Anarchy Reigns Review

Back in 2009, Platinum Games released their debut title, one of the most violent games to ever grace the family friendly Nintendo Wii, MadWorld. With a colour scheme reminiscent of Sin City, with a world simply black and white with the red glow of blood splattered across from violence and carnage and a lead character who I can only describe as Marcus Fenix meets Ash Williams from the Evil Dead 2. Although MadWorld received praise from reviewers it did not translate into sales figures with poor sales as with most third party developed Wii games. Luckily the folks over at SEGA thought it was worth a second shot. Except this time it would do a few things differently. No more dying zebra colour palette, no more Nintendo exclusivity, and finally the addition of one part of the game that puts it a few steps forward of where it's predecessor was, Online 16 Player Multiplayer. One of the best damn brawling multiplayer games this console generation has ever seen, this is Anarchy Reigns. 

Developed by Platinum Studios
Published by SEGA

Anarchy Reigns was released under the title of Max Anarchy in Japan back in July 2012 on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but had half a year delay to being released to the rest of the gaming world. This has lead to a lower RRP of the game but at a cost to the hype this game's release should have. I can already tell this game is going to be overlooked by a lot of audiences and its a shame. The game takes cues from various games in Platinum Games stable of releases including Bayonetta, Vanquish and of course MadWorld. The game itself is not perfect but there's that much to enjoy here that it warrants your time.

Leo and Jack

The story mode of Anarchy Reigns follows two paths of two different characters. The Black path follows original hero of MadWorld, Jack Cayman (voiced by veteran voice actor Steve Blum) while the White path puts you in the shoes of newcomer Leo Victorion, a member of Strike One. Both men seek Leo's former mentor Maximillian Caxton leading to their paths intertwining until both end up at the same ghost town, where the game then rewinds and lets you play the other side of the story until reaching the same spot again, where you can then play the final Red part as either character. The story itself isn't award winning stuff but it gives you a basic idea about some of the characters, their motives and tries to get you to care. The levels however repeat themselves halfway through with both characters playing through the same 4 stages but each one has different missions to undergo. The voice acting at times is excellent but also hilarious. Stand out for hilariousness is Blacker Baron voiced by Arif S. Kinchen who some may recognise as Pierce from the Saints Row series. The backing music for the fights in the game however is absolutely amazing. A mixture of techno beats, rap and jazz gives a nice feel to beating cyborg minions to a blue pulp or facing off against giant monsters 10 times your size.

Blacker Baron

 Each level has a map for your character to roam and create havoc on the local psychopathic populace to unlock missions to progress the story or free missions in order to gain more XP to unlock said story missions. Traversing these levels is simple enough, although memory is required to find the correct new free mission instead of going back to one that has already been completed. Combat plays out simply on the most basic layer, with a regular attack, heavy attack, grapple and clearing close space attack all fitted nicely between the top 3 buttons on the gamepad of your console of choice. (XYB, Square Triangle Circle) but then another layer of combat comes into play with each characters 'killer' weapon. This is activated by holding down the Left Trigger (L2) and uses up a small gauge located beneath your health bar that refills with more attacks hitting your opponents. There is also a second gauge that fills and when completed, the most powerful attack is unlocked with the click of the analogue sticks followed by a pounding of the basic attack button to beat all foes into a bloody pulp. There are also items that can be found and equipped via the Dpad left or right as well as a basic lock on system and dedicated block button. It isn't too complex but still means that button mashers won't have the easiest of times succeeding in combat.

The game comes with a diverse multiplayer mode, with many different game types existing from a one on one cage fight, two teams of three flight blade wielding helicopters facing off over an ocean to an outright 16 man free for all brawl where anything can happen. My first Rumble (16 man brawl) was interrupted by both the appearance of a Kraken in the middle of the map as well as a player throwing tornado that came through a 6 man melee throwing the combatants to different corners of the map. The game does come with bots to allow private matches to happen without needing a full set of players but the game shines with a group of friends online. Anarchy Reigns is a breeding ground for smack talk especially when you just killed someone by diving down on them with your chainsaw hand. With a roster of over 16 characters, most are unlocked via either levelling up online or by beating all of the missions in story mode (I recommend Story Mode). Bayonetta is also available with the limited edition DLC, except I have yet to see a non-limited edition copy of the game, so you most likely will wind up with her. All characters have their own attributes, be it size and strength, or speed and finesse, the game is tuned enough that all characters can be mastered in little to no time.

Jack Cayman and his prosthetic limb

Overall this game is simply a lot of fun especially with friends. A bit silly at times for sure but a good roster of characters, an adequate story and easy to grasp control schemes leave an excellent fighting game to start off the year.

Story: 6.5/10

Sound: 8.5/10

Visuals: 7/10

Playability: 8/10

Fun: 9/10

Total = 8/10
Recommended for anyone who wants a decent fighting game, and especially for anyone wanting an online multiplayer brawler for multiple friends at once.