Matt Kamen 

Blue Estate review – gleeful pulp noir with genuine laughs

Blue Estate might be repetitive, but it has a winningly dark sense of humour, writes Matt Kamen
  
  

blue estate
Blue Estate: 'highly stylised eye-candy'. Photograph: PR

Based on the series of comic books by Viktor Kalvachev, Kosta Yanev and assorted artists, Blue Estate is a throwback to the old on-rails lightgun games that were once ubiquitous in arcades. Using the PS4 controller's motion sensors or the Xbox One's Kinect, your pad becomes the gun here, and both allow remarkably precise aiming. You'll have to re-centre the reticule often, however, and while it's a single button press, the required frequency annoys, as does a repetition of locations within levels. Narrated by Roy Devine, Jr, a hapless private dick in Hollywood, Blue Estate is replete with gleeful pulp noir and gangster stereotypes, all given a twist thanks to a dark sense of humour. Dialogue and the occasional fourth wall-breaking bit of screen text keep genuine laughs coming, while the watercolour visuals serve up some highly stylised eye-candy. A solid co-op mode rounds out what is an entertaining but imperfect package.

 

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