Shank 2 Review

2010’s award-winning Shank was a rebirth of sorts for the 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up. It took the button-mashing gameplay of yesteryear’s arcade classics and merged it with a modern comic-book artsyle and gritty story. As great as it was, it wasn’t without it’s faults. In developing the sequel, Klei Entertainment have set out to address some of the common complaints of the original, namely the repetitiveness and soul-crushing difficulty spikes. How did they fare?

For those unfamiliar, the character of Shank is a heavy-drinking ex-mob hitman bent on revenge due to the murder of his girlfriend Eva. He’s a prototypical badass that looks like a cross between Rambo and Apolo Ohno, at least to me anyway. He doesn’t talk much, unless it’s with a weapon, and spends most his time pounding back drinks.

The story this time revolves around Shank liberating hostages from an evil general named Magnus and his minions. He’s joined for the ride by Corina, a new female protagonist who leads the rebel faction opposing Magnus’ army, but more on her later. The campaign consists of eight chapters and takes you to a variety of inventive brawling locations such as a burning village and a seaside resort. Brief animated cutscenes introduce and conclude each chapter essentially telling you whose ass to kick and why. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed these, and the story in general, as I don’t expect much in the way of narrative from a beat ‘em up. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into this aspect.

The real improvements begin with the gameplay. Klei rebuilt the combat controls from the ground-up and it’s apparent immediately. Shank moves noticeably faster and switching between weapons in order to chain combos couldn’t be more fluid. Combat still consists of regular, heavy, and ranged attacks from Shank’s arsenal of weapons, both new and old. His trademark machete returns as does his chainsaw, but now he can also pick up objects, swinging or throwing them as he sees fit. Few things are as satisfying as pummeling enemies into the air with a shovel or frying them with a flame gun. Choosing the most efficient attack for the situation is important, as simply spamming your favorite attack button won’t work as well as it did in the first game.

Underneath the basic layer of combat lies a system of counterattacks, indicated by a red exclamation point over an enemy’s head. Pulling the trigger at the precise moment causes a brutal counterattack animation allowing you to finish them off in a gruesome fashion. Blocking has been removed from Shank 2 but strangely I didn’t miss it at all.

All told, the action is fast, frantic, and sometimes overwhelming, especially when enemies pour in from all sides, including above and below. Thankfully, frequent checkpoints keep you from replaying large portions of a level when you die, which wasn’t nearly as often as the last game. Shank 2 does a much better job at managing the difficulty and at no point was I screaming in frustration. As a penalty, death resets your score to zero, which is a small punishment and one that only affects scorehounds. A Hard difficulty exists for masochists who still crave the brutality of the original.

Each level culminates in a boss fight, usually with a character twice Shank’s size and inspired by that stage’s theme. You’ll have to learn their unique attack patterns and sometimes use the surrounding environment to defeat them. These exciting encounters are memorable and are the true highlights of the game. My favorite involved a sky-high battle with an enormous “cyclops”.

Visually Shank 2 continues the acclaimed artsyle of the original, a cross between a comic book and an animated cartoon. Though the game is in 2D, it makes full use of the foreground and background with vibrant, hand-drawn levels that are layered with detail. Enemies frequently leap onto the screen from the foreground and once dead, lose their color turning into black-and white corpses as they pile up on-screen.

Shank 2 Review PS3 screenshot

Like the original, Shank 2 is unapologetically violent. Blood pours out of enemies at every point possible and dismemberment is commonplace. It’s done in such an over-the-top, cartoony way that it’s hard to be offended, but if you’re squeamish you best know what you’re getting into.

Shank 2 ditches the campaign co-op from the original and replaces it with Survival Mode, an online or local two-player mode that tasks players with surviving 30 waves of enemies as they attempt to detonate your weapon caches. Both players have to work in unison as each stage houses three caches and reviving can only be done by your teammate. There are 16 characters to select from the Shank universe and each has their own particular stat bonuses. A zoomed-out camera view allows you to see the complete field of action at all times, but it also makes it more difficult to time your attacks since the character animations appear smaller. Ultimately your enjoyment of Survival Mode will likely depend on having a few hardcore Shank friends to play with, but it’s an entertaining addition to occupy your time after you’ve wrapped up the main campaign.

As is the case with most brawlers, Shank 2 runs the risk of being repetitive. Klei have done an admirable job of addressing this by offering a second playable character named Corina. She moves faster than Shank and has a completely different weapon-set making her a refreshing change later in the game. I wish she had a more prominent role in the gameplay, but unfortunately she’s regulated to only one level. To offer something besides combat, collectibles in the form of Hostages and Hidden Intel are scattered throughout the stages to be picked up as you play. They don’t serve much of a purpose outside of giving completionists a reason to replay the campaign, but I still found myself going out of my way to find them.

The Verdict
Shank 2 improves upon it’s predecessor in every conceivable way: Better combat, better graphics, and just more fun. It offers a thrilling beat-em-up with enough variety to keep things interesting without making it bloated and overly complicated. If you’re a fan of the original or classic arcade brawlers this is a easily worth your $10. Here’s hoping we see more Shank in the future.