The police of Hawaii are a rather ineffectual bunch. Once a business had that purple arrow hovering in its entrance way I would make a beeline towards the store to make sure I get another “subscription” for my services.
The activities are diverse and include such standards such as smashing store displays, killing the gangsters that already protect the stores to the weird such as intimidating customers by invading their personal space or shaving the head of the clerk in charge. Shakedowns have you going into a business and terrorizing its staff until they are willing to pay for your protect. The act of making the businesses available for purchase is probably one of the more fun mechanics of the game. Character upgrades are pricey, but there are only 5 of them and the game is perfectly playable without purchasing any of them. Clothes are dirt cheap and purely cosmetic, weapons are doled out regularly as you play missions. Spending cash is a separate balance which can be used clothes, weapons and character upgrades and that’s a bit more scarce…that is until the game allows you to divert company funds to give your character a salary, but like most money in this game it quickly becomes irrelevant as the only things worth buying is character upgrades. About half way through my playthrough, I spent about 5 minutes buying every property that was available the map and I was set in regard to money for the rest of the game. The problem is once you own a business, it will perpetually generate revenue and there is no concern or risk of business downturn that will remove this revenue from your ledger. Along your journey you will discover multipliers that you can purchase which will increase the amount of money the property will generate. You do so by buying business that will generate revenue. Speaking of money, which is the main crux of the game, specifically making a lot of it. The only thing that distinguishes the use of the 3 characters are what upgrades they have and what arsenal they are carrying around, otherwise money is shared amongst the three. There is usually just 1 mission giver at anytime and the game will automatically shift over to the appropriate protagonist when needed.
The game also takes the three main character approach that Rockstar utilizes in GTA5 and barely does anything with it. Jokes about click-bait, sponsored content, subscription software, convenience fees all hit pretty well until you realize that this is just a look at our current consumer landscape. Storywise the game is a more coherent compared to Retro City Rampage, relying less on nostalgic pop culture references, the game finds its humor in lampooning the absurd business practices that have developed in the last 10 to 15 years. So visually Shakedown: Hawaii is leagues beyond Vblank Entertainment’s debut release. Houses and buildings a rendered with such personality that I would be hard pressed to say that any two buildings into are exactly the same. Pedestrian mix is diverse and these NPCs can be seen doing such seemingly mundane things such as taking selfies, chatting it up on their cellphones bobbing their heads with their headphones on, or lying down the beach enjoying the sun. The pixelated trees, shrubbery and sway gently in the breeze. Shakedown Hawaii takes advantage of it’s tropical location and has a lot of really impressive looking 16 bit greenery. It would be easy to say that this title is just Retro City Rampage with a fresh coat of paint and a new map, but frankly it’s a really nice coat of paint. Determined to rebuild his empire, he’s recruited his adult wanksta (This game isn’t the only one who can make an extremely dated reference) son, Scooter aka DJ Jockitch and an effective, but forgettable thug (His name is Al, but the CEO doesn’t bother to address him by name) to make Feeble Industries gre…profitable again. Flashing forward to the present, the CEO has learned that his company has been in decline as the world progressed while he was taking a siesta. Having initially built his fortunes in the early 80s, he’s left his company in the hands of others while he enjoyed the fine weather of the Hawaiian Islands. Shakedown: Hawaii puts you into the role of the unnamed CEO of Feeble Industries.
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