Afro Samurai

Swords, blood, dismemberment, one Afro, and yes even a little nudity what could be better?  Well, as it turns out quite a bit.


This plays almost exactly like you would expect.  String together combo's cut people up as you progress through the story line.  The thing that ruins this game is that there's only so much you can take.  With flaws in execution and good ideas gone wrong I have to admit I was surprised I took the time to complete it.


Afro Samurai uses a completely worthless level system in my book.  Apparently their are sixty-one skills you unlock through leveling.  What are the skills? I'm so glad you asked.  They're combo's.  That's about it no strength increase a little life increase and a little focus increase but that's about it.  The combo's they do give you although useful if you take the time to learn them don't do much else then give you a different animation set to watch over and over as you hack through enemies.



The camera is just plain frustrating.  It doesn't auto focus on anything, they instead use cut-ins to show important sections of the game such as enemy reinforcements and things that are dangerous to your well-being.  When it does decide to help you look at something it locks it in so you can't do anything but twist it for just a second.  



The focus system would be useful if half the enemies didn't hop around like rabbits on speed and some of the mechanics are just poorly explained.  I had to turn to gamefaqs just to complete the last three levels because the bullet deflect explanation was as vague as could possibly be.



The storyline of the game is really it's saving grace.  The games levels are setup more like episodes and the final level being similar to the season finale.  Being derived from the show that setup was actually really interesting story wise since no two stories were heavily reliant on the other.



My best explanation for how this game plays is this.  If you were to tell me you could only handle eating ten candy bars before you had to have some ice-cream or change to something different I would make you eat fifteen.  And that's pretty much how the game plays.  It's fun for a few minutes then you get bored of fighting the same guys over and over and over then you keep going just to see how long it'll last and once it's over the storyline actually gets you to go to the next section.



Overall I give Afro Samurai a 4.5 out of 10



Next game up: Alan Wake