SlavicPunk: Oldtimer PS5 Upgrade Review
Summary: A gloomy isometric shooter with an appealing setting. The rest is silence.
2.9
Not perfect
SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is an isometric shooter from Red Square Games. Initially released for PC, the title now hits consoles. And although it runs considerably better now than it has ever been, it still has a number of issues to address.
The game is based on the works by a Polish science-fiction author Michał Gołkowski. You play as Yanus – a private detective burdened with private problems. One day his old friend Sonia asks him to solve the case of a stolen data drive. As you can easily guess, it’s not as easy as it sounds to be; soon Yanus ends up upgrading weapons and collecting ammo to clear the city of dirtbags.
Combat might be better in SlavicPunk. What definitely fails there is the control scheme. I didn’t like the whole aiming mechanism where you need to rotate the camera in order to aim. It feels highly unintuitive. Also, a cover system proves flawed – hide or not, you’ll be hit sooner or later. But the biggest disappointment is enemy AI.
It happens that, standing next to Yanus, a bad guy doesn’t discern him at instant – as if he needed some time to believe his eyes. In other cases, opponents appear en masse out of nowhere and make a pulp of the protagonist before he even blinks. Oddly enough, enemies don’t seem to be aware that they can pass from one room to another. Come on: as an inhabitant of a futuristic city, you should already know what doors were invented for!
SlavicPunk: Oldtimer contains some stealth mechanics. However, almost everything boils down to avoiding security cameras; there is some simple hacking as well. If you think that you may complete the game sneaking behind enemies’ backs, forget it – it doesn’t work this way.
Bad guys are placed in so stupid a way that there’s literally no option to pass through a location without being spotted by one. And, as an encounter with one enemy usually means an encounter with a bunch of them, you almost always end up opening fire on groups of thugs. This makes gameplay repetitive; a silent takedown option would certainly add some variety to the title.
What also got my goat were poorly placed checkpoints. SlavicPunk is quite difficult; at some points you need to die several times in a row before you succeed. It was somehow annoying to have to pass through a labyrinth of rooms and corridors over and over again just to repeat a fight in the final room.
The title looks decent. There’s a calling charm about eliminating bunches of rotten guys to the rhythm of pulsating neons. I like the strong attention to detail and the overall environmental design. But the visuals are far from perfection. Textures don’t load properly at times; also, noticeable frame drops occur every now and then.
Furthermore, the interface is barely readable in the PS5 version. You have an option to increase the size of the UI, but doing so is of little use, as the text remains small nevertheless. Some people may be determined enough to get up from a couch and stroll to the TV to decipher the hieroglyphs displayed on it; however, some people aren’t.
Final thoughts
SlavicPunk: Oldtimer is an atmospheric shooter with a darkly beautiful setting. Unfortunately, the game suffers from numerous issues; unintuitive controls, enemy AI and frame drops are just a few. But if you like cyberpunk and dystopian themes, I think it’s still worth trying – either on PS5 or any other platform.
About the Author
Dagmara Sorceress from The Witcher's homeland and Yennefer's classmate (got better grades than Janka). Addicted to the mechanical keyboard clack; always looking for an opportunity to make this lovely sound.
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