Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days Review

Naming a game after a well-regarded movie was a gutsy move by developer Big Games, which may or may not be appreciated by the fans.  Reservoir Dogs Blood Days bears only the most tenuous links to the original movie, and that’s probably not surprising when you think about it.  Despite being known for their blood and violence, Quentin Tarantino‘s films don’t often deliver long scenes of sustained combat that would lend themselves to video game adaptations.  Instead, they rely on tension and entertaining dialogue to carry you through the movie, and the violence is a punctuation to the built up tension.  There are exceptions, such as the Kill Bill movies, but for the most part, the violence doesn’t drive the movie despite often being the most memorable parts.  Reservoir Dogs is a good example of that with violence occurring only a few times in the movie, and the heist around which the movie is framed is never seen on camera.  We do see the consequences of violence quite vividly, though.  So, naturally, Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days is a game about pulling off heists while inflicting maximum violence without concern for the consequences.

Let’s set aside for a moment any issues that may arise from the license and focus on what is truly important: is the game fun?  The short answer is that it is indeed fun, but not without problems and reservations.  The game hinges on a rewind feature which lets you control multiple characters at a time in real-time combat.  You control each character individually, with the ability to change to the next character almost at will.  The caveat is that when you switch characters you will go back to the beginning of the turn, and the character(s) you already controlled will play through the actions you assigned them.  You may not switch back to a character until every character has been used.

In theory, this system results in you having to make plans on the fly, and attempting to rectify any problems characters who have already moved may encounter.  In practice, it leads to significant amount of frustration.  While it is true that you can save a character who would normally die by killing their attacker first, what you will find equally often is that actions taken by the later moving characters cause enemies to react differently.  This can mean that the enemies are alerted to you faster than they were originally, and now they are in different positions but your characters still react the way you did.  Shots that hit and killed enemies now miss and enemies who were originally oblivious are now storming in with no opposition.  The good news is that if you can wrap your head around the system (it takes a few levels to really start grasping it properly) you can use it to your advantage, and it can actually be a lot of fun once you know what you’re doing.  But it also never stops being frustrating, and you will die frequently.

Final thoughts on the Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days video game:

Ultimately Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days is an okay game that has received a lot more attention than it would have had it not had the license.  The funny part of it is that if the game had not had the license I would have been a lot more forgiving of the flaws in its systems.  But licensed games come with built-in expectations regarding presentation and tone, and Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days does nothing to even try to meet those expectations.  On the other hand, if it didn’t have the license would we even be talking about this game?  That is worth keeping in mind when you decide if you want to buy this game or not.  The game does run great even on low-end PCs (though the options menu is barren), and I fully expect that if the game gets ported to consoles it will make the jump gracefully.  I think $15 may be asking a bit much for this game, especially since you will see all of the tricks it has to throw at you within the first hour, but it is by no means a bad game.  When the price drops it may be worth taking a peek at and seeing if its fairly unique gameplay appeals to you, but I wouldn’t be in any rush to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycDPzSk9nC0