Rustler - Preview, when GTA meets the Middle Ages

What would happen if we combined the freedom of a game like Grand Theft Auto to the vulgar ignorance of a medieval world? It would definitely come out Rustler, a production that makes hilarity, arrogance and the extremeization of the historical context its backbone. Born from an idea of Jutsu Games, a Polish development house, the work managed, thanks also to its community, to reach the goal of Kickstarter set by the software house - revealing itself capable of exceeding it widely - and to see the light of the sun on Steam in an early-access version which we will talk about in detail today.

Grand Theft Horse

Let's start immediately by saying that Rustler it is a parody; in the course of the whole adventure we will in fact meet countless characters, including the protagonist, who will do nothing but throw in the soup gag, jokes, insults or citations to something, just as they will not miss it satire and some digs also related to today's world. In short, it is not a title that aims to be taken seriously and indeed, it never misses an opportunity to try to make the player on duty smile.

The biggest quotes you will notice will be related to the legendary comedy group of the Monthy Python, and the famous Grand Theft Auto saga. It is in fact from the latter that the game takes its gameplay base, and this can be seen at any time. Starting from the graphical interface which is practically identical to that of GTA 2, to game mechanics - for example steal a horse someone will give you an instant feeling of deja vu -, up to the music, where in some cases we will literally find ourselves in front of the same Rockstar songs but played with lutes and flutes. All this makes the title extremely fun to play, obviously thanks to a formula that has been working for many years now. The view from above, also, despite being a lot Retro, it intersects well with the style of play and does not make you feel the lack of the classic visual in third person RPGs of this type.

Rustler's plot

We haven't talked about the protagonist yet. We will interpret Guy, a bald young man who will wake up on a farm after a sensational hangover. As soon as we get up and understand where we are, we will realize the damage we have caused. Between “Graffiti” in Latin on the roof of a hut, and a cow about which we will have written "Horse" on one side, we will realize that we have created a lot of headaches; and even the owner of the farm will think the same way since he will be the one who starts ours first fight… Of brutal ignorance against a poor unsuspecting peasant.

Gradually we will thus be introduced to the game world, and between secondary missions, criminal bosses - here mainly interpreted by loan sharks, priests and theSpanish inquisition - and chases in which we will have the police (note that also in this case they have red and blue sirens) on our heels because we will have stolen a horse, Guy will understand that if he wants to make a name for himself he will have to participate in the Great Tournament and climb the various positions in order to get noticed. The game will also have an important RPG structure, although it is not its backbone. In fact, we will be able to enhance our character thanks to the classic skill tree, take or change the horse - we should take it to the Pymp My Horse to do that, this is really nice as a quote - and change ours armor and weapons, depending on your preferences.

Rustler's jokes were fine, but what about the technical side?

As mentioned before, we are facing a game that is based on humor and on not taking oneself seriously at all, which is certainly a nice peculiarity; at the same time, however, if you are a relatively small studio and do not have the economic possibilities of houses like Rockstar Games, there will be some other aspect that will fail a little'. In the case of Rustler these are the game commands, which appear very often cumbersome and woody, and in the structure of the missions, which after a while tend to repeat themselves quite frequently, making it all too much monotonous. A few more should also be mentioned little bug scattered which will sometimes make our game frustrating, undermining the gaming experience. Fortunately, we are still talking about issues that can be solved with some more filing work. We remember in fact that we are still talking about a production in early access and therefore, although the foundations are already solid, the team still has a lot of time to improve the various components.

Even the skill tree - which has been unlocked by reaching an additional goal on the kickstarter -, despite being full of citations, is not yet particularly defined, with somewhat upgrades. basic such as small increases in vitality or improvements in stamina consumption. The music, as already mentioned, is inspired by the GTA radios with, for example, many hip hop ballads, but played with instruments of the time. To conclude, Rustler it is a title with a nice and solid basic idea, also developed quite well knowing that it is an indie game and not a triple A; unfortunately, it lacks a bit on some technical details that make you turn up your nose, but if the development team continues to work on it with passion, the production could have all the credentials to become a little pearl.