Arcadegeddon review - A gorgeous, fast-paced genre-breaking shooter

Arcadegeddon by IllFonic is a new third-person shooter that has both competitive co-op and a satisfying PVE experience, all in one place. In many games, one of these modes will be stronger than the other, but I didn’t find that to be the case here. Set in a futuristic world where arcades are dying out, players are tasked to help save Gilly’s arcade by playing his latest, greatest game.

The game has a gorgeous look, striking music, and more than enough guns and cosmetics to keep fans interested. While it does lack enemy and boss variety, that is something future updates can expand on.

Arcadegeddon starts off strong, bringing a neon-lit arcade to life

I love a good arcade, and many of my formative memories were in those dimly lit halls, playing the latest and greatest cabinets. I would pump quarter after quarter in to get as far as humanly possible, so the plot of Arcadegeddon really hits home for me. I miss the glory days of the arcades.

This certainly helped me fall in love with Arcadegeddon, diving in to try and save Gilly’s arcade from the FunFunco corporation. The third-person action is a lot of fun, and I liked how there were various cliques and gangs to approach for help.

These groups allow players to unlock more cosmetics and push the story of the game forward. One of the major negatives is that there isn’t a whole lot to the actual gameplay loop right now.

The gameplay loop for Arcadegeddon is fun, but bugs persist

In this third-person shooter, players customize their character and get sent into an arcade game. They need to show off incredible moves, prove that Gilly’s latest game is the best on the market and bring life to the arcades again.

The gameplay goal is to defeat all four bosses in the arcade game in one go. It sounds easy enough but is incredibly challenging, especially when players factor in multiplayer. Each stage adds more difficulty (starting with 1), and players can also spend their coins to increase it further.

The bosses also vary in difficulty too. The CEO, for example, had a straightforward fight, but the FFC Mech was a bit more complex. I appreciate the challenge variance though. The higher the difficulty level, the more challenging the fights became.

Players keep going through stages and battling bosses until they are eventually defeated, with their health running out. Thankfully, in multiplayer, allies can infinitely revive each other.

After a run is complete, the players gain tickets (currency) and XP. XP levels up a character, letting them unlock more special abilities, passive buffs, and get ready to go again.

The first run is going to be hard, though. Players start with a baseball bat and a pistol that, thankfully, has infinite ammo. If a player runs out of ammo for better guns, they can drop those at any time, and that will bring back one of their starter weapons.

I had plenty of moments where all three of my guns had no ammo, and ammo drops were nowhere to be found. I would then drop the fancy guns, so I could resume fighting my opponents.

There are plenty of boxes to break for coins as well as ammunition. At the end of a stage, players have a chance to buy new guns, hacks (passive effects), or refill their ammo. The cost of these will vary with difficulty level, so stack as many coins as possible.

How do the stages actually work?

Players are dropped into a stage, and after a bit of a run, they receive a win condition. It may involve surviving, standing at a point and defending it, or destroying a series of floating objects. There aren’t a ton of objectives, but with the varying stages and layouts, it sort of balances out.

There are optional boss battles that come through, and that’s where the real challenge is. After a certain amount of progress is made, an on-screen meter will fill up, and the optional boss portal will spawn. Players have the choice to move on with the normal objective or go blow up the boss portal.

This will allow the players to teleport to the boss chamber and battle with that instead. Each boss has a huge health bar and a way to combat them, alongside a never-ending swarm of minions. Defeating them unlocks a treasure chest and sends players back on their way.

Arcadegeddon’s PVP is optional and pretty fun

I didn’t play a ton of PVP, but I did give it a spin. I’m not as interested in the PVP modes, but I did enjoy doing it anyway. My experience in Arcadegeddon’s PVP had eight rounds between four players. Some battles would be team-based while others would be free-for-all matches.

One stage was like the popular vehicular soccer game Rocket League. Players had freeze guns and bats, while others gave players rocket launches to blast each other with. The most interesting one had a series of disappearing floors, where the goal was to stick around as long as possible or knock the other players off the stage.

I wasn't great at it, to be honest, but it’s not really for me. I like that there are leaderboards for it, which divide the solo and team-up players. It’s pretty fun, and I see the appeal, but I’m more about the PVE content in this game.

There are frustrating bugs that persist in Arcadegeddon

Speaking of bugs, though, there were several instances where I’d play a set of stages for 30 minutes to an hour, and the boss at the end would randomly just not show up. There’s no fix other than to leave the match and re-queue. The worst part about this is that players lose the progress they’ve made on challenges, XP they’ve accrued, and anything else that's useful.

This part was absolutely infuriating, and it happened more often than not. I also had an issue with some bosses refilling their health back to full on some occasions. It was not clear whether this was by design or accident.

While these weren’t game-breaking, they were incredibly frustrating and marred my overall gameplay experience in Arcadegeddon.

Stage variety is plentiful, thanks to procedurally generated areas

Here’s where things get interesting. The sections of a stage are all created by the developers, but the actual map is procedurally generated. This creates a wide amount of replayability, thanks to the chaotic nature of the maps.

There aren’t tons of possibilities when it comes to map sections, but that can be improved by the developers. One benefit to this, though, is that players can quickly learn where the treasure chests will spawn. Finding and opening the various treasure chests gives several guns, hacks, and coins for players to split.

Arcadegeddon has plenty of collectibles, including guns, skins, and abilities

Speaking of guns, there are so many awesome ones in this game! High-precision bubble guns, healing guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, ice guns, you name it. There are so many weapons, and each has its own skins to unlock and customize them.

So you don’t have to play with just the bat and pistol forever. Players can find guns while running through Arcadegeddon, choose their starting loadout, and also unlock active abilities by gaining XP.

Players spend tokens to unlock more abilities, but they start with just a fireball that they can launch. These abilities have a pretty lengthy cooldown, so they have to be used with caution. Players can summon healing circles and more with these, so there are many ways to help the team or destroy opponents.

There are plenty of awesome designs for clothing, and color patterns for weapon skins (Image via IllFonic)

While I’m talking about collectibles, though, I was torn about how I feel about the shop. There is a shop that sells items for tickets, and the in-game currency, and there’s a real-money shop too. Now, it doesn’t offer anything other than cosmetics, and none of those provide stats.

Arcadegeddon isn’t a full-price retail game, so I’m less worried about it having a real-money shop. Tickets are given pretty easily, so players can collect a ton of skins without spending a cent. The extra store is more for fans who adore the game and want to buy something to support the developers.

The visuals and music are top-notch, but there's a catch

The neon look and the distinct styles of the various gangs were awesome. The colors are bright, and the look of the game is certainly unique. I loved the jazz and hip-hop-style music Arcadegeddon brings to the table, but there was one small issue.

I don’t make anything on the YouTube clips I upload, but I still received Content ID claims for four of the eight videos I uploaded. Four of the tracks in the game, at the very least, gave me immediate content claim ID issues, so I could not monetize them even if I wanted to.

Turns out that I completely missed the "streamer mode" that is in the settings. So, it's just something for content creators and streamers to be aware of, and hopefully, other people don't miss that. The music was incredibly appealing though.

In conclusion

I had a lot of fun playing Arcadegeddon, and I’m looking forward to it getting more updates, challenges, and cosmetics. I was a little frustrated with the content claim ID issue I had; it will potentially affect others far more than me. It’s something that can be avoided by turning on streaming mode, or avoiding those stages in their content. But several music tracks were flagged, and so it’s worth discussing.

Apart from the bugs, the gameplay was a blast. It’s a game I can see people really getting into, especially those who like procedurally-generated, neon-lit shooters. The guns are fun, the challenge ramps up at a steady pace, and there are tons of cool cosmetics to pick up. It’s an overall enjoyable experience, especially given its price point.

Arcadegeddon

Reviewed On: PlayStation 5

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Windows

Developer: IllFonic

Publisher: IllFonic

Release Date: July 8, 2021