Romeo is a Dead Man

Like its Fractured Universe, Romeo is a Dead Man is a whole lot of disparate parts that don’t always add up to a coherent whole – but I’ll be damned if I can't stop thinking about it, and I respect how it tells its story through its gameplay.

Suda51 is an artist with a recognizable aesthetic, and his fingerprints are evident on this game too, but what's missing is a sense of a larger vision for the game. . Sometimes it's charming or funny, but these moments are fleeting, and artistic flair does not cancel out the tedium of the game's combat and exploration. . It's not a tragedy on the scale of the real Romeo and Juliet, but this is one Dead Man I'm not inclined to mourn.

The difficulty curve inverts as your weapons become silly powerful.

Looking at Grasshopper’s gameography, this one lives near the top of the ordered list for me. I was left wanting more from the love story incidentally promised by the protagonist’s names, but I was eager to keep playing to make Romeo stronger, see where I was going next, and learn more about the colorful cast of characters.

After some dumb fun hacking at zombies, legendary developer Suda51's first original game in a decade sadly only delivers a host of incoherent disappointments

Romeo is a Dead Man is Grasshopper Manufacture at its most confident and its least conformist. It's got its fair share of rough edges, but the combat is satisfying – offering a challenge without being frustrating – and the sheer inventiveness in its myriad art styles and its bizarre plot ensure this is an adventure you won't have seen before. Anyone with an interest in wandering off the beaten track of familiar third-person action adventure games should check this one out.

But overall, it’s the touches of mischief which make Romeo is a Dead Man stand out in a ‘good enough’ landscape dominated by Live Service and competitive games. Stuffed with one-off moments and boisterous action honed over nearly 20 years of carnage, it’s a game that never sits still, never settles for boring but functional and dies with a live hand grenade slipping from its fingertips.

Just as enjoyable as it is frustrating, Romeo Is a Dead Man is an incredibly uneven experience. You'll love it one minute and hate it the next. Persevere with its more annoying elements, and you'll discover a unique and entertaining hack and slasher at the end of it all. It just takes a lot of effort and restraint to get there.

Romeo is a Dead Man is a violent, loud, and deeply human reminder on why I love video games to begin with.

ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN is a brilliant, fever-dream rollercoaster, made by Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture at their absolute peak. By leaving behind the empty world of No More Heroes III in favor of a tightly paced, linear, almost "Soulslike on steroids" experience, the studio has delivered its most mechanically polished and visually eclectic experience to date, and a statement against the sanitized, risk-averse nature of modern AAA gaming.