Review: Just Die Already (PS4)
Just Die Already is a game where you choose an old person to play as and cause mayhem around a sandbox area. The best way to describe it is, goat simulator but replace the goat with a boomer. That sentence will be the best rundown I can give for those who have played goat simulator. Otherwise read on to get an idea whether or not this game is for you.
Once you select one of four old people to play as. Your character is free to roam an open area with loose goals and objectives. There are puzzles and items you can interact with to cause crazy stuff to happen, and unlock new areas and objectives. Everything feels optional past the 5 minute point. Once you’re dumped into the world, you’re on your own. The exploration is one of the strengths of the game. It feels refreshing to have no tutorials or a large arrow pointing you to your next objective.
Another strength of the game is in its humor. This can also be a weakness depending on your brand of humor. Slapstick comedy is the central theme of the game. You’re gonna see lots of cartoonish gore, peeing, vomit, etc. You’re gonna die a lot, and there’s no penalty for death, you will respawn at the nearest dumpster. As the title implies, your character can take a heavy beating before dying. Limbs detach individually but don’t inhibit your movement like you would expect. Legs or no legs, your jumps and movement speed barely changes. Even a head is optional to exploring the world.
Despite the gore sounding extreme, the violence is tame, if that makes any sense. Your arms and legs will pop off from simply walking into a crab. Swinging a weapon sometimes does less damage than simply walking into somebody while holding a weapon. The buggy nature of the way items interact, and the controls, is expected. It’s a design choice that results in sometimes hilariously broken outcomes. It can be frustrating if you’re trying to scale a building and have to rely on an inconsistent jump to get you there. At the same time, if you’re playing to complete objectives, you’re playing the game wrong.
The game offers a multiplayer option with cross platform play. There’s co-op gameplay, as well as a recently introduced versus mode. There’s no option for which game you’re gonna end up in if you’re looking to play with randoms. You just hit the join a random game button and pray for the best. This game is meant to be played with friends. The cross platform option expands that friend group you can play with and should be a standard feature at this point.
Just Die Already is a fun sandbox to play with but the longevity of the game relies on playing with a group of friends. But every game is fun with a group of friends, so I hate to use that as a metric for whether a game is good or not. At the end of the day, you could do a lot worse for $15.
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