Butcher
There are games with complex nuance. There are games with basic mechanics. There are games that are glorious silly fun. And then there are games that somehow manage to be all of them.
Butcher isn’t one.
When the easiest level is “hard,” you know you’re in for a ride.
Butcher is a 2-D, arcade-style shooter reminiscent of nothing quite so much as long car rides curled up around a Gameboy, ignoring the world outside. It has the same twitchy mechanics, the same simple style of shooting, and evokes exactly the right nostalgia. It’s a game from the 90s, teleported into the 2000s, quite content to nestle in with its brethren. It works. It has the complexity of those same Gameboy games, of needing to get timing right and understanding the right weapon for the right occasion, but without the myriad complexity of most AAA shooters.
Summary of my run
Of course, the game itself is also ferociously difficult. That there is a DLC that makes the game easier speaks volumes about how beatable it actually is. Though my own skills are not a good metric for the game itself, I didn’t make it past the second level. This isn’t necessarily a slight - the games it’s paying homage to are also difficult - but it is to say that it can be one of the trickier games in its genre.
It is also gloriously gory, with blood and guts everywhere. If it’s a gory, difficult mess you’re looking for, Butcher is a fantastic choice.
Developer: Phobia Game Studios
Genre: Action, Arcade
Year: 2016
Country: Poland
Language: English
Play Time: 4 Hours, But Varies Greatly