Takeover - Early Preview

As an avid gamer, and reviewer for the media, I’m quite happy to play anything that comes my way. And since the boom of the ultra-indie scene, where a single person development can create magnificent works of entertainment. Just look at Conscript, and Bright Memory as remarkable fleets of single developer efforts. And making video games is very hard, whether it be a triple A big budget epic, or a small, lovable pixel art farming sim. But with purchasable assets, online help, and lots of other tools, making games is much more accessible than ever… but it’s still quite hard and feedback is such an incredible ally.

Today’s “preview” is of Oedipe Games’ Takeover, a game centred on beautiful women sword fighting and destroying self-aware cyborgs who aren’t too keen on humans. As an elite cyborg slaying agent, you’ve been sent to EXE Corp. the largest cyborg manufacturing facility, which has fallen to a violent cyborg uprising.

All you know is that the cyborgs are miffed after being installed with a new AI system that allows them to have emotions, and they’re quite thrilled with the emotion known as anger. It’s time to take on the cyborgs in style!


Now, this is a preview and Takeover is still in very early development … and it’s very notable in the current build.


Super beautiful cyborg slaying fun!


So, the first thing I can easily say is that Takeover does look very nice at times, and while it feels very much an Unrealised game, it generally looks nice, and performance-wise I had no issues, including crashes, framerate drops and all that bad stuff. None of it at all I say!

With other aspects such as UI, it’s not bad, but certain options felt cluttered, with some text being cut off, or overlapping the box it was in. I was able to find my way around, but looking up the controls and feedback popups which would inform me I need to level up to access a new character could be a lot better looking. But the worst offender was the lack of a proper pause menu, which allowed me to exit the game when I wanted. This was sorely missed, especially when I found myself trapped in the main objective, a power core, after clipping through it. A pause menu and exit function would have been nice here.

I also did see the odd graphical glitch where a chunk of the world was missing, like a wall hadn’t loaded in it seemed. Or just a missing bit of set-dressing/scenery was needed, instead of a flat, grey floor outside the main level. The city landscape does look pleasant though, and of course the lady agents too!


Hack, slash, keep your clothes on!


As for gameplay, you’ll be given a series of missions that require you to venture through a heavy enemy infest zone, requiring stealth, before engaging in combat within a massive arena. It’s a solid formula that bounces back and forth between thinking laterally, and using your wits, and going full John Wick with a sword in an action pack combat section.

The combat is simple, but looks amazing at times, and is a lot of fun to pull off whether you’re being a novice and mashing buttons, to combing weapons, and manoeuvres to spectacularly dispatch enemy forces. It all looks, feels and sounds great, and is the wholesome, stupid slashing fun that never gets old. And a hilarious notion that clothing represents health is silly but amusing.

What did keep combat fresh and varied were the numerous foe types to fight, with ninjas, gun-toting cyborgs, and big heavy dudes requiring you to keep moving and change your attack patterns constantly kept each encounter different and challenging. And while the more enemies added can quickly go overboard on the mayhem, it still looked, and felt great to fight. Plus, again the performance was stable even at the most insane battles.

Stealth, on the other hand, is very tedious and just slows down the pacing. The setup is you must make it from the entry point to the combat arena, without being spotted by the very powerful patrolling enemies, who can one-hit kill you pretty much. You do this by walking, hiding behind creates, and zapping to the next bit of cover without being spotted. Straightforward enough, but these stealth sections just make no sense and become very repetitive early on. Enemy AI is unpredictable but easily trolled into ensuring you’ll just literally walk past them, and that’s a good thing, as there is little else you can do aside from take cover in certain spots, do a short after taking cover, and walk slowly away or around enemy view of views.

Environments in these sections are boring, often overly simple, overly large in scale, and never provide an interesting challenge. It grated more on me, as the same level kept repeating over and over, and by the 7th time this happened, I just gave up.

I gathered that by killing cyborgs I levelled up, and when I levelled up enough, new characters and levels unlocked … but I couldn’t do this honestly as my progress for killing cyborgs and everything else didn’t save most of the time. Only one playthrough’s stats were saved and none of the others.

It’s a shame as Takeover’s combat is quite cool, and looks very stylish, and while a little clunky and chaotic, I could see being a ton of fun and engaging with a few more attacks and powerups. As said, I couldn’t unlock other characters but from gameplay videos, they do appear to behave differently. So maybe after a patch, I can fully appreciate the other characters.

But as it stands, the stealth is tedious, and the level design lacks any variation or stimulation.


How is it shaping up?


It’s clear that the developer is passionate about their project and is already implementing feedback. I’m glad they’re making something they feel deeply about and continue to check out Takeover as it progresses.

But honestly, there is a lot of work to be done, with stealth, certain bits of presentation, and bugs needing attention. But this is early days and what is good, I liked quite a bit, and if worked on and refined for a while longer, could shape up to be an incredibly fun, fulfilling indie slasher. As mentioned, some elements I couldn’t access due to a bug or lack of information, but I will keep you guys posted when new updates come about.

For the time being, I wish the developer all the best and look forward to seeing new updates soon!