There’s no question that the super-violent (and outright weird) top-down violence simulator that was Hotline Miami was lightning in a bottle. While the gameplay certainly wasn’t for everyone, it was generally quick, brutal, and satisfying for fans of intense action everywhere. Of course, when something with a pretty unique hook makes a big splash everyone wants a chance to get in on the action, so we get games like Redgar: The Space Viking.

By giving the action a more melee-oriented feel and going with a medieval theme, the flow absolutely feels a little different here. In place of the funky story beats of Hotline Miami you have a bit more of a traditional one in place as well. On a general level your objectives remain quite simple, and typically that’s to make use of whatever weapons you find to bludgeon or shoot your enemies into submission. You’ll need to think and move quickly, as death comes fast and quite often, but thankfully in general you at least won’t lose a ton of progress when you die.

One critical area that I struggled with, and that feels like a design choice that was a mistake, is how zoomed in your view is. With it so tight to your character it is extremely easy to be surprised by enemies, leaving you just moments to react in some cases. You do have the option to push your view out further, which helps, but that then makes you vulnerable as well since it moves your character out of view. In general I found this setup typically left me at the mercy of enemies with ranged weapons. It also tends to make everything feel more trial and error, making you learn placements rather than simply going with the flow and taking care of business which can be far more exciting. In general, since you’re quite zoomed in, it tends to make the camera sweeping in a circle or quickly moving more jarring than it should have to be and sometimes a bit unpleasant to look at.

While there are absolutely some elements that work here, it feels like some unfortunate decisions were made to try to make the game a bit tougher, likely trying to extend playtime a bit. The problem is, doing that also changed the nature of the game’s overall feel. Part of what worked with Hotline Miami was being able to see just enough to make some rough plans for how you’d hit a given room. Your view wasn’t perfect, but you saw enough to tactically give you a chance. This, by comparison, puts you at a substantial disadvantage to your enemies, and the experience suffers in the process, feeling like the deck has been stacked against you in a more unfair manner. If you’re looking for an alternative fix, this will deliver to a degree, but it ended up being a bit disappointing.