(bells chiming)
(glass smashing)
- [Luke] Ape Out is Hot Line Miami
on an intense diet of bananas and Buddy Rich records,
a top-down simian splatterfest set to a superb soundtrack
of jazzy drums and crashing cymbals,
bundled into an extremely elegant and cool package.
Blending elements of old-timey film and vinyl
with a sharp, bold 2D aesthetic and bucketloads of blood,
Ape Out is striking to look out
and properly addictive to play.
(jazzy music)
The premise is simple:
the apes are in, and they need to be out.
That's where we come in,
steering these simians to an exciting escape
through four short but regularly tough chapters,
plus a fun epilogue with a slight twist.
The location might be a shady research lab
or a mazelike container ship and its nearby port,
but the objective is constant.
Sprint into the exit, smash anything you can,
and slaughter everyone in the way.
Also, sometimes the ape is on fire.
The controls are simple too,
a perfect match for Ape Out's striking,
minimalist art style.
Outside of movement, there are just two actions in Ape Out,
shove and grab.
Shoving enemies will send them sailing
until they drop to their deaths.
(screaming)
Smash into pulp against a wall, or slam into another person,
liquefying both in a bloody explosion.
The shove also has the ape blow through plate glass
and pound their way through some doors.
The grab meanwhile is useful for procuring human shields,
making use of their panicked trigger fingers
to blast their comrades,
and to direct where exactly to throw your victims
for maximum devastation.
The occasional steel door will also need to be wrenched
from its hinges.
These two moves were all I needed
to feel like a big, hairy piledriver of primate rage,
flinging hapless humans around
as though they were weightless.
So yes, Ape Out is uncomplicated,
but that doesn't mean it's a pushover.
(jazzy music)
At its default difficulty, Ape Out is a steady challenge
that are knocked out across a couple of afternoons.
There were a couple of late levels
that cause me some strife and bogged me down
with what felt like a disproportionate amount of do-overs,
but overall, I found it a fair and fun contest.
Except for explosions, apes can survive two hits
before dying to a third,
so you can generally afford a mistake or two.
Also, enemies don't fire the millisecond
you become visible to them.
The apes have a small window to charge
or dart back into cover.
Ape Out's levels are largely procedurally generated,
save for some key bottlenecks that remain the same
regardless of the rest of the level changing around it.
Layouts are generally just a grab-bag of same-same rooms,
hallways, and wide-open spaces,
cobbled together in slightly different ways,
but there's enough variation
that it's an effective way to make every area feel dangerous
regardless of how many times it's been played.
There's no one quick or safe route through a level.
There are, however, a few fun scripted blitzes
through hallways and corridors of enemy-filled elevators
that everybody will encounter,
and I would have liked to have experienced
more of these memorable moments
I could pin on a specific, deliberate piece of level design.
One thing I particularly admire about Ape Out
is how tactics and takedown methods only reveal themselves
via trial or error, or by accidentally stumbling into them
on the first go.
Factors like how many times the different sorts of enemies
will fire their weapons after being grabbed,
or which ones will run if you chase them,
and which ones will stand their ground
can be cleverly exploited and countered
once you know their habits.
These tricks revealed themselves to me over time,
in a satisfying way.
I discovered almost instantly I could turn enemies
into a red stain by slamming up on a container door
if they were standing near,
but I played for hours before I realized
I could throw back bombs.
It's very satisfying peeling back
the banana-peel-like layers of what's possible in Ape Out,
despite the fact that it only requires two buttons.
Arcade mode ramps up the difficulty considerably,
adding a strict time limit to each level,
and sending you right back to the beginning
of the whole chapter if and when your ape is killed.
There's also a harder setting for the standard game,
which speeds up enemies and adds a lot more of them.
It's noticeably trickier,
and I had to play it at a slower pace
than the standard difficulty,
taking more care not to charge into areas
I could be swamped in.
I like Ape Out at its regular difficulty more though,
because I think the pace is better.
I also like the way Ape Out's huge walls stretch
all the way out of screen,
looming high over the vibrant orange apes
and bright red blood splatters,
adding depth along the zed axis
and obscuring the level ahead.
It adds a layer of pressure you don't necessarily get
in other top-down games, like Hotline Miami,
or The Hong Kong Massacre
where you can see into upcoming rooms and spaces
and prepare to deal with enemies who can't see you yet.
I like everything about the presentation, to be honest,
from the cue marks that flicker
in the right-hand upper corner
at the halfway point in each chapter,
like I have some kind of personal projectionist
changing film reels in the background for me,
to the way the level names burst onto the screen
in time with the music.
(jazzy music)
And the music, god it's good.
Each of the chapters has its own drumming style and tempo,
which ramps up dynamically
as the pace of your rampage increases,
and the death of every enemy
is punctuated with a cymbal smash
or some type of atonal squeak subbing in
as a desperate scream before they explode.
Everything going on in the background
is a freestyle drum solo timed with your actions,
and the atmosphere it creates is brilliant.
Ape Out is an intoxicating fusion of percussion
and destruction that oozes style from every angle.
Its procedurally built levels tend to
blend into one another a bit,
but its bloody rampages are filled with nuance.
Beneath the simple controls is depth
that's kept me returning for days
after successfully completing the epilogue.
Gorgeous and compulsive, if this '50s-inspired,
jazz-fueled joint is the future of gorilla warfare,
the team behind Ape Out can make a monkey out of me anytime.
For more monkey business, check out our best crack
at Ape Out's unforgiving Arcade Mode,
and for more top-down tomfoolery,
check out IGN's review of The Hong Kong Massacre.
(jazzy music)