Have you ever wanted to run a mob family? Well, now you kind of have the chance to do so! In Save Koch, a game developed by Wooden Monkeys, you are a mafia godfather who’s received threats that you are getting murdered within in a week. Now it is your chance to send out your gangsters to find out who is behind the threats and eliminate them before time runs out. Wooden Monkeys created a game where you have to plan your actions carefully and act smart. So let’s find out if it’s worth to Save Koch or if you’d better let him get eliminated.
- Original gameplay: The game offers original gameplay where you have to plan everything carefully and react smart to the events that are unfolding. Just like in the real world, you can’t just go out and eliminate people that you think are guilty. Yet, it is fun and exciting to see if your actions give you any new information to get a step closer to find out who is behind all the threats that you are receiving. There aren’t many games like this out there, so being able to play this one is fun and exciting. While at first, it might be a bit hard to find out what you’re doing, once you get into it, it’s a whole new and exciting experience.
- Design: The game doesn’t have the most flashy or perfectly designed graphics but it looks lovely. The eye for detail is amazing for example, the pictures on the desk or the board where you can see all the people you have encountered. Everything you need is just there. For myself, this all benefited perfectly to the gameplay. It makes it feel more complete and really helps with the feeling that you are being hunted down. And let’s face it, if you are going down, then at least it’s in a nice looking game.
- Managing: I already talked about it a bit in the first point of the what’s good section, but the managing part of the game is a nice thing to work with. You really need to pay attention what someone’s specialties are and how many times they already have failed you before assigning them a job, because let’s just face it, the dog can be a good boy but if he keeps failing you, you better eliminate him. It’s all about finding out who is behind it, and sometimes you have to make hard decisions.
- Repetitive: After playing for a while, the game can start feeling a bit repetitive, especially if you aren’t making progress. You are constantly doing the same thing over and over again, assigning your team, making phone calls, reviewing the gathered information, and this time after time after time. However, all of this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I can imagine a lot of people out there find this fun to do, even I do that sometimes but when I haven’t booked progress for a whole day, it just feels shitty.
- Addictive: In addition to the point I mentioned above, it also makes the game kind of addictive. If you’re like me and you don’t find any evidence, you’ll get determined to make sure you find new information the next day. And this way the developers have made a game that you just want to keep playing whether it feels repetitive or not. You just want to make sure you stay alive.
- Night time: So one of the very, very, very, very big downsides and one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever encountered in a game is the night time. No matter what you are doing, making a phone call, or watching the news. When the clock says 21:00 you will go to sleep. Like WTF… You are being hunted! If I was being hunted and I was on the phone at 21:00, I for sure was finishing that phone call and wouldn’t go to sleep until I’ve gathered all the information I could before going to bed. Now you are probably thinking if can it be any worse? Well, yes it can! When you go to bed it’s for 12 hours, like sure take your time it’s not that you are about to get murdered any time soon…
- Waiting: What can also be experienced as a bad thing, is the waiting time. When you send out your people on assignments, you literally can’t do anything else than just wait until they are finished and you can send them out again. And as I mentioned above already, why take your time?? You’re about to get murdered… I think the developers should look a little bit more into this.
CONCLUSION
Score: 80%
The developers from Wooden Monkeys came up with an almost perfect game. The gameplay is new and exciting and it’s something that I was looking forward to play. Save Koch almost didn’t disappoint and the only particularly bad things about the game was the night time and the fact that you have to wait a lot. Furthermore, they came up with a fantastic title and if you like games like this, Save Koch is a must-have title for your Steam library. You can play the game over and over again choosing different angles with different outcomes every single time. And it feels great when you finish a campaign without getting eliminated!
Developer: Wooden Monkeys Publisher: BigGame
Played on: PC
Perfect for: When you love mob games and are driven to investigate and survive
Steam game store link: click here
