‘Romeo is a Dead Man’ Review
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 16:40
Suda51’s first new IP in ten years is here and I have high hopes based on the stylish reveal trailer. Is this a space time smash hit or do I wish Romeo truly was a dead man? Well, it’s not so simple.
Moderate STORY and GAMEPLAY Spoilers follow.
Reader Discretion is advised
The story is as wild and wacky as you’d expect from Suda51 but God does the game not do a good job of telling you what the situation is. You play as Romeo Stargazer, a cop in the small town of Deadford, Pennsylvania. On patrol, he finds an unconscious woman on the road, who he learns is a lady by the name of Juliett (Similarities to Garcia finding Paula in Shadows of the Damned are fairly apparent but alas). The two fall in love until one day Juliett disappears and Romeo is mauled to near death by a zombie-like creature, we learn to be a Rotter, the games main enemy type. Romeo is saved by a contraption built by his eccentric grandfather, leaving Romeo in a state of near death. When he awakens, he is Deadman, an agent for the FBI’s Space-Time Police, hunting down time criminals, of which Juliett is seemingly the leader of. I think, anyways – the timeline is a little fuzzy intentionally but that’s the general gist. The ending does ‘’’’’Clarify’’’’’ things but ultimately falls a bit flat in its execution.
In between the games missions, you’ll be on the ‘The Last Night’, the ship that takes you around. The ship is explored in a 2D pixel art style which is an interesting choice to be sure. The ship is where you’ll find your team. Most extend little beyond merchants unfortunately, with nothing much to say. While the cast isn’t huge by any means, none of them are particularly exciting either. All the villains are one note and your team is at best a merchant and at worst a couple lines of dialogue. Romeo and his grandfather (who is now the patch on Romeo’s Jacket) are the most interesting characters but even then, that’s almost by default.
On the ship, you can upgrade your weapons. There are four melee weapons and four guns to choose from, with the Katana and Pistol available from the start. The other weapons can also be purchased from the start and are dirt cheap which is nice for anyone who wants to experiment but since you’re not really unlocking anything, I didn’t really bother to try the others out, instead sticking with the default two. You can hotswitch between the weapons at any time but since they all have unique upgrades, it’s better to stick with ol’ reliable. Upgrades for Romeo are handed differently, using the currency you find around as fuel for a little ship in a PAC-MAN like maze, collecting little icons that represent different upgrades such as extra healing or more health. It’s fun and unique but not altogether practical, a microcosm of the games design philosophy in many ways.
While upgrades are available in levels, something exclusive to the ship is the ‘Curry’ system. Curry is an alright idea, collect the ingredients to make temporary bonuses – the effectiveness and length of the bonus depending on how good you are at the ‘Press the button at the right time’ minigame but honestly besides from making one of each for the trophy, never thought to ever use the Curry because I never thought that using them was the difference between winning or losing.
Level design is serviceable but very basic, linear in concept rather than levels being a straight line. There’s very little exploration or venturing too far off the beaten track which is fine, not every game has to be open but the design isn’t terribly exciting. There are moments that are cool, like the Asylum level’s turn into a horror vibe, but these don’t happen often enough.
I understand why Subspace is a thing but I never enjoyed it. Throughout the levels, Romeo can enter Nirvana TV’s which take him to a cyber world. These worlds have the same layout as the real world but are visually distinct, allowing the player to enter areas locked in the real world before travelling back. Again, it’s cool but the visual style means it all looks very samey and the Subspace world shifts to block off the player meaning navigation can be a nightmare.
The combat rooms, known as the Palace Athene are fun but like, why? There are the main ones in Space and some available within levels, not that I noticed a difference in size. I thought maybe these were roguelike since I didn’t die until the last boss of the Very Hard version, but you just respawn? So, Palace Athene is fun but it’s just more combat in a game that has nothing but.
I don’t usually complain about bugs or technical performance, but I feel like I can’t get away with not mentioning them here. Throughout my playthrough, I suffered from Frame Drops, I ran into the game breaking Chapter 4 bug that made the save unusable. That was patched after a few days but as of writing this article, 12 days after release, the glitched trophies have been acknowledged but there is no time frame for them being fixed.
Despite a fairly negative review, I did really enjoy my time with ‘Romeo is a Dead Man’. It’s as PS2/PS3 as it gets with a myriad of problems, glitches and shortcomings but there’s something so addictively fun about it. If it didn’t have Suda51’s relentless charm and design behind it, this is a game that would have been left to the wayside by most people but those who know what they’re getting into will know what I mean. Romeo, I mean DeadMan, if I don’t look too closely, you’re alright.
