Shank is a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up with some minor platforming elements developed by Klei Entertainment. The game follows the story of a man named Shank who is looking for revenge on the people that killed his girlfriend and left him for dead. His plan is to slaughter his way through hoards of enemies using a shank, chainsaw, pistols and plenty of other weapons until everyone has paid. It features a short singe-player campaign and a local co-op campaign mode.

Combat in Shank has three basic attacks, a regular attack with Shank’s shank, a heavy attack using whatever heavy weapon is equipped and a ranged attack using whatever gun is equipped. The key to longer and more powerful combos is to switch up the attacks and it’s pretty easy to figure what the best combos for certain situations are. The heavy weapons available are a chainsaw, dual machetes, a katana, and chains around Shank’s fists. My favorite of the heavy weapons are the dual machetes because they’re great for attacking many enemies at once and the attacks looks impressive. Guns that are available include dual pistols, a shotgun and an uzi. My favorite gun ended up being the shotgun because it was easy to use in combos and was pretty powerful. Most weapons are useful and are really cool except for the chains on Shank’s fist which were pretty useless and weak. Shank can also throw grenades and brutally grab and pounce on enemies.

Shank fights through a ton of enemies during the game but there isn’t very much variety. There are normal enemies which can have melee weapons and/or guns which are pretty easy to kill. There are some that have assault rifles and will stand on high platforms that you can’t reach and they’re really annoying and cheap since you must aim up and continue to shoot at them until they’re dead while trying to fight other enemies on the ground with you. There are dogs which tackle Shank to the ground and you have to mash on the attack button to make get them off and they’re really annoying but not quite cheap. Then there are bigger enemies that are a lot tougher and will charge at the player, grab them, knock them back and even use large powerful weapons that Shank can use after he defeats them. Finally there are bosses at the end of each level and for boss enemies they are never too challenging. They mostly consist of the player figuring out what environmental hazard to trick them to hit or finding just the right time to dodge then unleash a painful combo.

Getting around in Shank is smooth and easy. Platforming is simple, just swing from certain points normally marked with skulls, climbing up walls, running along walls and sliding down poles. Levels vary from going through a city on the rooftops to fighting your way to the front of a train to traversing through a meat packing facility. When playing the normal mode the game is very generous with checkpoints putting one almost after every fight so if a player dies then they can get back in quickly without redoing the same things over.

Shank is a very visually appealing game with great animations and diverse good looking environments. Along with cut scenes placed seamlessly throughout the campaign it makes a pretty cinematic experience. With the most fun combat and easy platforming Shank makes for a fun experience despite some of the more annoying enemies and fights. The only major drawback with Shank is the fact that I beat it at right under 2 and a half hours and even for $15 that’s pretty short. One last thing I’d like to add is that I played the PC Steam version of the game and had to use a controller. The keyboard controls for the game were practically unplayable, so if you want to have fun make sure you have a controller you can use on the PC.

Shank can be puchased via Valve’s Steam.

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