Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is a video game prequel of sorts to Quentin Tarantino’s gangster movie
Players control six of the infamous characters from the film, who are assigned a series of heists in Los Angeles that lead up to the Tarantino movie
Players control six of the infamous characters from the film: Mr Blonde, Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr Orange, Mr Pink and Mr White. They all work for Joe Cabot and are assigned 18 heists around Los Angeles. Those jobs lead up to the Tarantino movie, so in a way, this is a prequel.
Bloody Days doesn’t try to rewrite the top-down shooter. It’s reminiscent of Hotline Miami, but there is a twist. Big Star Games CEO Liam Patton says: “It’s a tactical action game but it has a strategic layer.” The team members are fans of the film, and they realised that flashbacks played a key role in the narrative, so they incorporated that in the gameplay. That’s how the “Time Back” concept was born.
In each level, players pick a three-man team for the mission. From there, they move one person at a time, and as they do that, they build a time meter. Once a squad member is done, the player switches over to the next character, and they can go about their business in the same time period the teammate took. The neat effect is that the game records the action of the first protagonist and the player can take advantage of the havoc he creates to advance in the level or take out unsuspecting bad guys. The same thing happens for the third character.
It creates a layered experience. It reminds a bit of what Insomniac Games did with Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time or what Capybara Games did with Super Time Force. It creates a dynamic where players have to think ahead during a level and use each character meaningfully.