Secret Agent Alphonse Harding has no time to reload.  Given the scores of armed agents trying to slice or shoot him already, he can always take a weapon from their dead hands.  Who are they to complain?  In keeping with a previous Strange Scaffold title, El Paso, Elsewhere, I Am Your Beast rides this happy middle between throwback and its own personality; also like Elsewhere, writer/director Xalavier Nelson Jr. voices the coolest bipedal slaughterhouse on the planet.  But the game teaches you something important about this early on: you'll only mechanically capture that sensation through deliberate practice. 
 
Similar to Elsewhere's James Savage, Harding also reveals a humanizing side early on.  Initially moseying around the nondescript "North American wilderness," he happens upon a scouting party that killed an innocent bird.  Like flicking a switch, he reverts back to his old training: kill anyone standing in the way.  But whereas before his sights were trained on enemies designated by the Covert Operations Initiative (COI), now he's the primary target of the government.  General Burkin demands he leave retirement for – supposedly – one last mission; a simple "no thanks" won't suffice.  Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.


It's not exactly clear how Harding came by the resources, but his six-year retirement found him making tunnels and escape hatches all across this Pacific Northwestern-flavored Appalachia.  The concept is relatively simple: imagine John Wick beginning in one location, completing an objective, and reaching an escape hatch – discounting the rare wave-based defense level.  It captures a sort of feral inverse of the original Rambo; rather than planning and using the elements to thwart the militarized police force, you're hastily grabbing their own tools and killing them whilst running.  And don't worry about whether to reload or switch to a secondary; just throw your spent firearm at an enemy and take theirs.  They won't need it.

On the surface, it's easy to whet your slaughter appetite between tension and release.  The fundamentals of sprinting, sliding, kicking, shooting, throwing, and tree climbing are simple but exciting to enact.  Harding carries a tangible level of spry weightiness: a linebacker's frame with a wide receiver's reaction time.  There's a clear power differential between him and every copy-n-paste goon sent out here.  The UI also reinforces this dynamic with satisfying visual cues: a tweaked aiming animation with a slanted crosshair while sprinting, a flashing red X with a millisecond pause after every headshot (like a creative censor bar), and so on and so forth. 


The dynamism from impromptu actions reaches another level alongside its score system and – to a lesser extent – side objectives.  Why settle for barely completing a level when you can net an exalted S ranking?  With this, each chapter is a new opportunity to get better at planning, moving, and killing.  Every completed run provides an optional overview that gives a topographical layout with kill markers.  It's a speedrunner's wet dream, but naturally baked into its design.  Even progressing the story requires a few S ranks and completed side objectives.

It goes beyond being a means of function, though; in a way, there's also a sort of mythic component in the background.  Tabling side objectives, as they just require x number of explosive kills, knife kills, and so on, the game establishes your best-rated runs as the 'canon' version of Harding.  Think of how that looks from the average guard's perspective: after unlimited retries enabling you to hone your skill and map knowledge, the canon Harding every guard experiences is the most ruthless & precise killer on the planet.  You're building him into a legend.

While each story mission incorporates a nice wrinkle – be it tone, level design, or tempo - the broader strokes tend to feel overly similar the more time is spent.  When compared to Elsewhere's menagerie of werewolves, knights, and more set within various classic horror backdrops, interchangeable military officers within a remote mountainous wilderness can't visually captivate in the same way.  Of course, Beast, being a fast-paced FPS, places a higher emphasis on visual clarity and consistency, which is reflected in its consistent framerate most of all.  The various design and budgetary factors leading to these decisions make complete sense, it's just a shame that fervor for S ranks does start to wane.


Purposeful austerity is also reflected in Beast's storytelling and presentation.  Its marketing has coined the term "kinetic typography," which is essentially radio calls with big font splashed against a CRT television screen and color swaps between whoever's talking.  Like the aforementioned enemy/level design, it's done with genuine intent.  The conversations between Harding, Burkin (Matthew Curtis), and other side characters are well-acted and feel propulsive; Beast understands when to add some levity and character without losing momentum.  It's playing to the beat of its own drum; at the same time, it also feels like a portion of dessert was left off the plate, especially since Elsewhere's cutscene framing and editing rank among the decade's best.

One could be tempted to point towards austerity in its mission count too, but that'd disregard important context. It's true there are roughly 25 story levels, several of which can be finished in less than a minute, but that fails to account for other categories: Challenge, Support Group, & Cold Sweat.  The tally essentially doubles when adding them all together.  Each clade carries a different attitude from story mode too; Support Group reframes the action around the few surviving stragglers in what's essentially Cannon Fodder's Anonymous, regaling how Harding violently foiled their plans.  When considered altogether, the default $19.99 price point is fair.


From cover art to gameplay, I Am Your Beast appreciates the raw simplicity of its violence.  The burgeoning indie market of run-n-gun shooters is reflected in these types of tightly-paced bouts harnessing one central concept.  In Strange Scaffold's case, a simple-yet-strict scoring system turns a polished action template into an improvisational ballet of spent rounds, thrown knives, and exploding barrels done at a breakneck pace.  Perhaps such simplicity could've been decorated with a bit more flair – visually or otherwise; then again, for a game centered on ruthless efficiency, sometimes all that's needed are a few choice words.

Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, TechRaptor, and Cubed3! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.