AT SUNDOWN: Shots in the Dark (PC) Review

At heart, AT SUNDOWN: Shots in the Dark is your basic top-down arena shooter. You pick a character, a weapon, and a stage to have some trigger-happy fun on, and then just start shooting. The playable gunslingers can run and make a quick dash move, and their weapons, which, by the way, have a secondary shooting mode, can be changed upon dying in a matter of seconds. Nothing special so far, and due to how plain and boring this looks, there's little to invest any time on it, as there are far better alternatives, right?

In many ways, yes, this feels like a cheap clone of the "big" players. From the weapons and the moves one can use, to the level design and audio-visuals, this isn't exactly impressive. There's only one thing that's unique about the title at hand, and, in all honesty, this will be the one that many will love this for, while many simply won't. The main mechanic revolves around hiding from everybody by stepping into the dark spots of an arena; in essence, hiding a character even from the one pulling all the buttons!

Yours truly is one of those who find that this, otherwise, interesting take on the genre, is more annoying that fun, despite the tactical depth and strong mind game element it throws into what is, generally, a simple game. It's annoying because you basically can't see your character, and have to either "feel" your way through a stage (with vibrating gamepads indicating a collision with a wall), or momentarily unveil your location... and risk getting shot at.

It's also important to note that AT SUNDOWN is quite the frenetic shooter, something that will discourage newcomers that aren't use to such speedy gameplay - especially when dealing with the, almost aim-bot-ish AI. Of course, this was never meant to be played with bots. This is clearly a pure PvP experience, with local co-op probably being the best choice, as this can be quite enjoyable when viewing it as a couch party game... or sorts. Potential buyers who prefer online play should probably wait for the community to become a little larger, though, as it's currently very hard to find someone to play with.

Unfortunately, even if one does like the shadow play thingy, this is, sadly, a bit too light on content. Apart from the well-done tutorial mode that shows you the ropes, but also lets one try for better times, and thus better medals, 99% of the game is about doing exactly the same thing, in levels that aren't that different from each other. Characters don't have special skills, you only carry your weapon, and, generally, there's not much to do besides hide, seek, shoot.