Gamer reviews for Hardboiled

Review: Hardboiled Offers a Tough, but Satisfying Open-World Adventure

Roman Spiryagin with Game Dev Team brought a new title to iOS this past week that has proven intriguing to Fallout fans who have been longing for a mobile port. The game is Hardboiled and it tells the tale of Max, an Apocalypse survivor. After driving around and searching for a safe place to start over, Max found himself trapped in a strange city after his car had been gutted for parts. Not one to give up easily, Max has decided to enact revenge on the thieves, locate his stolen car parts and get out of town before something else terrible happens. But here in Last Hope, terrible things are a way of life.

The game costs $1.99 on iOS and is a premium title with no in-app purchases or pesky ads.

The gameplay is simple enough- Max needs you to escort him around town, but don't expect a leisurely stroll. Around every corner is a new and slightly bigger jerk with a more powerful weapon just looking for a reason to kill you and steal your stuff. You will be able to pick up a few weapons from various abandoned boxes and containers laying around town, as well a weapon or two that can be collected from the lifeless corpses of your victims. (The game is rated 12+, by the way.) You will fight off plenty of thugs and reprobates, but the biggest problem here is that the game has an open-world set up, but an enemy-toughness scale that gets harder as you go along. This means that death will be a well-used option, since all fights are inexorably "to the death" and your first tour of the map will not give you many clues about where these meanies have stashed your stuff.

The game is, admittedly, pretty short. The first run through should only take a few hours, tops, but the game is based on an interesting "Reputation Points" system (think Fable, but more simplistic.) The point system maintenance a balance of every time that you made your character act rationally and politely and every time you made poor Max commit heinous acts of violence. These points contribute to whether you will be accepted by the good guys or the bad guys, but neither choice will get your car put together any faster.

The game is well put-together. It won't blow your mind, but the game runs smoothly on a variety of devices and does so without bugs or glitches. The character is controlled with a click to explore format that can seem a little cumbersome at first, especially since there is no option to change to a different one.

Overall, the game is quick, doesn't waste your time with pesky tutorials and is tough enough (even on "easy" mode) to satisfy your most sadistic need for conquering the impossible.

I gave the game 4 out of 5 for being an awesome start and a well executed idea that deserves a playthrough from all fans of the genre.