State Of Anarchy Is Like Hand-Drawn Grand Theft Auto
Writing down this road
If the original top-down Grand Theft Auto had been axed in its pre-production phase, someone had gathered its concept drawings from the cutting room floor, and had then painstakingly converted them into a flick book, then you might have something that sort-of resembles State of Anarchy [Steam page]. Although not quite as sophisticated as DMA Design's 1997 original, its playful cartoon-styled take on bird's-eye-view murder is great fun. What's more, it'll set you back less than a quid/euro/dollar.
And for that price, State of Anarchy - the game once know as Crisis, winner of the 2015 Global Game Jam - serves up a surprising degree of depth by way of its Normal and Hardcore difficulty settings and multi-leveled progression system. Killing everything and anything that moves - be that rogues with guns, bomb vests or drive-by assassins - is the name of the game and is key to leveling up, whereupon you're asked to allocate Talent Points to certain traits. Tough Guy, for example, increases maximum health by 15hp, whereas Crazy Runner boosts run speed by 5%; Survivor restores 5hp after 30 seconds, while Trigger Happy ups fire rate by 3%, etc.
Weapons are tied to progression too, as offing end-of-stage bosses grants you access to new arms - such as shotguns, blade guns, rocket launchers, and mini guns, to name but a few - and you'll revel in spilling red ink blood and causing blue ink explosions. Here's a gameplay trailer developer Andy Jr. released earlier this year:
If you'd like to "fulfill your inner sociopath as you mow down enemies with guns and cars alike", State of Anarchy is out now on Steam for 79p/0,99€/$0.99.