Review: Shakedown: Hawaii (Epic Games Store)

Rating: 8.4
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · June 4, 2019

Shakedown: Hawaii

Shakedown: Hawaii follows three protagonists through a 16-bit open world. Build your own ‘legitimate’ corporation by completing missions, acquiring businesses, sabotaging competitors, ‘re-zoning’ land, and shaking down shops for protection money.

Pros:

Glorious 16 bit graphics.
135.46mb download size.
Full controller support.
Own achievements in the game.
Grand Theft Auto style gameplay.
Three modes-Story, Arcade challenges and free roam.
TV color mode (filters)-Auto, Tampa, Portland 3, next-gen, entertainment system, see 65,pc dis ega, been racer 2599, pocket handheld and Giga burst.
Screen-auto, crisp 1:1, soft stretch and jaggy stretch.
V-sync on/off.
30/60 fps cap.
Rebind mouse, keyboard and controller.
126 story missions.
Save when you want.
Map with points of interest marked, missions and you can set your own waypoint.
Awesome animations.
Varied but truly brilliant soundtrack once again.
Old school cutscenes.
A good relevant story full of humor, nods and Easter eggs to pop culture and other games.
Simple controls.
Play how you want.
Real Estate–now you can take over businesses by intimidating the owners by means of a short mission. Once you’ve taken it over you get money coming in periodically. You can also buy businesses, houses, nightclubs, etc to increase your control of the city but also make loads of money.
Challenges are back and you can find the marker in the map or just play the dedicated mode. Each one has an online leaderboard.
Customize your character by buying new clothes and getting a haircut.
Better weapons.
Full of Easter eggs.
A fantastic game world full of opportunity.
You can steal any car ala GTA.
Retro presentation from a VCR interface to the cutscenes.
So much fun to play.
Police chases and wanted level.
Many cool types of cars to steal.
Environmental damage.
Each car handles differently.
Boss battles.

Shakedown: Hawaii

Cons:

More of the same.
A lot of boring fetch quests.
Difficulty spikes.
The camera is too close when driving making it hard to see in front of you.
Police seem off as I can hit them and be fine but then hit another car a block away and get a wanted level.
Business missions only have a small pool of activities and these soon repeat themselves.

Shakedown: Hawaii

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
9/10

Sound - 9/10
8/10

Acessibility - 8/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
9/10

Fun Factor - 9/10

8.4/10

Summary

Finally we get a sequel to the ever fun game Retro City Rampage. With updated graphics to fit the them, I was hyped to jump into a new city and fuck shit up. From the off it looks and plays just like the last game which is a win for me. The story is a lot more fleshed out now with shorter missions, more bad ass cutscenes and a general cohesion. Of course you can completely bypass the story and just dick about which is just as fun. Now the big new featirw here is not the graphics but instead the business side of things. Now you can walk into a store and initiate a hostile takeover which triggers a mission/activity. Once you do it that business is now in your pocket and they pay you protection money each month. Not content with just that you can also buy high end businesses, garages, night clubs and more which again generates more money. It probably sounds like it might bog all the fun down into spreadsheets and figures but to be honest it’s a very diluted addition and you tha K the Dev for that as it means you can carry on your day unscathed. I loved playing the game and despite it playing and feeling the same again it’s no bad thing really because what is new in the game is game cha going and fun. It’s worth a punt just for the sandbox world.