Introduction

I know there are a lot of bad reviews for this game and I firstly must say that from what I’ve played of it, this game is not as bad as a lot of reviews on here say it is or at least in my opinion it isn’t that bad. The style of gameplay in this game is unique and refreshing in some aspects and the art style and colors in this game are very vibrant and look very nice even for today’s standards in my opinion.

Objectives

The games objectives are varied. In some missions you will be doing timed races to certain points on the map and in some missions you will simply be traversing on foot from one point to another whilst either avoiding or killing enemies to complete a certain objective be it to activate a switch/switches, blow up something, lower a bridge, protect someone, or to clear an area of enemies.

Controls Overview

The controls are easy to learn and most of the weapons are fun and straightforward and pretty easy to use. Defeating enemies can be a joy at times and the melee with the baseball bat and the scoring and currency system for which you can purchase ammo and med kits from vending machines around the world implemented in the game are also fun and interesting. And the driving is very responsive for the most part as well. Although the camera can get stuck in a certain ‘look and run’ mode when switching or holstering weapons sometimes while on foot.

Weapons

You are given 5 weapons throughout the game that are well-balanced. Firstly, you start with a baseball bat which has a few unique options for one you can either knock down and kill an enemy on the ground by stomping his head or bashing it with the baseball bat or charge your swing and kill an enemy in one hit (if your charge is powerful enough). The next weapon is the pistol which is a pretty good early-game weapon that has decent aim and good range although it somewhat lacks in power when it comes to higher-tier enemies. The second weapon is the shotgun which has a powerful damage factor up close but has mid to short range effectiveness, as expected from a shotgun. The third and final ‘weapon’ obtained is the crossbow which has sniping abilities (it has a ‘zoom-in’ ability) and is very powerful. The crossbow also has a very long range and can even ‘skewer’ multiple enemies at once! But the drawback of it is that the reload time is long for each arrow and it only has an ammo carrying capacity of 10. And lastly there is the dynamite which is a very powerful weapon. I found the dynamite works well with a combination of well-aimed throwing and knowing when to throw (and by the way, you can throw the dynamite very, very far!) the best use for the dynamite is to kill large crowds of enemies and for ‘boss’ enemies, and the best strategy I have found for using the dynamite is to get at a safe distance and aim your throw and kind of guestimate your ‘charge’ throw then throw the dynamite (charged throw is done by using the left mouse button by the way). The drawbacks of the dynamite are that it has a powerful blast radius that can harm the player as well, has a limited carrying capacity of 8, is cumbersome to use at times, and it is also the most expensive ‘ammo’ item to purchase from the vending machines but otherwise than that, if you take the time to get skilled with using the dynamite it can be quite fun!

Transportation

The one and only ‘red car’ you get in the game; which will be your ‘one and only’ primary mode of transportation, can be a real blast to drive as its handling and overall maneuverability is quite nice and even gets better when upgraded. The car has 3 upgradeable/obtainable components and they are, performance and handling, durability, and turbo boost (think NOS). Each tier of upgrade on your car makes a significant impact on how well your car performs overall and how much damage it can take (yes your car gets damaged and it can even explode! But you can fix it with various wrench pickups found all over the world. Your car and its ‘life’ are pretty much just as important as the main characters life in my opinion.

The World

The open-world atmosphere can seem barren and empty at times but it kind of fits the tone of the game (you are basically in a big desert for most of the game so it is kind of natural for it to be barren and empty). I personally think the big barren area is meant for cruising around in and exploring with your car and not really meant for finding objectives as the games storyline and objectives are pretty linear however, the linear style of the objectives do not take away from the games fun factor in my opinion. With that being said, enemies, coins and various pickups can be found all over the world both on and off-road. There are also some very large jumps scattered in the world for you to jump your car with which can earn you extra coins for longer distance jumps.

Overall Game Performance

For the most part, the games controls are very fluid and responsive overall and there are few graphical glitches in the game. However, the game tends to crash sometimes (especially at higher resolutions it seems), and there are some glitches as far as getting stuck on some of the objects in the world as well as the ‘look and move’ glitch described earlier in this review, but other than that, I haven’t found any other real major issues with the games overall performance.

Synopsys

Overall, I really enjoyed pound of ground and think the game has untapped potential for replayability, below are my pros, cons, and tips for the game.

Pros:
+ Very, very vibrant and colorful game
+ Unique fighting aspects in the game that are enjoyable and satisfying
+ Fun driving and maneuverability with the vehicle that gets better with upgrades
+ Nice soundtrack that fits well with the game for the most part
+ Literally ‘funny’ looking character model styles and designs (those cows!)
+All weapons are very well balanced

Cons:
-Game crashes randomly with an engine error notification
-Annoying humor and annoying dialogue at times
-Main characters personality and mannerisms are forgettable
-Somewhat convoluted storyline in regards to its depth
-Weird camera stuck in ‘move and look’ glitch when sometimes switching/holstering weapon, or getting in and out of the car
-Forced Auto-save feature


Tips:

+I found running the game at a resolution of 1600x1200 works good with little to no random game crashes (even lower resolutions can work also). Also try to keep ‘Antialiasing’ at around ‘2 samples’ only and ‘Filtering’ and ‘Mipmaps ‘ at ‘linear’ also keep shaders around mid-level and keep view distance to about 100 or lower. All of the aforementioned help in preventing the game from crashing randomly I’ve found.

+To kill a hyena with dynamite, don’t chase it, wait for it to stop then aim and charge your throw (by holding left mouse button) then throw the dynamite..dogburger, anyone?...

+Learn the map and how the layout of the terrain is presented on it, it will help you a lot when driving from different points (i.e. lighter colors on the map represent higher ground, and darker colors represent lower ground).

+If a group of enemies are coming at you in a confined space (i.e. a tunnel or graveyard) get into a corner, and swing that bat…and keep swinging!

+Upgrade your car very, very early in game! Kill zombies to earn money and get at least one turbo boost upgrade and one durability upgrade, it will really help you with that first ‘encounter’ with that ‘other’ driver…. As well as help you with other timed events tremendously.

+Multi-kills, long jumps with your car, ‘homeruns’, and even earning achievements give you extra coins