Outlandish publisher Devolver Digital is known to lend its name to unorthodox videogames, but its latest is one of its most unusual yet.
Lone developer Gabe Cuzzillo's Ape Out plays sort of like Hotline Miami in that it's brutally violent and is shot from a top-down perspective. But instead of guiding a trigger-happy mercenary around '80s-style video nasty locales, you steer an enraged gorilla around a psychedelic paint-splashed zoo-like world—where your pursuers are your captors as opposed to volatile hitmen.
Instead of Hotline's hypnotic electro soundtrack, Ape Out blends "rhythmic violence, and frenetic jazz", all of which sort of resembles Kasabian's Shoot the Runner video. Struggling to picture that in practice? I don't blame you. Have a look at its reveal trailer for a better idea of what it's about:
Ape Out's full release is due this summer, however a playable demo which, um, apes the above trailer can be downloaded free-of-charge from Steam.
I suggest you do because, although short, it's pretty darn sweet. Unhinging a steel doors and using them as shields is fun, and there's a sense of poetic justice felt when one of your captor's comes at you with a flamethrower but accidentally sets his pal alight instead of you. Sucker.
