Love it or hate it, but one thing that will be with you for a long time after playing Rustler is the theme tune. Even as I write this introduction the ear worms are buried deep and looping the music over and over.....
Something that should be immediately apparent to anyone who has, seen the cover art, screenshots or gameplay footage is that this is homage and fanservice to the OG GTA.
In Rustler, you’ll play as anti-hero Guy, a brigand determined to win The Grand Tournament while causing a ruckus along the way. Saddle up and prepare to complete quests, race horses, vandalize property, shoot cows into the sky, and more.
Rustler has obviously been lovingly created by Jutsu Games (who also made 911 Operator and 112 Operator) an independent Polish development studio based out of Warsaw. It's obvious that this was a labor of love for the team and they had great fun making it, I'm just not sure all that translates to the finished product.
Humour in video games is always incredibly subjective and often difficult to land. Much more so than in other mainstream media. Impact will vary from player to player and there's a very fine line between funny and cringeworthy. Personally I found a lot of the attempts at humour in Rustler fell very short of the mark. A lot of referential/niche humour or straight up potty humour.
While farts, belches and poop might be funny to a Fortnite crowd, if they are aiming for a demographic that played the original GTA they are way off target.
GTA was released 24 years ago, they majority of these people are now probably parents and have changed hundreds of diapers, they will undoubtedly be desensitized to any comedy element that revolves around bodily functions.
Comedy aside, the gameplay is decent, as are the graphics. They bring the GTA formula up to date and while nothing taxing or groundbreaking, the game runs nicely and transitions from isometric to top own views as you explore environments.
The main story quest is pretty formulaic and quite fun, until it isn't. I enjoyed progressing through the story for the first two or three hours, then it all became a little "samey" and I found myself drifting off to make my own entertainment in the sandbox environment.
Raiding the town, stealing, getting my wanted level up to max and fending off the law....pretty much all the things I did in GTA, so I guess in that respect, they nailed it !
Rustler is available now on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Priced at $29.99 I can't help but feel that's a little too high for this particular title for all but the die hard GTA nostalgia fans; but keep it on a wishlist and wait for a sale it becomes a good buy at $20.
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