Final Shot was developed by AVTOSERVICE GAMES and published by ChiliDog Interactive, originally released a few years ago on console, it has now come to Steam, which is the version I’ll be looking at today.
Final shot is action game in which you play as a samurai, out to kill a load of bad guys. There’s some more story elements, but really, that’s all you need to know, as your objective for each level is simply to kill everyone.
The game plays in a top down perspective, with your mouse controlling where your character is facing. You then use the keyboard to manoeuvre, and mouse buttons to attack. You start off with a short sword style weapon, but can find more around the levels or by picking them up off of defeated enemies. These additional weapons range from things like hammers, broken bottles, better swords, nailguns, uzi’s, you get the picture. Some have better range, some have better damage, it’s really up to you to experiment and see what fits your style.
The game does a decent job of spacing out the availability of these weapons though, early on you will only be able to find a few of them, with the game giving more as it goes on. The action is all about movement, you have to position yourself in such a way to kill your attacker without getting cornered or overwhelmed. You can only take three hits before dying, and although you can find med kits throughout the levels, your life can still be reduced very quickly if you aren’t careful.
There can be a lot of enemies coming at once, and since it’s so easy to die, this gives the game a high level of difficulty. Couple this with the fact that when you die you go back to the start of the level, this creates some tough challenges. The starting levels are quite small, so dying and going back to the start isn’t so much of a problem. However later levels are quite expansive, with lots of enemies around, meaning dying can be a real pain.
At it’s core, I like the gameplay that Final Shot offers. It’s frantic and twitchy, and this style of game is always fun to play as it gives real stakes to battles, as when you finally complete a level, you really feel like you’ve overcome a challenge. One minor grievance is that it does feel quite zoomed in - I understand that is the aesthetic they’ve chosen, but too often I take a hit from an enemy I just didn’t see coming, which feels a bit annoying.
On a technical level, the game utilises a pixel aesthetic mixed with 3D models to create an interesting visual design. By default the game has a CRT filter in place, which you can choose to disable if you like. I left it on because it was on by default so I assume that’s how the developer intends the game to be played, but of course the choice is up to you.
I did notice one minor technical hiccup though, sometimes when you are going through a level quickly the game seems to stutter slightly and the scrolling is not particularly smooth. I forced vsync through my graphics driver as the game has basically no video settings, and that seemed to help, but it was still not entirely smooth. Hopefully this can be cleaned up in a future patch.
Going along with the blood soaked gameplay is a pretty good mix of techno club style music, set to pump throughout levels as you progress through the carnage. There’s a fair amount of levels too, and how long this game takes you to complete largely depends on how good you are at it. If you’re able to breeze through levels you can probably beat it in a few hours, if you’re like me and each level will take a few goes, it will take quite a bit longer.
Overall, I fairly enjoyed Final Shot. It feels like a proper indie game - harkening back to those days of flash based browser games. It’s got some good adrenaline fuelling action, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you’re in the mood for a challenging action game to play for a few hours that you don’t need to think too hard about, this might be a good purchase.
Rating - 3.5/5