![]() ![]() Not only will the CEO find himself carjacking and tangling with police he'll also find time to purchase buildings, manipulate the housing market, and manage a portfolio of assets and income streams. Quite unlike Retro City, Shakedown injects into its sandbox formula a significant simulation element. Like Retro City, Shakedown is a top-down open-world action game, similar in perspective and mayhem to the early Grand Theft Auto titles. The ways in which it pokes fun at rule-bending multinational corporations, market manipulation, and slavish consumerism is clever, topical, and thoughtful.Įqually thoughtful is the gameplay loop that sustains the narrative. It's not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as its spiritual predecessor, but Shakedown: Hawaii is far more subversive. Their goal: embrace the cynical strategies that define the modern business world. In order to rebuild his empire, forestall a hostile takeover, and maybe-just maybe-bring the entire island under his control, the CEO recruits his screw-up son, a South American "fixer", and all the unscrupulous business people he can find. Having invested in VHS tapes, taxi services, and diet soft drinks, the CEO can't imagine a world of streaming television and Crüzer (a nod toward Uber). It stars an aging, out-of-touch CEO, whose company Feeble Multinational is nearly bankrupt. Where Retro City was a send-up of pop culture, Shakedown sets in its sights the world of big business. Deployed inside an urban open-world and buttressed by some accessible, engaging business simulation mechanics, it's a solid follow-up to Provinciano's 2012 8-bit gem Retro City Rampage. Shakedown: Hawaii, the latest from independent developer Brian Provinciano, takes advantage of the properties unique to video games and delivers a cutting, comprehensive takedown of big business and all the cynical methods associated with it. Not only can a game use irony and humor to highlight a political vice or social stupidity it can make you an active participant in the misdeed. Video games are a medium uniquely primed as a vehicle for satire.
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