Have Game, Will Play: Blue Estate The Game

I’m not much of a light gun game afficianado. The primary reason is because I no longer own any CRT televisions. Although I honestly didn’t play much beyond Duck Hunt in my youth. I borrowed a Super Scope Six from a friend during the SNES era but that’s another story. Having digresses enough I should probably get to the point. The Wii and PS3 had their fair share of light gun-esque games employing the use of the Wii remote and the Move controller along with the PS eye. There were good ones and some really bad ones. So when I found out about Blue Estate The Game for the PS4 I just assumed that it would use the move/PS4 camera or the Dual Shock 4’s analog sticks. I was wrong. Blue Estate The Game is controlled solely by the DS4’s motion controls. Using motion is functional but far from ideal. I found myself constantly tapping the L1 button to recenter the reticule.

The game is based on a (forthcoming?)comic series of the same name from Viktor Kalvachev. I’d like to include several sentences about who that is and what Blue Estate is about; however I have no idea. The tone of the game is violent, humorous, sophomoric and at times a bit racially insensitive. That could be due to its source material. To which the game also owes its strongest asset, the presentation. The cut scenes and lead up to the gameplay are done very well.

Blue Estate offers single and couch coop modes. The levels have you controlling one of several characters. As one would expect the narrative and dialogue change but the core gameplay mechanics are the same regardless of who you are. With the exception of one character that rather consistently and annoyingly would have his hair fall in his face forcing you to swipe up on the touchpad to see properly. The touchpad is also used pick up items, weapons, interact with doors and perform melee moves. The levels take place in varied environments but are too long. Playing through some levels felt like a chore. Boss battles are fun but the generic enemies just get recycled over and over; not to mention hearing the same stupid one-liners repeated throughout the overly bloated stages.

Recommendation: Worth a buy on sale – if you try the demo and really like it otherwise – No
Full Disclosure: The PS4 version of this game was provided to GameEnthus by the publisher.
Genre: on-rails shooter, light gun-esque
Developer: HeSaw
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platforms: PS4
Price: $19.99

http://www.blueestatethegame.com
http://GameEnthus.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gameenthus-podcast-video-games/id286435007?mt=2

Scale:
Worth a buy – paying full price for fans of the series or genre makes sense – often includes a caveat
Worth a buy on sale – not quite full price worthy but close, – often includes a caveat
No – borrow it if you must play it
Please no – Don’t waste any time and/or money on it

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