If you’ll recall, Paradise Killer was one of our favourite games from 2020, and so we simply could not pass over the opportunity to see what Kaizen Game Works has in store for fresh faces and returning players with its exciting new-gen update.
Check out the trailer here! Bet you're already tapping your toes to that soundtrack.
Exiled for 3,004,769 days, Lady Love Dies is an investigator and the former chief of the Paradise Psycho Unit on Island Sequence 13 — the thirteenth iteration of an “idyllic” Paradise for the worshippers of dead alien gods to work to resurrect their idols. These worshippers, called the Syndicate, are terrifying. Lady Love Dies is one of them, as well as an ex-assassin whose skin melted off as a result of his declaration of undying love leaving him as a scarlet skeleton; a breathtakingly beautiful warrior with the head of a goat; and a doctor who was born in the 10th century and has super cool cyber-arms. They abduct mortals from other realities to provide psychic energy for these aforementioned gods to feed off of and use them as subjects in experiments because they’re squishy, perishable and in large supply.
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Naturally, cultivating a population of slaves who are controlled and surveilled by immortal weirdos breeds resentment amongst the oppressed. Those citizens who try to rebel are delicious targets for demonic energies to latch onto and all of this particular Paradise corrupts and is eventually destroyed due to these toxic leaks. Though that isn’t to say that the Syndicate are paragons of virtue, as Lady Love Dies was tricked by the deity Damned Harmony into jeopardising Island Sequence 13 and earned herself a very lonely exile from her compatriots.
It’s lucky then that Island Sequence 25 will be practically perfect in every way. As the sun starts to set on this Island Sequence 24, the Syndicate slaughter the citizens and ready themselves to travel to the next Paradise. Except something goes gruesomely wrong. The Council - a clandestine group who lead the creation of the Islands - are discovered disembowelled in their chambers mere moments after they finished their work bringing Island Sequence 25 into being.
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As their only option, the Syndicate enlists Lady Love Dies to investigate what happened and why someone would murder those in charge of the closest thing to Paradise they have ever achieved. Some are certain they know who did it, some are certain they are telling the truth, and some are certain that they don’t care at all.
That is a lot to read. Appreciably, at the start, the experience is as alien as the world it introduces to you through glitzy and garish palettes and bizarre and beautiful décor. Just trust in the journey, though. Island Sequence 24 is an unsettling mash of vaporwave with city pop while ominous obelisks puncture the picturesque beaches and iridescent statues to monstrous gods are found hiding in hydrangeas.
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With this new-gen update, this morbid curiosity towards the setting and its cast of characters is heightened with these enviable technical and visual improvements that the team have brought to the fore. I played the game on the PlayStation 5, and the ray tracing lets the lighting underscore the absurdity of splicing opulent marble with brutalist concrete while shrouding the coast in a haze of sea fog. There’s an irresistible irreality to Paradise Killer in its marriage of narrative, art style and mechanics and these new additions serve to immerse yourself in its world. These upgrades are available on the PC version as well as the PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series versions of the game, and they're free to those who own Paradise Killer already, so no one's missing out.
Kaizen Game Works has also kitted out the DualSense with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to the mix, so the controller buzzes when Starlight is receiving a call, the colour of the light bar changes over the course of the day, and the clunkety-click of switching the torch on and off is extremely satisfying.
Starlight’s electronic chirps emit from the speakers, which might not sound (sorry) like a massive thing, but it draws you into this weird world by enveloping you with this extra layer. My first playthrough was on the Nintendo Switch and I’ll tell you now that it is so good to see this game on the big screen with all of these embellishments.
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To those who haven’t given Paradise Killer a go, I’ll offer you a crash course and nothing more as you’re better off diving into this game with a surface level knowledge of its story. Once you’ve set foot on Paradise, the game starts to collate all of the evidence you collect and the leads you’ll want to follow in a computer called Starlight. For first time players, I’d definitely recommend switching the evidence assignment setting to “every time” which will show you what goes where and summarises what’s been said or done succinctly. If required, there is a dyslexia friendly font setting and you are able to switch the flickering lights, screenshake and rotating backgrounds off to prevent motion sickness or anything like that.
Paradise Killer does not autosave! Paradise Killer does not autosave. Got that? Good. Fortunately, you’ll find pink towers where you can manually save all over the place but I advise you to save whenever you see a pink tower you’ve not encountered before. Due to the enormous amount of dialogue and writing in the game, you could stumble upon an item that links to several threads of investigation and allows your analysis to advance in leaps and bounds.
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Plus, it’s possible you’ll find things that I’ve not seen as the newest version includes new characters, quests and collectibles that uncover the conspiracies spinning at the centre of this odd island. Sack off the sunshine this weekend and spend it pretending to be a super-stylin’ detective delivering sass and accusations to immortal beings who are really no better than the rest of us. That’s what I’d suggest.
Topics: PlayStation, Xbox