RICO London is a first person shooter with rogue-like elements since in each game the map to go through will be procedurally generated. This title has a wide variety of weapons, both fire and melee, as well as throwing objects such as axes and blades. We will embody a policeman who is involved in a mission against some smuggler gangsters, as a result of this we will begin to clean several levels full of enemies that carry peculiar weapons and will face us in different ways.
Was that room before?
As a police officer we will be very exposed to danger, on many occasions the enemies will defeat us and it is possible that we will restart the game if we do not reach a save point. RICO London has two main game modes that are practically only a change in difficulty, but due to their differences they can be played totally differently.
Returning to the main modes, from the beginning we have the easy and normal mode. In easy mode there is no permanent death and the enemies will do less damage, while in normal mode the death is permanent and the game will restart if you have not passed a phase and the enemies do large amounts of damage. If we are knocked down we will have a couple of syringes that will give us extra life points to continue in the fight, when we run out of these objects we will definitely lose.
One of the most interesting mechanics is the slowdown of time due to adrenaline when eliminating enemies. By killing several enemies quickly we will win and multiply points for each death. With the generated points we can access character improvements at the end of each level.
It’s hard being a cop…
Here we put ourselves in the shoes of a couple of police officers who are involved in a mission to stop a group of smugglers. As you progress you will notice that something is wrong with the mission resulting in a major plot twist. However, history is not his forte.
On the other hand, we can choose to play more “challenging” modes such as the challenge mode, forgive the redundancy. In the challenge mode we will have to overcome various challenges such as eliminating all the enemies in a room in less than 80 seconds and headshots, these challenges are really complicated.
RICO London also implements a very fun local multiplayer mode, normally the floors to go through are a bit long and somewhat tedious but in company it becomes very entertaining. It should be noted that we can damage our partner with our weapons and he can damage us, the amount of damage caused is linked to the chosen difficulty.
The title of Ground Shatter, has a cartoonish aesthetic, very similar to the comic book style. In fact, the way we are introduced at the beginning of the story is through various vignettes, as if it were a comic. These sequences will occur at certain moments in the story by overcoming a large number of levels. It also has onomatopoeic characteristics that are sounds represented with letters and characters closely related to this entertainment medium with drawings.
it’s not perfecteither
Until now we have talked about all the good things that we can find in RICO: London, but this game is not totally perfect. In the Xbox One version we will find a problem when playing with a controller since it feels like the movements are made a little after having executed them with the controller. This gives a very annoying sensation of delay that makes it difficult to aim accurately or move. In my opinion, the most negative point of the title is its distribution of commands on the controller since you will avoid performing actions such as crouching or jumping because the character becomes difficult to control.
To finish with the bad, we will notice that when we pass a level there is no loading screen, but what we will see will be a few seconds of the game trying to generate the next scenario with a brutal drop in fps. This only happens on these particular occasions as the rest of the game seems to run smoothly even when the rooms are full of enemies.
In conclusion
RICO London a very complete and entertaining shooting experience that brings something refreshing to the genre. It can be enjoyed much more cooperatively with a friend and you will surely have a very fun time. It also has a very well-done and striking visual section that you won’t get tired of for as long as you play.