While it may have kicked my ass to kingdom come, Anger Foot is a creative approach to a chaotically simple FPS that’s light on the shooting and heavy on the kicking. Despite the simplicity of its controls, it is a refreshing take on an FPS that encourages players to do something other than mindlessly shoot enemies. I cannot wait to see what else Free Lives and Devolver cook up!
A short while ago, I was lucky to preview Anger Foot’s first few levels to get a taste of its foot-fueled mayhem. In my initial preview (which I recommend that you read), I mentioned that we would be treated to “a shitstorm of kicking, shooting, and everything in between.” Usually, shitstorm is equated to something negative, like a dumpster fire of catastrophic proportions where the shit has hit the fan while the sky is falling.
For Anger Foot, the player is the one creating that shitstorm of epic proportions in a city brimming with crime, crude anthropomorphic denizens on the hunt for sneakers, and capitalism gone terribly wrong. The titular protagonist known as ANGER FOOT is the one bringing the pain with his feet and any firearm he is lucky to pick up.
I digress, Anger Foot is out today. If you haven’t yet checked out my initial thoughts, please do so before continuing on. My impression of the core gameplay loop has not really changed since I was first exposed to the insane neon aesthetic filled with dubstep that is Anger Foot’s setting and gameplay loop. Instead, I’ve spent the time to complete the game and reach its ending.
Several boss battles, six hours, over 60 levels, and 20 pairs of ridiculous shoes later, I’m ready to share my final (read: conclusive) thoughts on Anger Foot.
I loved playing Anger Foot. There, that’s the quick take. I loved it.
It’s just hard. In some ways, unfairly so, and I don’t really appreciate that degree of difficulty.
Some of you may already know my thoughts on souls titles along with other games that boast crazy steep difficulties for the sake of challenging players and pushing them to their limits. Anger Foot does not proclaim to be a difficult game, nor does it present itself as one. It is solidly situated as an unserious FPS that’s equally as frenetic as it is chaotic. On paper, that should read as fun. However, when both the protagonist (the player) and everyone in his way are as fragile as a single sheet of paper, that can make gameplay somewhat imbalanced.
I’m getting ahead of myself – let’s chat Anger Foot’s gameplay. As Anger Foot, your job is to make your way through Shit City (yes, that’s its name) to reclaim your prized possessions: ultra rare shoes! You think those Air Jordans in your closet are worth something? Nah, Anger Foot has better shoes, but they were stolen by crime lords who’ve buried the city in crime and debauchery.
Through each of Anger Foot’s levels, your job is simple: Make your way to the end by kicking doors down and taking out any anthropomorphic enemy between you and the end of the level. Enemies can run at you, s(h)it on toilets while shooting you, or attempt to pick you off with a variety of weapons. All it takes to kill enemies is a single kick to the face. If you’re using a gun, aiming anywhere at their body and firing the weapon will kill them. Boom. Simple as that.
Anger Foot is just as fragile as his enemies, though. Upon taking two shots to the face or a melee attack, I was taken back to the start of the level. I was fine with my character just as fragile as his foes until the second world, where enemy density heavily increased all the while they were given more types of weapons to shoot me with.
The frustration I initially experienced in my preview turned to anger as I would constantly die because I didn’t see an enemy hiding behind a corner or something would explode, killing my instantly. My careful attempt at completing a side mission (like not taking a single hit of damage or using only my feet to kill enemies) would be all for nothing the moment I was taken back to the start of the level. Heck, one level had me attempt to complete it without killing a single enemy!
How the hell was I supposed to keep myself alive if I wasn’t able to kill enemies who could end me in naught more than two hits?
It was at that point where I figured out that deep in the options menu is an accessibility submenu which contained a setting that reduced the damage I took to a grand total of 0. Yes, dear reader, I turned on Easy Mode for this review.
The moment I turned on Easy Mode, my appreciation for Anger Foot’s mayhem skyrocketed. I could enact chaos any way I chose so long as I didn’t jump out of bounds into a bottomless pit. I could rush up to an enemy and kill them any way I wanted, be it with a foot to the face or a bullet to the groin. I also had a FAR easier time completing the levels’ side missions assuming I had the patience and necessary upgrade.
Anger Foot relies on the barest of minimum of controls to get the player into the groove of using its neon-colored world as an arena for foot-fueled combat. There’s no running, no sliding, no combo attacks, and no permanent upgrades. Instead, once I completed enough level side missions and earned stars, I unlocked additional sets of shoes. I could only equip a single pair at a time, but each pair acted as a level modifier. One pair of shoes made it so that enemies heads were massive, another let me double jump, while another made it so that I could charge up an attack and dash across long distances without needing to jump! Not all of these shoes are meant to be serious upgrades: My favorite pair of shoes were those that turned gigantic flies into my allies when I kicked them, chasing enemies away while following me throughout the level.
Anger Foot is meant to be an easy and enjoyable bout of mayhem. It’s supposed to be silly. The default health setting of making Anger Foot just as fragile as his foes kills that power fantasy and makes the player focused on staying alive rather than attempting to use every inch of the level as a weapon to rescue several pairs of shoes.
Side missions already act as bumps to the difficulty curve. Speedrunning and not taking a single bullet are feats in and of themselves. Completing a level by ONLY kicking is a challenge in the sense that you can’t use the shotguns, miniguns, and crossbows that drop from dead enemies’ hands. Attempting to complete a level wearing shoes that make the player “drunk” is HELL as it is – how can the player stay alive?
It would have served Anger Foot better if the difficulty had been turned on its head, instead making it so that Anger Foot was stronger, angrier, and still able to complete most of the side missions without fear of death. A post-game Hardcore mode would truly test players’ grit and speedrunning prowess.
These difficulty quirks aside, Anger Foot won me over on its combat once I had gotten used to being fragile and had unlocked enough shoes to give me the tools (err, shoes) I needed to complete what I perceived to be harder levels. At the end of each biome was a boss battle involving one of the crime lords. Battles had three phases, with the final phase being the most chaotic and silly. I got a great chuckle out of needing to kick a 1997 vehicle as the final phase of one boss fight that initially started as a bout between me and a helicopter.
Anger Foot utilizes audio cues to tell the player about the presence of danger in any given room. When a level starts, a less-thumpy techno track begins; upon kicking open the first door to a room containing enemies, a bass-heavy and thumptastic track plays on repeat until all enemies in the room have been kicked into oblivion. The Steam page claims that there’s a “soundtrack” of songs in this game, but hearing the same two tracks (with mild variations) made me wish that there was a broader array of songs that could blow out my headphone speakers.
Not all of Anger Foot involved me kicking doors down. A few levels in each world let me explore small areas full of NPCs and a secret or two. These levels were nice breaks in between chaotic sprints and felt like Free Lives was doing work in building out Shit City and its denizens. It made me want to explore more, to be honest. In a world where Anger Foot gets a sequel (Furious Fist when??), I would love to uncover more of the silliness that Free Lives had packed into this game’s microcosm of a universe.
Some of this review reads as overly critical, but that isn’t a reason for you to avoid the potential challenge of Anger Foot. The audiovisual assault on my senses was worth it for the chaotic fun alone. Once you master the foot, the levels become quite replayable and great outlets to blow off steam.
While it may have kicked my ass to kingdom come, Anger Foot is a creative approach to a chaotically simple FPS that’s light on the shooting and heavy on the kicking. Despite the simplicity of its controls, it is a refreshing take on an FPS that encourages players to do something other than mindlessly shoot enemies. I cannot wait to see what else Free Lives and Devolver cook up!
