“Surface tension of borsch”
Gennady is a game about the adventures of an eccentric character who looks like he escaped from Boogerman. A square head, a stocky build, and an impressive potbelly make him the pure archetype of male strength. The protagonist is so tough that he is ready to go through hell and high water in nothing but boxer shorts.
The only thing that is hard to get used to at first is the voice acting. But after a couple of hours, the monotonous mumbling starts to amuse, and the absurd voice lines become so memorable that they made it into the subheadings of this review.
Our protagonist ends up on an alien planet that is just as disgusting as the Dimension X-Crement from the classic Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure. However, the surroundings do not scare the hero: he scatters aliens with his bare fists, and the green ooze dripping everywhere even seems good for his skin. Closer to the end of each stage, comic book pages appear. They piece together the backstory: growing up, friends, a past job, and the secret behind the origin of his superpowers.
“Is this Rad or Ai?”
A run is divided into several biomes, each with its own set of traps and monsters. All the gathered loot carries over to the next level: the character grows stronger, but enemies get nastier too.
The game can be tackled at a leisurely pace: collecting larvae and then exchanging them with the merchant Sho for health, shields, artifacts, and slots for them. Relics boost stats, summon allies, and provide passive perks. Additionally, every biome hides a challenge room with a generous reward for agility.
You can also opt for an aggressive pace. In a state of rage, Gennady is invulnerable as long as there is someone to beat up. However, at high speed, it is easy to crash into spikes or run into an ambush and head straight to the Valley of the Dead. And you cannot scrape together much currency on the run anyway.
On my fifth run, I got fabulously lucky with my build: I reached what seemed to be the final boss. But the game suddenly cut off my path: in order to challenge him and get the ultimate gun, you must collect the missing comic book pages. And here is where game design flaws rear their heads:
- A strictly limited number of pages is hidden on each level.
- Teleporting to the required zone is only allowed from the starting location, and there is no way back.
- You enter a new location “naked” and unprepared.
- Having picked up a page, you have to deliberately die in traps or against monsters to start over from the first level.
- After dying, you are only allowed to keep a couple of artifacts, but after a streak of deaths, the container breaks permanently.
Why build so many artificial barriers on the way to the ending and variety remains a mystery.
“Not hello”
All arguments in the game are settled with fists: breaking through guards, stunning creeps, and handing out beatings. In a local café, the colorful Zina hands out modifiers that increase damage and attack range.
After assembling the comics, you unlock an unstable gun: it makes dismantling bosses noticeably easier, and it has its own separate upgrade branch. The price for this firepower is rapid overheating and disabling the berserk mode.
The enemies in the biomes are truly unforgettable: janitors born from slime; waitresses who catch fire and run around like crazy; walking barbecue grills; in the “Forest”, monsters get aroused by honey; critters that assemble armor suits out of trash; scoundrels that block abilities.
It is just a shame that you cannot drop by Sho before a boss fight. Whatever health pool you reach the arena with is what you have to make do with. On top of that, the rage mechanic is taken away, even though its meter would only last for at most one phase of the battle.
“This is your final stop!”
Gennady is a charming title capable of hooking you in. It is not ashamed of being crude, cracks dirty jokes, and wins you over with its visual style: during pauses you cannot help staring at the backgrounds, and in motion you admire the frame-by-frame character animations.
In spirit, it is old-school hardcore: you die often, memorize timings, and gradually hone your reflexes. The tension builds with every step, and right before the climax, adrenaline goes off the charts.
What the project really lacks is careful balance polishing. A couple seconds of invulnerability after taking a hit or before traps trigger, free fast travel between zones, and an immortal loot chest would rid the game of tedious frustration. Otherwise, what we have here is a solid indie endeavor.