Game review: Rot Gut looks fantastic – pity about the gameplay
With its Prohibition-era setting and clever, simplistic graphics and soundtrack, Rot Gut could have been something special. Alas, it’s just a bog-standard platformer underneath the film noir veneer
Rot Gut
Shotgun Surgeon
2½/5 stars
There’s an inherent risk with the current retro revival that’s sweeping games, one that most indie developers often forget about when crafting their nostalgic supposed masterpieces. The graphics might be super cool old-school, sure, and the soundtracks hipster sleek, but gameplay has come a long way since the late ’80s, and unless you can somehow meld together the right classic aspects with expected contemporary techniques, you end up with something like, well, Rot Gut.
The game certainly looks appealing, a Prohibition-era world obviously crafted by a lover of classic film noir and gangster pictures. Minimalist eight-bit graphics obviously make it incredibly hard to accurately convey places and period, but here, the developers have put together an almost beautiful black-and-white world, one where a dark and dirty gin-joint atmosphere truly pervades through all levels.