Fun, but flawed.

Gameplay is a mix of Ninja Gaiden’s melee and Gears of Wars’ cover system. You can switch between guns and melee with ease to suit any situation, and auto-aiming ensures that locking on isn’t an issue. In a comical fashion, weaker enemies will have their heads pop into the air when shot. Melee combat is quite brutal with a decent variety of weapons; pipes, swords, and daggers, even a sledgehammer. On the ranged side you have snipers, shotguns, and automatics, and RPGs. Unfortunately, the game suffers from several problems, the worst of which is an inconsistent framerate. Also most of the guns sound the same and not particularly powerful – although their effect on the enemy is quite the opposite; strangely, in the enemy’s hands they sound much better. On the upside, the voice acting is pretty good on the whole, even with Ivan’s cheesy Russian accent. Visually, some of the environments look pretty good, apart from the odd low resolution texture. The characters also have great detailing; Ivan’s tattoos, for example. The overall looks aren’t stellar for a Wii U game, especially when compared to Bayonetta 2. Despite some rough edges, it is fun and definitely worth a play through at least once.Read full review

Verified purchase: No