At this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, Hardcore Gamer was given the chance to try out the upcoming PM Studios titleBandit Trap, an asymmetrical online party game where Bandits attempt to break in and steal valuables from a series of high-tech homes, armed to the teeth with defenses placed by the lone Trapper. Our time with the game was a cartoonish blast of slapstick humor, with tons of tense and hilarious moments throughout thanks to the chaotic mechanics.
Defend Your House From Intruders
Each game takes place in a house (the entrances to which have hefty locks) filled with typical household objects and furniture, a small few of which contain hidden loot which randomly appears after a Bandit searches them. The Trapper, tasked with stopping the Bandits from stealing a specified amount of hidden loot from the house, has the ability to placeLooney Tunes-style traps and countermeasures inside these household objects, as well as control and move them manually. It’s the job of the Bandits to break into the house, find the loot and steal it without getting destroyed by the traps in place.
If you’ve ever wanted to feel like Kevin McCalister fromHome Alone, playing as the Trapper will be right up your alley. A wide variety of wacky weapons can be used to make rooms into deathtraps (though the violence is never lethal, continuing with the cartoon theming), turning couches into rocket-propelled bombs, refrigerators into automated sentry turrets and baby cribs into gigantic fists that punch the lights out of unaware bandits.
Our time with the game was a cartoonish blast of slapstick humor, with tons of tense and hilarious moments throughout thanks to the game’s chaotic mechanics.
There’s a brief setup sequence that feels like an intense race against the clock (because it is), with the Trapper running between the different rooms of the house to equip as many objects as possible with traps before the Bandits arrive. Once they do, the Trapper will need to stay out of the Bandits' reach (made easier with the Trapper’s secret passages) while ensuring that their heist is foiled, choosing when to activate traps on nearby items that aren’t being touched, or taking over the objects and slowly pushing them into range of an unsuspecting enemy.
Execute the (Not So) Perfect Robbery
While it may seem like the Trapper is highly overpowered compared to the Bandits, the balancing in this asymmetrical setting is well done and fair without sacrificing entertainment. The Bandits have their own setup phase, in which they customize their loadouts of tools and perks before heading out to the house. Certain tools are better used on certain objects (a drill works a lot better on a locked door than on a wooden table), so strategizing with your teammates to have all your bases covered is important, as simple as the choices may be.
King of Meat Brings Co-op, Creativity to the Dungeon Crawler
Our hands-on Summer Game Fest Play Days demo was full of skeleton archers, stylish sneakers and custom-made mayhem.
Upon entering, Bandits will need to keep up with those communication tactics, as finding and attacking the Trapper makes their job a lot easier (and rewards them with bonuses). We chose to split up and take on different rooms of the house when playing as Bandits, which made searching each room take much longer, but also made it much harder for the Trapper to keep an eye on all of us. Of course, it got easier once the traps they had set destroyed most of the walls in the house, opening up a ton of paths between rooms.
The matches, whether playing as the Trapper or one of the three Bandits, are a ton of fun, with Trapper runs keeping us on our toes for stealthy takedowns, and Bandit runs having us sleuthing like detectives for clues of where the loot and the Trapper may be located. Furthermore, there are plenty of laughs and yelps of shock as traps go off or players are caught by an enemy, both of which result inBenny Hill-esque chase antics, running up and down the halls of the house.
While the staying power of such a specific and novel idea is uncertain, what we played was a highly fun and entertaining experience that we’re looking forward to playing again. No release date is currently set for the game, but those wanting to try out the cartoon mayhem ofBandit Trap with their own friends can play the demo, which iscurrently available on Steam.
Bandit Trap
Get Ready to Go Bananas for Donkey Kong Bananza
With less than a month to go, Nintendo has dropped a treasure trove of information about the hotly anticipated Donkey Kong Bananza.
