Jazzpunk Review

Comedy is such a subjective genre. There's slapstick, dry observational comedy, surreal and wacky & random and I could go on. Regardless, if you're looking for a good laugh Jazzpunk will deliver. The best way to describe the setting is an alternate 1950's/60's. The world seems to be filled with cyber augmentations with technology and spies everywhere, and insane people and insane things going on. You play as 'Polyblank', a spy taking on missions for his often drunk boss. Once you take your missionoyl pills you are plonked into the sandbox area that contains your mission and a lot of jokes to find in the surrounding area. To not spoil too much the first mission area holds all kinds of things such as zapping pigeons, helping a frog get free wifi, exploring a pizza themed Evil Dead spoof to name a few moments. While your main objective is pretty easy to figure out, the real meat of the game is the interactions with the world and clicking on everything you can, Jazzpunk is a first person adventure where you'll never get stumped as it's more about the experience instead of just beating a game. I would like to throw out some more examples of the great moments in the game but it is best experienced in person so I recommend reading the rest of this article, any other reviews written by me and then buy this game.

Jazzpunk has no qualms with throwing jokes and silly situations at you and much more jokes hit than miss. Often you are actively participating in the world which makes it all the more enjoyable. Thankfully the game never outstays its welcome as it relies off of its comedy so much that any change in pace would kill the mood. The game itself isn't very long; on my playthrough I saw almost everything there was to see in just over two and a half hours. However, it is packed with entertainment the whole time and isn't priced much more differently than other quality games of that length (Brothers and Gone Home as examples). It's worth the price.

The visuals are simple yet stylish as you explore colourful 50's style areas with lots of Japanese text and technology present. The people inhabiting the world usually look like paper cut out men and women kids would make. There are also lots of visual gags and they wring as much out as they can in most things you interact with.

In the time I played through Jazzpunk there were no shortage of laughs, but after a while a fatigue started to set in. If you want to get the most out of the game, find everything the developers Necrophone Games have tucked away. Click on everything! When you get items you'll want to try them on everything and hear everyone's dialogue. After a while it wasn't so fun trying to scour for any potentially missed laughs, and there are some rooms where there's nothing there but almost feels like they forgot to lock off those areas. In the quest to see it all you'll find these places and it can be a let down. While overall Jazzpunk is a fun, laugh-riddled time, the last 20-30 minutes lack the same punch as the rest. You'll take part in a few spoofs on old videogames that aren't as fun as the concept, and when you remove those the laughs are thinner in this area too. Don't get me wrong there's still plenty to like towards the end, but it struggles to live up to the quality and tight pacing that were throughout the rest of the game.

Conclusion

Jazzpunk, like most games, isn't for everyone. In this case it isn't for people who hate laughing. You likely won't get more than three hours of gameplay out of this game but you will get a tightly packed comedic adventure that is worth the experience and really at the price of going to see a movie there are more jokes here than your usual comedy movie. If you go into Jazzpunk expecting a fun time you won't be let down. Don't go into it hoping for a game to beat or you'll miss the point.