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#MR SHIFTY GAMEPLAY SWITCH HOW TO#
All these elements combined give you a framework for how to approach each area of the game. Your teleportation mechanic is also limited, as you are able to use it only a certain amount of times before it recharges. It’s imperative to keep track of timing and enemy awareness if you want to get far. Knowing the rhythm in which shotgun-toting enemies fire and how many bullets are expelled when an enemy fires a machine gun is important. There are moments where the game will challenge you and require that you use your head. Just because the game favors fun doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a stroll in the park. Areas like this make it seem like the game is about fun, not about creating a punishing experience. Then you find out that you can pin multiple enemies with one trident throw, and it becomes a fun combat sequence as you try to pin as many enemies as you can at once. When you throw it, it stabs enemies and pins them to walls. If you destroy a statue, you can pick up the trident and throw it. There was one area that had a bunch of statues holding tridents. The game has many scenarios that seem clearly focused on offering a fun time you’ll encounter environmental hazards or traps that you can use on enemies.
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The enjoyability of the game’s combat is at the forefront, guiding the overall experience. If I were to rate the game’s overall difficulty, I’d say the teleportation mechanic makes the game a lot more enjoyable and less frustrating. There is definitely a rhythm to the combat, as enemies will fire guns in certain spurts, while other enemies will have their specified combat pattern. Teleporting during combat can make for some exciting sequences. The game has a number of areas with automated turrets or moving lasers that make mastery of the teleportation mechanic essential. You’ll not only utilize it for defensive purposes, but also to travel through areas quickly. The teleportation mechanic is the game’s main hook – its key mechanic – and is used constantly. The game allows you to teleport a set distance to help you maneuver through levels and around enemies. This sounds like it would be harder since enemies have firearms and you don’t, but it doesn’t, thanks to another important and differentiating mechanic… For example, you can’t wield firearms and must instead use melee combat. But besides those similarities, the game does some other things to make it feel like its own thing. Most areas are set up in similar ways, as well, with small rooms and melee weapons scattered around. Like Hotline Miami, the game is a bird’s eye view of the action.Īnother similarity is the idea that you die in one hit but can quickly restart each small area. It’s hard not to compare this game to Hotline Miami since it’s whence the game obviously takes its inspiration. And although the narrative doesn’t evolve much further than those key points, you’ll soon quickly forget about it once you’re submerged in the game’s frenetic gamplay. The narrative is bare-boned, which is a shame because it could have taken advantage of a ridiculous narrative to match the game’s overall lighthearted tone. With the help of another agent known as Nyx, with whom who you interact via an earpiece, you are guided through Chairman Stone’s complex. Shifty, a secret agent sent to foil Chairman Stone’s evil plans, which involve weaponizing dangerous plutonium. Shifty by Team Shifty is a game inspired by another that definitely carries its own identity.
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The key to this is whether the resultant game has its own identity and novelty. It’s safe to say that games are inspired by those that came before.
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