Grab your best retro letterman jacket, we’re going hunting. Friends v Friends is a chaos-fuelled card shooter game which itches all those ADHD scratches with fast-paced shooting and hectic maps. Developed by Brainwash Gang, an independent game studio based in Spain, who seem to never stray too far from their art styles as they have released titles with similar looks and feels like Laika: Aged Through Blood and Grotto and supported by Raw Fury a established studio with games such as Post Trauma and Blue Prince. As an independent studio, they brought a unique idea to life in the form of a deck-building brawler where you dive into the suave shoes of characters who all have distinct and wacky personalities, all suited and booted in the form of animals such as a moose right down to a mouse. So without further due, let’s grab our Micro SMG and take to the streets as we mow down words in this review!
Retail Haven and Gangster Animals
I usually like to start my reviews off pretty head first with a description of a solid story. However, with this game being an online PVP and PVE shooter, there isn’t a story in sight. However, we get nifty little quests to complete for some of the compadres back at base camp, which seems to be a small retail outlet housing a small nick-nack shop right to a laundry place run by a sketchy gangster elephant. The characters in this wacky title are unique in their own rights as they all have very varied personalities. However, they all seem to be eager to cause mayhem and destruction with every weapon they take hold of. My personal favourite was the gadget-wielding mouse known as Klustr JR. who came equipped with two usable turrets right off the bat at the start of every round. My only gripe was that there seemed to be a try-hard aspect of these characters said characters to be “too cool” and sometimes it works as you look at those cracked-out animals and say to yourself, “Damn, that’s crazy, but it works” and other times it just feels downright cringy.
Online Tumbleweed with Dusty Decks
Moving onto the gameplay, I felt quite mixed whilst I played this game to be quite truthful. On one hand, the gameplay to me felt smooth for an online-only game, as usually you find issues with connectivity and issue finding people to play with (this part being a questionable one, as I only managed to play a handful of games with online players, and I played a lot of PvE versus bots as I never managed to find a game most times due to lack of player base), but this title felt smooth and put together in the right ways. The card building was a great idea and tied in well as the unique abilities that made every game fun and unpredictable, from throwing garbage into your opponents’ deck or shrinking your head size so that you had more of a fighting chance on the battlefield made every game feel one of a kind and true to form.
Bots Saving Grace
Outside the chaotic gameplay, I found plenty of modes to play, such as a 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, a beta mode Free for all and the PVE mode. Each mode offers something different as you collide with other wild animals, competing to see who has the best deck and who can topple the other. Every match that is played is a round-based match, and you have to dominate three good rounds for a solid win, and with that being easier said than done, every time you run out it makes for an adrenaline-packed game and this always gives me a thrill of excitement. However, it was short-lived for me, as I had to keep playing bots due to a lack of a player base, which kind of sucks because you expect more people there as an online game!
Gunfights Diced with 52 Card Pickup
However, the other hand, which I now turn to, is the downside, which, for an online-only game, is huge. Was that there seemed to be nobody playing the game? Now, is this due to a lack of marketing and noticeability? Or is this down to the game not being up everyone’s alley? There seemed to be some mixed opinions regarding this game as I eagerly hunted down reddit users who made small communities regarding this game, and whilst the developer does give feedback, it seems there has been a lack of updates. Moving away from this point and back to gameplay, I actually enjoyed my time playing because it reminded me of the Call of Duty Black Ops days when you used to have Gunfight modes where every game was changing, and you had an array of weapons to use. However, it did start to pull on me as I felt like the more I played, the quicker I got bored with it, and to me, it feels like this quirky shooter fails to hold attention for long as it tries hard to use wacky characters and crazy cards as a main staple when it needs some lore to the characters and a more fleshed out style!
A Trip to Miami
The graphics of this game, as I touched on earlier, are very interesting if not for anything else. The art style reminds me much of Hotline Miami and if it was made as a 3D shooter title mixed with Postals comic booky style, it works for this title and the direction the game takes. The graphics are very centred on that crazy style and I like it, because you don’t get many games that use a retro-esque style mixed in with an adrenaline-fuelled world. However, Friends v Friends utilises its style well and within each match when you start to take chunks off the afore-mentioned characters, it starts feeling more Hotline Miami than anything else.
How Does Your Track Stack with Ben!
Now for what you have all been waiting for, welcome to the favourite part of my reviews, where I judge a game’s score for how well it tracks the game and how it gets you feeling. Friends v Friends has an upbeat yet action-packed soundtrack. In the base camp for your match hub and meeting place for your friends, you are hit with the originally composed soundtrack which is upbeat and friendly, which funnily matches the name of the game. However, move into your comic book-style matches, and you are met with a more action-based score which heightens the thrill of the battle! Track score – 7/10, wanted to blow my ear drums out hearing the soundtrack over and over in the base camp.
Close, But No Cigar
My final verdict is in, and it’s one that is a mixed feeling for me. Whilst I was visually impressed with the game style and finesse in the graphical art department, I was left feeling like I hadn’t got the full impression of the game as I couldn’t face any real opponents due to a lack of players within the game, and I was even on cross play! Take away this though, and I was faced with a unique, card-based, chaotic shooter game which has a light bulb eureka moment amongst everything else. For me though, this wacky shooter could do with fleshing out, in terms of character lore, maybe even a little story here and there so that players could really grip their teeth around something viable, rather than just having the versus modes to play which get boring after a while.
Overall Score – 7/10, Available Now on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
