I Am Your Beast: Hard for Harding

(Intro)

I Am Your Beast is a hyper aggressive score based, first person shooter focusing on mobility, chaining together different ways of taking out your assailants, and completing small missions as fast as possible. Every once in a while, you see a clip of a game somewhere online and you just know instantly you’ll love the game. That’s what happened to me here. It’s a game that requires you to not only learn a particular level and all that it encompasses, but to truly master it for the best score possible. Don’t like how you performed? Replay the level. Learn it. Live it. Love it. This game tickles a part of your brain that not many games these days do. That desire and hyper fixation on trying to play a particular level perfectly so you can feel your neurons activate as you see your score get totaled up and you receive that glorious S ranking. This game in layman’s terms is sick. And I can’t tell a lie, for lack of a better term, Harding goes hard.

(Our protagonist)

We play as Alphonse Harding; an agent of the COI company who has gone AWOL and is hell bent on exacting revenge for what they have turned him into. For a simple game that focuses on earning score in small levels, there is a surprising amount of lore in this game. In between the levels you will get plenty of conversations with Harding and some other characters, that at first feels out of place and awkward, but very quickly you become invested in his plight; his perspective and you want to see Harding take what he is owed. You learn who Harding is and the motivations behind why everyone does what they do. It’s also all incredibly well voice acted, especially Harding. He has this smooth sultry voice that can almost come across, dare I say, sexual sometimes depending on his tone or inflection. Another voice we hear plenty of is General Burkin: essentially Harding’s boss. This entire game transpires because of two reasons: the first, Harding declining his potentially final job under the COI (even though it sounds like the whole final job thing has happened more than once), and two because he realized what the company has done to him and how the agents under the same umbrella are treating his new home, the forest. So, until Burkin leaves Harding alone, he will stop at nothing from slaughtering every single agent that gets sent his way. To not only protect him but also the forest.

(Core gameplay loop)

Whenever we talk about games on this channel, one thing I always try to extract and explain is a game’s thirty-second loop. Because ultimately, that loop is what you will spend the majority of your time doing. I am Your Beast’s gameplay loop is very simply and straight forward. But not to the determent of the game; it only enhances what the game asks of you. Complete this level based on the mission objective, do it as fast as you can, and if you don’t like your score, run it back until you do. What makes this loop so addicting is the execution of how the game feels to play. As Harding, you can run, slide, climb, run across trees and powerlines and use a variety of weapons at your disposal. Run out of ammo for a gun? Just throw it at your enemies. They drop their guns and you can wash rinse and repeat this cycle at nauseum. Moving around feels snappy and responsive. Landing headshots is satisfying, even using melee when all else fails feels good to do. There is boatload of ways to kill the agents being sent after you. From melee combat, to using guns, and even tons of environmental hazards at your disposal to spice things up. The game lets you get very creative with how you want to tackle a level. At the start, you are giving some kind of vantage point to scout out the arena and to conjure up your plan of attack. Whether you need to just eliminate all the enemies, destroy some laptops, or whatever the level asks of you, how players approach combat will vary from person to person. And even from each attempt you try at the same level, you will quickly adjust and adapt; learning which path is fastest and saves the most time, whilst allowing you to deal the most damage possible for a high score. And when you finally do get into a groove, you will feel a visceral level of enjoyment and satisfaction from the game. The feedback loop is instant and gratifying when you beat your previous record.

(OST is Godlike)

Speaking of groove, the music in this game is phenomenal. All of the music is composed by RJ Lake; and they did such an incredible job with getting your blood pumping when you are in a level. Because music is subjective, there are some songs that stand out a little more in this game than others, but the entire soundtrack is just filled with head bangers. The soundtrack will get stuck in your head whether you want it to or not. The music usually starts out slow when you begin and end a level, but the moment you enter combat, it kicks into high gear. I mean, just listen to this. Glorious rifts, extremely high energy and tempo; there was thoughtful consideration for how each track would feel as you run around and take out agents. I also do really love the slower bits too, in between the levels or when you hit pause. I would genuinely love to have those parts of the songs too somewhere for listening.

(Nostalgia at its finest)

I Am Your Beast is video games personified. A simple premise, with more depth once you sink your teeth into it, a kick ass soundtrack, and an extremely addicting and satisfying gameplay experience once you understand how the game works. This game takes me back to a simpler time; where games didn’t need five to seven years of development, hundreds of millions of dollars to be created, only to be released to a poultry six out of ten. You won’t play this game forever (although there is definitely an argument that you could), but the time you spend in this game will be rewarding, engaging, and time will fly past you. To make a wild comparison, this game feels like a combination of Marble Blast Ultra from the Xbox 360 arcade game days and SUPERHOT. Smaller games, with simple premises, but have insanely addicting loops and are generally regarded as fantastic games. I Am Your Beast is a beautiful trip down memory lane; taking myself back to when games were a breath of fresh air. I am constantly impressed by the indie and smaller development communities when it comes to making games. They have a vision and are going to see it through; without any interference from executive suits or investors. I am glad this game exists. It's fun as hell, and something I will look back at fondly and reinstall when I want to turn my brain off, run around, and get revenge for Harding.

(Outro)

I Am Your Beast is an awesome game. It checks every box needed for an easy recommendation. Again, you’re not going to put thirty plus hours into it most likely, but the time you do invest will be well worth the twenty-dollar asking price. I had such a blast playing through this game. Both figuratively because it’s amazing, but also literally because I blew up a lot of agents with red barrels, but either way, if you are a fan of smaller games with a very clear and focused goal that is executed to the highest caliber possible, buy I Am You Beast. Do it for yourself. As well as Harding. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on I Am Your Beast if you’ve played, other smaller games you’d like to see me play and be sure to subscribe for more videos about absolute gems of gameplay experiences that everyone should have at least once. I hope to see you in future ones.