Quick Review: Dusty Revenge (Co-Op Edition)

He’s got ears for years, but that’s a distraction. This bunny kills.

Heartbroken? Time to kill hundreds.

Developed and published by PD Design Studio and released on February 17th, 2014, Dusty Revenge (:Co-Op Edition) is the story of Dusty Milear, a rabbit embarked on a Punisher-style quest for revenge against his girlfriend Daisy’s murderers. Though he is uncertain of the motive yet, his quest will bring him to a strange amulet containing many mysteries. He will also meet Rondel Moheqan, a bear who excels with heavy artillery, and Casey McCoy, a sniper dog. Both have their own tragedies to avenge, and agree to help Dusty on this quest. Their first clues seem to point towards Kraven, a tiger warlord…

And that firepower's gonna be needed.

With all the people he kills, using a scythe
is almost too on-the-nose.

The game is a beat’em-up with a handful of surprises. Dusty has a ton of offensive options from the get-go, moving with WASD and being able to use attacks such as guns (Left arrow key), a freaking scythe (Right arrow key; known as High moves) or basic close-range physical moves (Down arrow key; known as Low moves). He can dodge with S and roll left or right, and Block using Left-Shift. He has a vast array of combos using all of those attacks, using a mix of the High and Low moves. On top of that, the game includes an EXP system, with each new level gained unlocking new attack combos. Later on, Dusty also gains a gauge that fills up with kills, allowing him to unleash a flurry that destroys everything else on-screen by pressing Left-Shift and C.

If you can act fast enough, Casey and Rondel
can be total lifesavers.

Your allies can be called through a second gauge that also fills up over time. You can switch the view to Rondel by pressing 2 in order to use heavy artillery on blockades, shields, or to finish off enemies. By pressing 3, you switch to Casey instead, and take aim with the mouse (you can even zoom in); his sharp-shooting skills can kill most enemies in one hit. Note that there are areas where their skills cannot be used; and their attacks are necessary to finish the ultimate combo used with Left-Shift/C, meaning that said combo can’t be used everywhere.

Rondel wants big boom.

Aside from Dusty, you can also choose to play as Kitsune, a second character who is played more like a ninja. Her story doesn’t seem to differ all that much; aside from the first, all the levels play roughly the same, and she also gets Rondel and Casey at the same points in the quest. And of course, this is the Co-Op Edition, so you can play through the story with a friend!

Damn, that's a cool punching combo.

Pretty fun with a very cool art style and feel, but not without its handful of problems. The combat is incredibly complex, to a point reaching fighting games or beyond; that’s really cool, but if you’re not particularly geared towards that sort of playing style, it can be difficult to create combos as a result. The addition of Rondel and Casey is pretty great and injects some uniqueness in the genre, but they can turn out to be a bother, as you have to divert your attention to their screen when you activate their effect, and during that time Dusty is left like a sitting duck against enemy attacks. I died a couple times because of that.

Beat'em-ups aren't exactly like platformers,
so adding some of that is bound to lead to
an issue here or there.

There’s also at least one boss fight where I got the impression that controls glitched or swapped around, as I would end up summoning Casey without pressing the 3 key to do so. And a boss fight is the worst possible place for controls to glitch out! I also felt like the game took for granted that you’d be able to manage all of its attacks without issue. (In case this review didn’t make it clear, I’m not a great fighting game player.) The game plays out like a beat’em-up overall, but tends to combine elements of platforming later on, and it can be very difficult (and infuriating) to balance the two, especially in areas where Dusty can get knocked into bottomless pits.

But hey, it looks awesome, it sounds great, it’s fully-voiced, has collectibles to make you replay through the levels, and also includes a Boss Rush mode later. So if beat’em-ups are your jam, you could check this one out.

There's a lot of scenes that look really awesome.
This boss, in particular, is very impressive.

Dusty Revenge (:Co-Op Edition) is currently available on Steam for 14.99$ USD.