A momentary dissonance is created at the start of the fast-paced FPS I Am Your Beast, as the player by no means has the same level of murderous skill as Alphonse Harding. As you’ll soon learn from the Metal Gear-like radio transmissions between levels, Harding spent an untold number of years with the Covert Operations Initiative, being whittled into a killer by his former handler, Burkin. It’s a stroke of genius on the game’s part that Burkin’s efforts to force Harding into one more “one last mission” gives players a compressed version of Harding’s training, in which they must quickly learn to act like a beast to survive.
Even as players pick up the necessary rules of engagement in I Am Your Beast, they’re constantly reminded of how reluctant Harding is to return to violence. (Sound familiar? Those John Wick vibes are intentional, as confirmed by the title of the first bonus level: “Baba Yaga.”) Most levels begin with a shot of your empty fists clenching and releasing. The radio communications between Harding and Burkin usually end with the former willing to bury the hatchet, instead of more of the soldiers sent to bring him in—that is, if Burkin will just leave Harding alone in his once-quiet corner of an unnamed, wintery forest.
Even though some of the missions here require Harding to kill a certain number of soldiers, his overarching goal is to flee to one of his many hidden escape hatches, seeking to end the conflict, not continue it. In Harding’s single interaction with someone other than Burkin, he sincerely thanks them for expressing a kindness he didn’t realize he craved. This is the game’s powerful emotional hook: You may be a killer, but you’re neither a monster nor a machine.
As for the hook of the plot, it also comes with one hell of an uppercut, thanks to the tight, engaging gameplay, which shows you exactly how easily, how naturally, violence comes to Harding. While there are some levels here that can be beaten by fleeing foes or non-lethally stunning them with a kick, each stage is scored based on the overall time that it takes you to complete them and the number of enemies you’ve killed. Getting an S rank generally means not just killing every enemy, but doing so as efficiently as possible. For one, throwing a knife or stomping a stunned foe is ultimately worth more points than scoring a headshot.
All that speaks directly to Harding’s philosophy: He may not want to engage in violence, but if he must, he’ll do so on his own terms, rather than at the behest of faceless commanders like Bukrin. Similar to Superhot, but without the time-moves-when-you-move gimmick, enemies fling their weapons into the air as you shoot, stab, or throw things at them, allowing you to fluidly chain between foes, snatching fresh weapons out of mid-air rather than reloading them.
“The purpose of life is to find a box that you are well-suited to fill,” Burkin muses at one point. Accordingly, each forested level becomes a sort of kill box through which Harding can sprint, slide, and parkour his way through a maze of enemies. On a first playthrough, I Am Your Beast forces players into a feral state, discouraging them from thinking and instead forcing them to always react, as the threat of well-signposted snipers, helicopters, drones, or Harding’s own internal bleeding, threatens death for those who don’t move swiftly enough.
Subsequent runs unlock bonus objectives that require certain types of kills, and because Strange Scaffold’s game isn’t a roguelike, players can use their successes and failures to gradually plot out a most efficient path to the exit. All of this makes for fun gaming experience that also happens to stick thoughtfully to the idea that, while you can simply rage your way through each stage, you’ll have to be more than a beast to really excel at them.
Unsurprisingly, the game stumbles when it loses momentum. Most levels are unlocked by completing the prior ones, but in a few cases, players must also A rank a number of the 25 story missions, or satisfy some of the bonus objectives. The game’s difficulty curve already encourages you to replay levels to improve your muscle memory, and “non-canon” alternative levels already exist as a reward for those completing optional objectives. The joy of mastering stages already serves as its own reward, but being forced to do so on the game’s terms is frustrating.
Whatever dissonance hovers in the air at the start of I Am Your Beast will have dissipated by the time you reach the final level. “You’re creating a no-win scenario for yourself,” screams Burkin as he throws the full force of the government at you. In response, Harding simply, satisfyingly, and coolly rejects those terms. As the lyrics to that final level’s original track kick in, you’ll come to know what he knows: that there will always be another level, and that you will always be someone else’s beast—unless you find a way, however bloody, to be your own man.
This game was reviewed with a key provided by FIFTYcc.
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