At its core, Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a clicker game. You will spend the majority of your time hammering the X button and grinding away your precious time. I should hate it, but I couldn’t put it down. Follow me into the clicker crack house, fellow junkies. It’s time for a fix.
Chicken Assassin: Reloaded has a basic story, and it’s really all you need. Mean McCallister looks like an overly muscular chicken undergoing multiple steroid experiments. He loves a woman named Candy, but she is already involved with the evil Dr. Spritzel. The good doctor doesn’t take kindly to McCallister going after his lady, so he takes her and leaves town.
There are many locations in McCallister’s journey to rescue Candy. Each one unlocks after the player has beaten some of the previous area, and there is a recommended player level range. The location may be different, but the formula is the same. When you start a new location, there is a static screen displayed. Some voice over and text give you a few sentences of story, and you start fighting waves of enemies.
Each area has anywhere from 20-40 waves, and each wave is made of enemies and mini bosses at every tenth wave. The last wave is a difficult boss, and you may see the boss multiple times, before you actually beat the area.
The enemies are unique to the location, but there are no random enemies. The seventh wave is always the same, and the mini bosses are always the same. You have to attack and defeat everything on-screen again and again to level up.
Game Info
- Developer: OneShark
- Release Date: July 17th
- Price: $7.99, £5.79
The combat is very simple, and here is where the clicking begins. Your character is in the middle of the screen, and enemies will approach from the left and right. By moving your cursor over them, you can click the X button repeatedly to attack. You will have to move the cursor back and forth with a very minor amount of strategy, but you cannot attack until your enemies have stopped in a particular position. This varies from enemy to enemy, but you will learn where to put the cursor to whittle away at their health bars.
Whether you win or lose, you gain experience and loot. The loot is also specific to the location. A casino will give you chips, and a farm might give you golden eggs. The experience helps to raise your level in the game, and each new level will give you a little more HP to stay in the fight just a few seconds more.
Both of these can be sold for the game’s currency, souls, and here is where the clicking mechanics are the most visible and heavy-handed. You can buy everything from upgrades to random loot drops with souls. You can collect these in fights, but there is even a cauldron in the area that spits out souls if you punch it.
There are two upgrade categories. There are upgrades to attack, defense, critical damage, HP, and the upgrades related to a special robot who will fly above your head and passively shoot your enemies. There are also resource upgrades that increase the value of collected souls or give you a little army to collect souls for you.
Every upgrade has a price, and that price increases rapidly. Eventually, you have an enormous amount of souls, but one upgrade wipes it out completely. It’s a gushing faucet that is gradually turned off the farther you get in the game. It becomes a grind to jump into a level you cannot beat for the fourth time for a few more souls to get the next upgrade that might push you over the top.
The loot is handled the same way. There is a different set of weapons and items that can only be used when you reach a certain level. They have stats that improve your HP, attack, defense, and critical damage. There is more variety here than you might think and some have advantages as well as preferred attack styles. As you move farther into the game, these new items become increasingly rare, and you will have to grind a lot for small gains.
The only thing that is free are the costumes and rewards in the Rooster Tales. You unlock one of three categories of clothing and accessories, and they can give percentage boosts to some of your stats. The Rooster Tales give you souls when you meet certain conditions.
Beyond the main game, there are Boss Raids that cost you some items to play. These items are gathered in whatever area you just beat. If you make it through the waves of enemies and beat the boss, you can collect some great items. More items can be given to the Black Market for experience and souls.
Although I didn’t enjoy the increasing grind and gradual loss of items, Chicken Assassin: Reloaded was an addictive game. The environments and enemies are varied, the story is just the right amount, and the mechanics are simplistic enough to let you just mash away after a long day.
There is one more small thing. There is no way to pause the game. Once you start a level, you can’t stop. It’s not terrible, but it’s annoying.
If you have been looking for a clicker game on the PS4, it’s good. If you hate clickers, grinding, or are in a twelve step program for addictive gaming, call your sponsor, and stay away. Even though the end of the game is a bit of a slog, Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a lot more fun than you might expect.
Review Disclaimer: This review was carried out using a copy of the game provided by the publisher. For more information, please read our Review Policy.
Reviewed using a PS4 Pro.
