The only way to win, screen cheat! We screen cheat our way to victory in this twist on the first person shooter genre. This is our review of Samurai Punk and indie label Surprise Attack Games’ Screencheat.Storyline/AboutSo while there is no story line to Screencheat, we can definitely tell you a little about the game. Just forget about all you know when it comes to first person shooter, especially when it comes to split screen. You WILL screen cheat! This means you look at some one’s screen in order to see where they are located. Why you ask? Well, you need to screen cheat because all the players are invisible! So you see, the only way to really ensure that you have the highest possibilities of being victorious. Tell you what, you can also check out we wrote about Screencheat the first time we came across it. Read the full article click here.Gameplay/ControlsIn Screencheat, the gameplay is fast and chaotic, with the chaotic part being you and your friends screaming and yelling and laughing at each other as your character hit or gets hit by others. And in Screencheat, it’s a one hit kill. The game offers local split screen multiplayer for up to 8 players. Yes, 8 player split screen invisible first person shooter action! It also has an online game mode, which is set up just like the local split screen set up. You are able the see the other players screens. We weren’t able to play against anyone at the time and some the game added A.I. Bots.Screencheat offers several different game modes. Nine in all and all insanely fun with a Party Mode that will give you a taste of everything. You have your “standard” Deathmatch and Kill of the Hill types modes, but then you have Screencheat’s additions Capture the Fun, where you hold on to a Pinata as long as you can, Bombs Away, where you grab and plant a bomb in your enemy’s base, to Murder Mystery, which follows the game Clue and gives you target to eliminate with a certain weapon to get a score. Oh yes, and One Shot, where everyone can only reload once everyone has fired or the timer runs out. Plus more.
On top of all these game modes, Screencheat also has what’s called Mutators which are modifiers to the gameplay. There are 17 different Mutators which you can unlock as you go up in levels. Some of these Mutators include Flappy Jump which gives you up to 5 extra “Flappy Bird” type jumps, The Haunting which upon death, your character will flow around the stage like a ghost haunting a place of its death, and Plankdolls, where when you die, your character “Planks” right at that point. Funniest thing we experienced with that Mutator was in a King of the Hill game where at certain hill spawns, there was just a mound of plank dead characters.What’s a game without its weapons? Next to the different game modes, Screencheat has ten different weapons which range from the normal, Rifle, Revolver Rifle. To the cute, Teddy Bear Bomb and Hobby Horse. To the “what is that?!”, Trappeur or Sorgean, which is a large spiked homing ball of death that can be quite deadly to the shooter also as once shot does boomerang back to the shooter and if it hit the shooter will kill them! Insane!Screencheat’s controls are tight and spot on. Great! If you have played a first person shooter before, then you’ll feel right at home.Graphics/SoundScreencheat meat and potatoes is its gameplay and action. Its graphic are basic and does work for the game. Each stage has its own personality with a different colors for each area that are vivid and pops. This is very necessary especially when you have invisible characters and you need to screen cheat to get a point of reference of where your enemy’s general location is. If each area has a bright primary color, then this works.We had to point out some pretty special that Screencheat has done to make the game more accessible to a larger audience. They have added a color blind feature. When activated, it changes the patterns on the walls, which usually would feature more of an elegant pattern design, to larger basic shaped patterns which are more distinguishable.Well done Screencheat.ReplayabilityYou will be replaying Screencheat! Especially in a party setting. When you have friends over your house, you will most likely pull out Screencheat to play in a group and most likely everyone will like it. Plus, all the different types of Mutators will have you coming back to unlock them and see what the next zany effect will be. When we played with our group, we found ourselves picking a gamemode, playing it for a number of rounds, then someone saying, “hey let’s add this!” Then we would play a number of more rounds till we want to check out another mode.There is a a great deal of fun here.RecommendationSo here is our thoughts on Screencheat. If you want something different and you want a break from your everyday run of the mill first person shooters, then you need to check out Screencheat. The fun that this game produces as you sit on your couch with your friends just yelling at each other and laughing as a cute squeaking Teddy Bear blows you up, it’s just fantastic. There not too much content and with the number of modes available and the different add on Mutators, Screencheat will definitely add to your couch split screen festivities.