Obey Me is a 3D Brawler hack-n-slash indie title developed by Error 404 Game Studios and published by Blowfish Studios. It is a tale that revolves around two demon misfits duo fighting their way through hordes of demons and hellish fiends alike.
Obey Me On Steam || Playstation || Xbox
Story
‘An Excuse to Whoop some Fiendish Ass’
In a world very much like ours (ever since the COVID-19 Outbreak), Heaven and Hell are locked in an eternal conflict where the souls of Mankind are at stake. You play as Vanessa Held, a lowly Soul Huntress aided by her Hellhound companion, Monty (can be controlled as a co-op character in local multiplayer). Both embark on dangerous a journey in a city fraught with peril, slashing, kicking, and biting their way through hordes of foes to tip the balances between heaven and hell.
Honestly speaking, I didn’t care much for its plot or the narrative, it’s just there and it’s not very captivating. Being fully voiced is a nice touch, which is rare to see in such modest-budget titles. The dialogues are a bit silly but they add to the humor making Vanessa and Monty a likable duo. Overall it remains just an excuse to kick some demon-ass.
Gameplay & Mechanics
‘Something New, Something Borrowed’
Obey Me consists of 12 chapters offering ‘Easy’, Normal, and Hard mode difficulties, with each chapter consisting of many enemy encounters. Upon death, the game loads the latest checkpoint save with the same health level as in your previous save. There’s no manual save option. So if you’re running low on health and you can’t find any healing crystals, you may have to start all over. Upon completion, each chapter can be replayed with adjustable difficulties to achieve a better score. If played with formidable skills each chapter can be finished within 12-15 minutes, increasing your odds of getting a perfect score but it is no easy feat. Some of these chapters have been specifically allocated to boss-battles. Campaign layout heavily draws inspiration from Bayonetta and Devil May Cry series.
Obey Me heavily emphasizes on combat, it encourages you to chain up combos, take down enemies within the least time possible while taking minimal damage. In-game this translates to ‘Efficiency’, ‘Time’, and ‘Damage’, the three parameters based upon which it ranks your combat style on a scale of S (Slasher) to D(Disgraceful). The grading system is seemingly based upon that of ‘Bayo’. Even though the combat may not be as snappy or fluid as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, it is engaging enough to keep you hooked for a while. Where most 3D brawlers seem repetitive after a while Obey Me manages to keep things fresh by introducing new weapons and level designs that act as puzzles. Even Monty keeps transforming into newer forms as he gulps down a new boss. Besides this, the game introduces a concept of fusion between Monty and Vanessa. It is highly effective but way too creepy, I mean who the hell would want to fuse themselves up with a Doberman?
The game puts numerous ideas into its combat, some of them do not translate that well. As you progress through the campaign, you keep unlocking these new combos which make you more vulnerable to enemy attacks. Almost half of those combos need you to hold down the ‘Cross’ button (X is for Xbox) for at least 10 seconds. Now, I have demons and fiends swarming all over me then how the heck am I supposed to stay still for 10 seconds. Plus Monty’s AI barely helps during the combat. This can be greatly improved upon if you’re playing co-op. Besides this, the combat mostly suffers due to the performance issues, this makes then the whole experience a bit tedious and frustrating.
Visuals, Performance & Sound
A Huge Disconnect from Fun
The performance of Obey Me on PS4 is terrible. The game barely manages to keep a steady 30 fps during its first 3-4 chapters. After that, it keeps getting worse. Some sections run at terrible 10-15 fps, the whole experience is an eye-melting mush. I had to turn down my campaign’s difficulty from ‘Hard’ to ‘Easy’ mode. Still, I barely managed to finish the chapters with some ‘Disgraceful’ scores. It feels like ‘a huge disconnect from fun’. Loading times are comparable to that of ‘Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4. After you start the game, it nearly takes 2 minutes to reach the main menu screen. Loading the saved game takes another 1-2 minutes.
Playing the game for a bit, it can be fairly assumed that not much has been done by the team towards the game’s optimization. At the time of review, no patches have been released to fix these issues either. This title is needy of a day-1 patch which should rectify these terrible performance issues.
As far as visuals go, Obey Me’s approach is more simplistic than being immersive and that’s a good thing. Everything within the map features sharp edges and boundaries. In addition to that enemies and environmental models feature contrastive, distinctive, and bright colors, this makes the enemy way more noticeable and they pop right out of the environment. This greatly benefits the game’s playability. You can notice the same thing if you compare Halo 2 and Halo 5. While Halo 5 features highly superior textures and visuals but there are too many light sources that make it difficult to spot the enemy (A lot of modern shooters have a fair share of these issues). However, in Halo 2 due to its vibrant and distinctive colors, everything pops right out of the bat, everything seems less cluttered and more noticeable than Halo 5.
As for the game’s sound design and background score, everything seems fine and the tracks give out a ‘gothic’ feel. Some minor sections feature some heavy metal music as well. But I only found the main menu track a bit appealing to me. Overall, everything here is decent and fits well with the game’s theme.
VERDICT
While Obey Me, doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the table, it is often an enjoyable brawler to pass the time. Sadly, a huge chunk of its goodness is buried underneath the terrible port on the PS4.