Taking just the briefest of moments to steady my nerves, I steer my avatar into the reception area. The big, stocky security guard across from the receptionist reacts like lightning, drawing a small stubby pistol from his jacket. Fast as he is, I’m faster. My first bullet fells the guard, slamming him against the wall. My second bullet – fired as I wheel about – takes out a sword wielding goon as he races towards me. It’s clean, surgical, and precise, leaving the nearby civilians unscathed.
The next corridor holds another guard, who, fortunately, is facing the wrong direction. The next room, however, is more problematic. Gathering my thoughts, I push open the door then fling myself into a roll, barely dodging the lethal barrage of bullets aimed in my direction. My first shot goes wild, and crashes uselessly into the wall. I know I only have a split second before another shot comes my way, and use it to assess the situation. One assault-rifle-wielding goon is getting ready to blast me, another with a pistol is getting into position to really ruin my day, and a third, who ill advisedly brought a sword to a gun fight, is charging towards me. This would be the perfect time to use my targeting ability, except there’s a pillar between me and one of my targets. Cursing, I trust to luck and hurl myself sideways, dodging the fusillade and hoping that I’m faster than the guy with the pistol. I am. Time slows as my targeting software takes over, and I carefully select each enemy. A moment later, my character lets off a salvo of bullets, and all of the enemies drop. Smiling with satisfaction, I metaphorically pat myself on the back, step through the next door, and catch a shotgun blast to the face. *sigh* Never mind. Next time, I’ll be ready...
This gives you a fairly accurate idea of what playing Esse Proxy is like. Part nail-biting action, part reflexes and planning, and part puzzle. Played in a top-down perspective, players are able to see just what each room, corridor, or outside environment holds. This is a good thing, as it only takes one shot to kill most enemies (excep for a few bosses and armoured foes), and the player. To survive, players have to examine how the foes are dispersed, what weapons they’re carrying, and then come up with, and flawlessly execute, a plan of attack to quickly eliminate them.
Invariably things will go wrong – whether it was your forgetting to reload or not watching your angles – and you’ll be sent back to the beginning of the level. And while most levels take only around 3 minutes to complete, you might play that level a dozen or so times until you’ve figured out how to best handle each scenario. At the end of the level, you’re given a score, showing how long you took, the number of shots you missed, and how many innocent bystanders got killed due to your shoddy planning, tempting you to have another go to see if you can do better.
Precision with speed is the name of the game, and when you manage to nail it, it’s undeniably satisfying. Tight controls and punchy audio-visual feedback and a rocking sound-track all contribute to a sense of “yeah, that was awesome.” (Or, if you’re being just a tad more honest: “yeah, I’m awesome”.) If you’ve seen the house fight from the first John Wick film, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of how it feels. It also looks pretty good: the cell-shaded aesthetic works well for the dystopian cyber-punk setting (is there any other kind?) and at times this is combined with a lit, swirling fog effect which creates some truly mesmerizing visuals.
While I found the core gameplay to be slick, there were a few moments that left me scratching my head and wondering what the devs were thinking. In particular, there were the Sewers level (those ruddy fans, and camera which helpfully angles itself so you can’t see the blades) and the final boss which simply felt unfair, the defeat of which felt more due to luck than skill or reflexes. Fortunately, these were the only two points in the entire game like that, so while they were annoying, this was mainly because the rest of the game was so slick.
Also, it’s worth mentioning the story. This is delivered via conversations with characters between missions, and by interacting with certain objects during the game. While it does provide a premise for the action and contributes to the game’s atmosphere, it is somewhat opaque and confusing. However, the gameplay is more than strong enough to stand on its own, and as the story barely takes up any game time, it really doesn’t matter.
All up, I enjoyed Esse Proxy. The planning, the tense, split-second reactions, the lateral thinking needed to defeat most of the bosses, the cool sense of precision, and the challenge all got me hooked, and happily working my way through levels again and again. And while there are a few missteps which turned this game into a flawed gem, it still is a gem. Given this, and its very reasonable price point, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to those who enjoy the type of challenge it offers. ■