Berzerk: Recharged

With the release of the game Berzerk, Atari has hit something of a milestone. This is the tenth installment in the company’s three-year-old Recharged franchise, a series that takes classic games and gives them a long-overdue makeover, improving everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the power-ups. In the last few years, we’ve seen a number of genuine hits, like Quantum: Recharged and Yars: Recharged, as well as a few disappointing misses, like installments based on Missile Command and Asteroids. This brand-new version of Berzerk doesn’t fall into either of those categories, finding itself wedged somewhere in the middle of the pack. After reviewing ten of these games, am I starting to feel some Recharged fatigue? That’s what we’re about to find out when I take on the evil robots in Berzerk: Recharged.

First released as an arcade game all the way back in 1980, Berzerk was a fast-paced action game that combined the excitement of a shoot ‘em up with the level designs of a maze game. It’s best-known for its inventive use of synthesized computer voices and the introduction of Evil Otto, a sinister bouncing ball with a big smiley face that would torment the player if they took too long in any particular screen. Although rudimentary by today’s standards, Berzerk was so much fun that it would go on to inspire Eugene Jarvis to make classic shooters like Robotron 2084 and Smash TV.

I’m not going to lie; Smash TV was the very first thing I thought of when I played Berzerk: Recharged. Much like the original, the goal is to run around the maze and clear each room of any robot presence. This is in stark contrast with most of the dual-stick shooters released in the wake of Geometry Wars, where our tiny hero is normally trapped in a single arena and forced to survive wave after wave of enemies. Moving from room-to-room makes it feel like you’re in some sort of giant compound or robot factory, which is what ultimately sets this game apart from something like Black Widow: Recharged.

Beyond that, Berzerk is a fairly typical, paint-by-numbers dual-stick shooter. You’ll run, dash and dodge bullets in an effort to clear out every robot in the room, then take an exit where you’ll do the exact same thing in the next room. There are the usual suspects of power-ups, including a spread shot, faster running, trip mines, lasers and so on so forth. You’ll want to use these item pick-ups, because our robot overlords only get more aggressive and harder to kill the more rooms you visit.

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What I like about this game is that you don’t necessarily have to defeat every enemy to advance, and you may even find that it’s better to escape before spending too much time in one location. Why? Because Evil Otto is back and just as smiley as ever. He’ll bounce around the room trying to smoosh you, and it only takes one single hit to end your game. There’s no way to fight or even outsmart him, as he’ll pick up speed and become more cunning as the round goes on. Your best bet is to exit the room before he even shows up, something that is definitely easier said than done.

Like all of the games in the Recharged franchise, Berzerk is split up into two different modes – arcade and missions. The default arcade mode will have you racing through as many rooms as possible before being hunted down by Evil Otto, all in the hopes of getting a high score. This gives you control over the rooms you visit and the path you take, which is a lot more than I can say about most games in the Recharged series. That said, it still has the modifiers that will make each run a little harder with the potential of a higher score. For example, you can double your score if you disable the dash move or limit our hero to just a single health point.

Of course, the real fun of any of these Recharged games is in the mission mode, which will force you to survive a wild gauntlet of challenge stages. Instead of being randomly generated rooms, like the arcade mode, what we get here are missions that have been specifically designed to be a challenge. They’ll send you all over the compound, usually in an effort to kill all of the enemies before Evil Otto tracks you down. This is definitely where the game shines.

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It’s in these challenge stages where you start to see the real potential of a game like Berzerk. Clearing out each room before Otto shows up is tricky, as the enemies will be far apart and you only have a few seconds before all hell breaks loose. You’ll also need to navigate through the maze and its various obstacles, such as glass panes, electrified walls and laser doors. The challenge isn’t so much about defeating every enemy, but figuring out the right path so that Evil Otto doesn’t trap you.

What’s cool about this mode is how you can manipulate the system to your advantage, like how you can reset the timer by quickly leaving and re-entering the rooms. You may also find that it’s better to leave a few enemies for later, giving you a reason to take a second or third trip through the maze. These levels start out painfully easy, but just wait, it only takes a few missions before they really put you to the test. The missions are easily the best part of Berzerk: Recharged.

That said, this mode also highlights the biggest complaints I have against this shoot ‘em up. For starters, there’s a serious lack of enemies. Beyond Evil Otto, there are only a handful of robot villains to fight. You get the usual assortment of baddies, including gun turrets, robots that will rush you, patrol guards and a couple other variations. That’s it. Instead of adding new types of villains, they simply make the existing ones harder by painting them a more menacing color and giving them more health. That’s fine (and generally expected), but I was hoping for more types of enemies, especially considering how limited the rest of the game is.

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And that brings me to another problem I have with the Recharged franchise – there just isn’t enough variety in the stages. Don’t get me wrong, I like how there are walls and glass panes making each room a little different from the last, but is it’s absolutely necessary to set every level in the same boring location? Why not mix things up with a different color palette or by giving us a completely new setting. Maybe add a few vines and some grass and we can be in the jungle. Or maybe one of the runs will be set in a bombed-out city. A little variety would have gone a long way to keep the game from feeling repetitive. As it is, I couldn’t get over how similar every playthrough felt, even when I was taking on the different challenge missions.

Finally, I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of the dual-stick gameplay. Obviously, this is not the first game like this on the market, so it’s hard not to compare it to the hundreds of similar shooters that came before Berzerk: Recharged. While the gameplay gets the job done, there’s a looseness to the shooting that makes it feel a bit off. The aim is weird and not as precise as you would hope, especially compared to other games in the Recharged series. This is one of the coolest games in concept, but maybe not in execution.

Because it’s so similar to other fan-favorite shoot ‘em ups, it wouldn’t surprise me if Berzerk ended up as many people’s favorite Recharged game. The action takes place across more than one screen, the power-ups make a big impact and there’s no denying the charm of Evil Otto. For me, the similarity to other shooters only worked against it. I kept comparing it to other, better action games instead of judging Berzerk on its own merits. This is already a crowded genre, so I was hoping that a shooter as straight-forward as this would have a little more meat on its bones. Berzerk is fun, but it’s definitely a middle-of-the-pack Recharged game.