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It's almost fitting that Mighty Rocket Studio's Final Exam is set during the events of a ten-year high school reunion. Like a reunion, the beat-em-up is filled with old ideas and though they're fun to revisit - it's more clear than ever why you've moved on. Much like your friends from high school, Final Exam shows glimpses of brilliance but it's probably best that to forget about this one and move on. If you've played any of the classic old-school like Final Fight or Double Dragon, you'll feel right at home with Final Exam; the game finds you fighting from one end of corridors to the other and inflicting damage on any monster you can find. You'll take control of one of four characters that are no less than horror movie archetypes - you've got the dumb jock, the nerd, the popular girl and the oddly skilled at fighting loner kid. Though each character is listed as having their own skills and characteristics, they're more or less interchangeable and have similar abilities and move sets. As you play through you'll upgrade your character's abilities and attacks and there's some fun in trying them out against the hordes of the undead and monsters that are coming to rip you apart but Final Exam is no a game that believes in using things sparingly as you'll be using anything you unlock over and over to the point where it becomes one of the game's most annoying features. Key here is that you can often make choices as to what you upgrade and when, but more often than not it just depends on what choices you've made in the game and what you've upgraded so far. At its core, Final Exam is not a bad brawler, it's just an uninspired one. I get it, it's a tribute to games and horror movies past, but the fact that Final Exam tries to do almost nothing new and doesn't really do anything better than the games it chooses to emulate. Final Exam never really creates or gains any momentum, beginning with a cold tutorial opening and rarely challenging the player. Final Exam's campaign lasts only about four hours before it asks you to go back through with another character and there's almost no reason to go back through the monotony all over again. When Final Exam just lets go and allows itself to have fun with its cool and challenging gameplay, there's a good amount of fun to be had here, but it's too concerned with rehashing what came before. Fans of the genre will feel right at home, but there's simply not enough here to recommend a full price purchase Final Exam is worth a look but fails to receive even a passing grade. |
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