Kusan: City of Wolves

Today we’re taking a trip to the City of Wolves, which is not to be confused with City of the Wolves, the newest SNK fighting game. This is instead a Hotline Miami-style action/shooter starring a bunch of wild animals that control the urban jungle with an iron claw. In other words, it’s more fatal furry than Fatal Fury. The circle of life is on full display when I review Kusan: City of Wolves by first-time developer CIRCLEfromDOT.

Taking a page from Leon: The Professional, we play an assassin named Jin who is tasked with saving and protecting a mysterious young girl with a surprising (and potentially destructive) super power. Before he knows it, Jin is thrust back into the city’s violent underbelly, forced to not only unravel a far-reaching conspiracy, but also grapple with his own deadly past. With everybody vying for power, this is a wickedly complicated story with a lot of dangerous twists and turns awaiting anybody who feels that they can survive the City of Wolves.

Like I said at the top, this is a top-down action game in the style of Hotline Miami. That is to say, the action comes at you quick and deaths are always sudden. There’s no life bar here, because one shot or hit and Jin is dead, forced to start the level all over again. This creates a bunch of short stages that you’ll replay over and over until you’ve taken out all of the guards and survived without taking a single hit.

Kusan takes this idea and really expands on the combat, both when it comes to long-range and close hand-to-hand fighting. We start out using a military-grade War Hand, which can take out pretty much anything coming at Jin. We’re also equipped with an auto-targeting Quantum Knife, as well as one of several firearms, including pistols, a shotgun and even a crossbow. All three of these types of attacks are mapped to different buttons, so you’ll need to string them together in order to stay alive long enough to clear the level.

If that wasn’t enough, this game gives you quite a few options to customize the way Jin fights. There are a whole bunch of special moves you can add to the arsenal along the way, some of which can completely change how you go about planning for each stage. For example, one of the first attacks you’ll learn is a charge punch that you can use on glass and walls to send projectiles flying at your enemies. You’ll also be able to unlock both magnetic and nuclear punches, along with knife tricks, including juggling and boomerang moves. With almost too many abilities to buy and equip, we have a level of control over the combat that we rarely see in this type of action game.

We can also buy and upgrade a number of different guns. What you’ll quickly discover is that even if you unlock all of the squares in the 6 x 5 grid, you won’t be able to equip everything that you want. The guns, abilities and upgrades all take up space, and fitting it all together can be a real challenge, even when you rotate and move the pieces. You’re going to need to make a lot of tough choices along the way.

You might think that having all of those abilities and weapons will make your job easier, but let me tell you, this game doesn’t know the meaning of the word “easy.” This is the kind of game that is designed to kick your butt. It can sometimes feel unfair, what with enemies rushing in and killing our hero without any warning, but that’s just the visceral fun of Kusan. This is the kind of fast-paced action game that keeps you on your toes. As long as there’s still one enemy marching around the small, self-contained level, there’s no time to rest.

The game trains you to play each level cautiously, memorizing the enemy locations and finding all of the shortcuts. Pretty much every level can be tackled in a number of different ways, so you’ll need to strategize and plan the fastest and most efficient way to clear the stage. Yes, that’s going to come with a whole bunch of frustrating deaths, but let me tell you, it’s so incredibly satisfying when you’re finally able to take out all of the bad guys without taking a single hit. And now that you know you can do it, why not try again for an even better score?

One thing I really like about Kusan is how it tries to add new elements to the genre. For example, there are several levels where the fight spills out onto the city streets, complete with cars racing by both our hero and the enemies. This adds an unpredictable level of chaos to the stage that makes the action just that much more intense. There are also driving segments that feel a lot like that old arcade game Bump ‘n Jump. This is yet another fun diversion that breaks up the floor-clearing gameplay. You can shoot other motorcycles on the road, or just ram them off the road with a quick thrust. However, the most fun way to take out the enemies is to bounce on different cars and flatbeds and then land right on top of the confused bad guy.

Kusan also has several different boss fights. These are full-fledged battles, often with multiple parts and life bars. Much like the rest of the game, you’ll need to navigate through these boss fights perfectly, not allowing even a single bullet to penetrate that furry coat. That’s tough, but after a few tries, you’ll start to pick up the patterns and see the perfect moments to punch, shoot and throw your knife.

Unfortunately, not all of these diversions make the game better. There are a couple of missions that have you stuck in a cramped room, forced to protect somebody from a horde of attacking enemies. This takes away most of your movement and options, pitting you in a tense and annoying battle where guards are coming at you from all sides. A lot of the fun of this type of game comes from trying out different strategies and using the environment to your advantage, but you can’t do any of that in these claustrophobic bits.

In a lot of ways, Kusan retreads a lot a lot of what worked in Hotline Miami and the many games it inspired. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as we’re given a wealth of abilities and moves that change up the gameplay, but you’ll certainly recognize all of the cliches and tropes. Compare this to The Hong Kong Massacre (an action game stylized off of John Woo movies, complete with slow motion and doves) or even Tackle for Loss (a sports-themed iteration that mixed football with violence) and Kusan feels a bit pedestrian. It looks and plays great, but you’re going to recognize those neon-drenched streets.

While I’m always up for this kind of challenge, this is one of those love-it-or-hate-it genres. If you find the sudden deaths frustrating and deflating, then Kusan isn’t going to change your mind, no matter how many flashy moves you equip. However, if you’re like me and sadistically enjoy that brutal challenge, then this game actually has a lot to offer. It’s visually striking, has a killer soundtrack and tells a compelling story full of twists and turns. It’s the kind of game you’ll probably want to revisit, just so you can try out all of the upgrades and abilities you didn’t get to play around with the first time through. It might plow familiar ground, but Kusan: City of Wolves is worth the trip.