Jazzpunk: Director's Cut Review (PS4)

Jazzpunk: Director's Cut is one of the wildest rides on the PlayStation 4, despite being a relatively short game. Initially released on PC back in 2014, developer Necrophone Games has finally brought it to the PS4 over two years later.

It's hard to accurately describe what exactly Jazzpunk is; sometimes it's a first-person shooter, sometimes it's a fighter, and other times it's a mini golf game. The most fitting description would perhaps be calling it an adventure game. You'll take control of Agent Polybank, a spy who is sent on a number of secret missions. Each level will see you doing typical spy activities, such as tailing people, extracting secret information, and infiltrating locations while in disguise.

Each level also contains side missions, which help break up the gameplay. Things like shooting pigeons or removing a fly infestation from a vase shop are fun distractions and ensure you don't get too tired of your secret agent work. Each level is also relatively open, and it quickly becomes easy to distract yourself with the things around you. The resort level in particular is great as you can do so many things from diving into swimming pools off roofs to combing the beach with a metal detector.

Throughout most levels there are mini-games you'll either discover while exploring or play as part of the main story. These parody classic games such as Street Fighter and Wave Race 64, while there is also an entire mini-game parodying the Virtual Boy. The very best of these mini-games is the first person shooter game mode you will randomly come across if you have a keen eye. It plays very much like a simplistic Goldeneye, with many incredibly random and humorous weapons laying around for you to use on your opponents. Once you discover this in the game it becomes playable from the main menu for up to four players locally, which helps give the game some replay value.

The biggest draw for Jazzpunk is its humour. From the very opening of the game it's incredibly surreal and it's rare that you go longer than 30 seconds without a joke being tossed at you. So much detail was put into combining this humour with the gameplay. In the very first level there's a cinema you can go in to and watch a movie. During the screening you can puff away on a cigar, blowing smoke in other people's faces, while also throwing popcorn around. The reaction of the characters around you while you're performing such juvenile actions are hilarious and make Jazzpunk endearing. However, everybody sees humour differently, so it may be a good idea to watch a trailer or two to wrap your head around the style and see if it's for you as it it's almost the entire basis for the game.

Visually, it's not even remotely impressive, however the simplistic art style adds to the charm and actually works rather well with the setting and tone of the game.

You can beat the game in roughly two to three hours depending on how much exploring you do and how caught up you get in the side missions and mini games. However, this feels like the perfect length as things never tend to drag on.