3 OUT OF 10: Episode 3 “Pivot Like A Champion” – Review (PC)
With each passing episode it’s becoming painfully obvious why Shovel Woks Studio has never had a game review higher than 3 out of 10. In an attempt to be innovative, they completely miss out on trends and find themselves completely behind at every turn. The episode starts with the team celebrating the halfway point of their development cycle. During the celebration, the boss comes in and starts going on and on about this “new” genre, Battle Royale. He tells the team that they need to pivot the direction of the game. Dead set on making the world’s first Endful Runner, they push back and hope they can continue to make the game they had been working on for all these months. After fighting a losing battle, they realize that they are going to have to change direction, yet nobody can agree on what style of game they should make. So they settle this the way any good studio would, with a live action office Battle Royale, or Scuffle Royale as they call it due to their limited number of participants.
After splitting into teams, the battle begins. Here we get the first of the mini games. Like any Battle Royale, you start by diving into the map from the sky. While falling you are tasked with going through as many rings as you can while speeding up to reach those that seem just out of reach.
Once everyone has their boots on the ground the battle begins. Kevin joins Viper on team Battle Royale, even though he isn’t a fan of changing genres, but thinks he has a good shot at winning with Viper. As they make their way through, Viper realizes that the winner has to present their plan to Jeb, their boss, and he’s out. He now makes it his goal to have his own teammate shoot him. Unwilling and unable to do this, Kevin takes off running and the next mini game takes pace. You have to run from Viper and Joan, collecting stars and avoiding their nerf shots.
After escaping Joan and Viper, Kevin finds himself in a shootout with Midge. This was a fun mini game that has you controlling Midge as you duck for cover and figure out where Kevin will pop up. Shoot him more times than he shoots you to win and move on.
At this point Jeb gets involves and brings out the big guns, literally. He comes out shooting the team with acorns instead of Nerf guns. Midge has had enough and has a standoff with Jeb in the final battle of this Scuffle Royale.
The humor in episode 3 was on point. Even though the content of the episode dealt once again with what happens behind the scenes during game development, it was presented in a way that people outside of the industry would understand. Using Battle Royale as the backdrop was brilliant. You really have to catch lightning in a bottle sometimes and games that made the switch to Battle Royale at the right time showed just how profitable of a decision that could be.
The episode ends in a place we never saw coming and, if the changes they made to Surfing with Sharks are permanent, it will be really interesting to see where the next couple episodes go. Though we’re still waiting to see what the cliffhanger at the end of episode one has to do with the bigger picture, this was a fun episode with less frustrating mini games than episode two and we eagerly await next week’s episode on the heels of the strongest episode to date.
*3 out of 10 was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
