkicking a bipedal crocodile with a baseball bat through a living room.
