Slavicpunk: Oldtimer mowing down tons of enemies in a futuristic augmented Slavic world.
SlavicPunk: Oldtimer, developed and published by Red Square Games, a small video game developer headquartered in Kraków, Poland. Although not much information exists on the developer, they do have one other notable release, that being the tabletop game called SibirPunk.
Which takes inspiration from the well-known tabletop game DnD or better known as Dungeons and Dragons. However, the developer has brought us the top-down shooter SlavicPunk: Oldtimer; the game takes a lot of inspiration from SibirPunk, as well as the works of Michał Gołkowski, a famous Polish sci-fi writer.
The world of SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is set in an unstable and crumbling, dystopian, crime-infested metropolis simply named “The City”; you are placed in the grimy boots of Janus, the anti-hero protagonist that we have the pleasure of playing. Janus is an old, rough-around-the-edges, augmented mercenary desperately trying to find solace in the hedonistic pleasures of “The City”.
Starting off with a simple fetch quest, where you are instructed to make your way to find a drive for Sonia. We are given no information about the drive or the contents held within, and we are simply told to get it. One thing to note is that the game has a nasty habit of not explaining anything to you, and if it does, it keeps it incredibly vague and up to player interpretation. For example, if you don’t pay attention to the borders of your screen, you will have no idea in which direction to go.
Once you have found your location, you will have to make your way through what looks to be a pleasure house at first glance but turns into a gang-infested hellhole, which will introduce you to the battle mechanics. SlavicPunk: Oldtimer features a point-and-shoot combat system. You also have access to a dodge roll, which you will use to evade enemy fire, and finally, you have what looks to be a rush move, which is essentially a sprint with some cool visual effects.
Among these combat mechanics, there is also something of a stealth aspect as well, such as avoiding cameras and staying out of enemy sight. This combat system isn’t anything too revolutionary, as something similar has been seen in other games, such as John Wick Hex. Together with these mechanics, you will need to plan out attacks and cause as much bloodshed as possible, which is pretty easy, as the combat is fairly simple.
As for our lovely protagonist, when Janus isn’t gunning down gangsters and lowlifes, who comprise most of the city population, he is put through a vicious cycle of abuse and use both towards others and himself. So, in other words, your typical Slavic action protagonist.
While he works well for the setting, Janus’ gritty cynicism can be a bit annoying at times, as he will take every opportunity to say a witty one-liner or try to sound like a Slavic Sylvester Stallone. This does make most of his dialogue incredibly ‘cringeworthy’, and you will roll your eyes whenever he opens his mouth.
Sadly, the dialogue in SlavicPunk: Oldtimer isn’t the only weakness the game suffers, as its storyline isn’t any better. The story features nothing that would keep players engaged, no likable characters, no mystery, no cliffhangers, nothing. The setting itself is incredibly generic, a gritty cyberpunk world that seems to be perpetually wet.
The game doesn’t do anything to try and elaborate on it or its inhabitants, making the setting and characters forgettable. As mentioned earlier, the game doesn’t explain much, leaving the player to do most of the guesswork and fill in the blanks.
As for the visuals and effects in SlavicPunk: Oldtimer, these are probably the best part of the game. Most of the cutscenes in the game are rendered in a comic book art style that uses stark shadows and solid colors that add to the game’s gritty feel and make it look like you’re playing a graphic novel.
The game’s effects do as expected, adding some much-needed atmosphere to a burnt-out world torn by a crumbling and unstable futuristic aesthetic, which is somewhat more realistic to what is to come in the real future rather than the clean neon-filled cyberpunk-styled world from fantasy with the added augmentations.
As for music and sound design, the music is incredibly atmospheric and works well with SlavicPunk: Oldtimer’s cold and snowy environment, making you feel like a lone wolf in a flock of sheep. This also makes the world feel a lot livelier and adds a nice moment of peace before combat. However, the music only works when venturing around the city, not when in combat, as it lessens the threat and impact when facing off against your enemies.
Exploring this Slavic dystopian world, your meanderings will be split between the open-world city with wide snow-covered streets and the cramped, moldy interiors of buildings whose inhabitants consist of both civilians and gangs.
In both cases of exploration, going through these areas, you will find loot crates and Spider Robots that seem to have a hidden purpose, which in turn will reward you with much-needed supplies such as ammo, consumables, medkits, and rarely new weapons, as well as some sort of components which isn’t elaborated on the use of.
Venturing forth into SlavicPunk: Oldtimer, you will come across locked doors, broken computers, and other obstacles, which lead to the classic trope of finding the key or object scenarios, which you will have to solve by exploring around or following the objective indicator.
Most of these locked doors and riddles aren’t complex, making most of the game a fairly simple experience. Now, pair this with the rather dull setting, uninteresting dialogue, and characters, and you will soon find yourself incredibly bored and uninterested in anything the game has to offer.
Sadly, SlavicPunk: Oldtimer has seriously missed its mark. The game was based on the works of another author’s book series mentioned in-game. In its current state, the game lacks anything to keep you interested in playing it. That’s not to say all hope is lost, far from it.
The developers should take the time to expand the setting and the inhabitants, and give players more things to do than mow down the same three types of enemies or roll their eyes whenever the protagonist speaks. It’s obvious that the devs wanted SlavicPunk: Oldtimer to be the next Witcher, but in its current state, it feels more like an on-release Cyberpunk 2077.
Overall, SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is a game with plenty of potential; with its awesome comic book art style during cutscenes and great atmosphere, not to mention using the writing of an established author as inspiration, the game has everything in place to become something great. The developers just need to bake it a bit more.
