Immortal Redneck (PC) Review

Do you like randomly generated levels, pyramids, mummies, rednecks, power ups, old style shooters and potato launchers? Then Immortal Redneck may just be a game of interest to you. Inside this wonderfully titled game of joy are all these things. And more.

Immortal Redneck puts us in the bandages of a recently mummified, redneck tourist after he crashes and wakes up in ancient Egypt. But why ancient Egypt? How did he get there? Any why is he mummified? To find out, our redneck hero must fight his way through three pyramids and an ungodly amount of fierce foes willing to fight to the very end to keep you out.
Now, don’t get too excited about story here, that’s not really why any of us are here. We’re here for the gameplay. And the gameplay is good.

Pyramids of Redneck

When we take our redneck wrath to the pyramids we’ve got several doors to choose from. Once a room has been entered it cannot be exited until every living thing, besides you, has bitten the dust. Or sand in this case. Then we simply go from room to room until we find a staircase leading in a general upwards direction. Throughout the fighting we’ll collect gold. This can be used for our skill tree but we’ll touch on that later. Of course we also get health pick ups along the way in the form of steak. These are rather important as perma-death is a thing here. Well, sort of. Once you enter a pyramid, if you die then you spawn back outside. Here you get to level up your skill tree, visit the store and enter each pyramid.

Although you do have to start the pyramid all over your skill tree remains the same. Of course this results in a bit of grinding but it doesn’t get boring as the pyramids are randomly generated every time. So it doesn’t feel like you’re just doing the same thing over and over. In fact, the more you play, the better it gets.

May the Gods be ever in your Favour

Now, the skill tree. Like many other games Immortal Redneck has a level up system by skill tree. You fight through, earn gold and spend it on the tree to unlock and upgrade skills. However, unlike many other skill trees this one is a literal tree. It’s starts off as a small stump and the more you unlock the bigger it grows. It’s very unnecessary and didn’t need to be done. But it’s such a brilliant thing that anyone with a sense of humour will enjoy it. If you don’t have a sense of humour you really shouldn’t be playing a game called Immortal Redneck.

Not only can you upgrade your abilities here, you can also unlock the favour of the gods. These unlock new abilities and weapons. There are 9 different gods to choose from, all different from each other with their own pros and cons. The good thing here is you can choose whichever one best suits your play-style. Want to be have a lot of health and power but at the cost of moving slowly? Sure. Or want to attack from a distance with bonus to range damage? Go ahead. Want a special ability that turns everything into steak? Of course you do!

Then you have your store vendor. Which also must be unlocked from the tree. Here you can buy bonuses like starting with a scroll. Or start the pyramid in the condition you left it. Then there’s a bunch of medallions you find throughout which give you even more bonuses.

The point is, there’s plenty of reason to keep playing Immortal Redneck.

Game Like it’s 1994-2003… Roughly

I’ve played a few shooters now that try to recreate the feeling of the old timers. The only one succeeding being the newest Doom, although that’s to be expected. The failures have all done the same thing wrong. Made their game in the style of an oldie but made the controls and mechanics modern. The two don’t merge well. I’d find myself swarmed by enemies and projectiles but the gameplay is really slow paced so you can never run and gun like you’re supposed to.

Immortal Redneck however, captures the old shooter feeling perfectly and makes it modern in all the right ways.

Aside from the fast paced running and gunning, there’s a few more features here that remind you of the good old days. We also get power-ups, in the form of scrolls naturally. But not only a handful, there’s over 100. Not all good though. You could get one which makes your enemies explode when they die. Or you could get one which takes away your crosshair or turns all gold into meat. Good for health. Bad for your skill tree. One little difference with these power ups is that you don’t have them for a limited time nor can you have only one. Your scroll will last as long as you do and you can have as many as you find all at the same time.

Platforming too?

What is nostalgic style gameplay without a platforming element? In these rooms we’re fighting through you’ll find yourself using good old 3D platforming to navigate your way around a lot of the rooms. There are even puzzle rooms where you have to complete it without taking damage or in a certain time. If you succeed you are rewarded. These being mostly platform based help with the nostalgia.

To top it all off we have the thing I miss most in games. Boss levels. That’s right. On the third and seventh floor of the pyramid you’ll be confronted with a boss. Now, I can only assume that beating both bosses and finishing the pyramid unlocks the next one as I have yet to defeat the seventh level boss.

It Looks Real Perty

Well, maybe the sort of Pretty you’re thinking of. Of course this doesn’t look lifelike. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a certain charming look that pulls you in. It’s almost cartoony but in a nice smooth, pleasant to look at kind of way. One thing I like in particular is the style of guns. The developers could have easily taken the lazy route and imported real gun models into the game. Thankfully this isn’t what they did. Instead they decided to create a 50 weapon arsenal which all look different and fit with the style of the game. I’ve used a handful of guns which resemble real world guns. But even then they’ve changed the way it looks so it still fits in with this world. It’s all little details like this that make you appreciate  a developers work more.

One final detail I feel is worth noting is low ceilings. Hear me out. This is such a tiny little detail that can easily go unnoticed, but it’s such a small detail I feel I need to mention it. If you’re in an area with a low ceiling, and you jump. You’ll hit your head. The screen will tilt to the side and everything. It’s the little things.

Is it Worth your Money?

Yes. Yes it is. No seriously. This is such a fun game. There’s plenty here that’ll keep you busy for a good while and it does not get boring thanks to the random generation, skills and gods. And lets not forget those redneck one liners.

Immortal Redneck is available now on Steam for the very reasonable price of £14.95/$17.95.

Immortal Redneck
Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Platform(s): PC
Publisher: Crema
Developer: Crema