Review of Anger Foot

Platforms: GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac operating systems

Initial release date: July 11, 2024

Developer: Free Lives

Mode: Single-player video game

License: proprietary license

Genres: Shooter game, Indie game, Fighting game

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Anger Foot is a superb example of a basic concept carried out to the nth degree. As an enraged sneakerhead with what appear to be the world’s deadliest legs, you have to kick everything in sight in order to recover your precious collection of pilfered shoes. Anger Foot is initially a one-kick pony, but its explosive, difficult-to-put-down action, rewarding gunplay, and delicious destructibility make it one of the year’s most thrilling, demanding, and addictive games.

You must battle through four gangs and their leaders over the course of dozens of stages in this game set on the sleazy streets of Crime City, where crime is not only accepted but thrives. The goal is to recover your stolen sneakers. At first, the only weapon you have is your bare foot since kicks launch the horde of armed enemies into the air, demonstrating the delightful (and occasionally hilariously flawed) dynamics of ragdoll physics. The fast-paced, deliberate style of this first-person action game is pleasantly reminiscent of Doom and Hotline Miami. You may finish the brief, tightly spaced stages in less than a minute at most, and winning requires you to dispatch cunning enemies before they have a chance to kill you.

Since players can only be killed by one or two hits, quick reflexes and, more often than not, trial and error are the winning strategies. Enemies may lurk behind doors or hide in blind spots in levels that verge on being maze-like; you won’t notice them until their bullet pierces your skull. Because of occasionally dubious adversary placement that makes taking damage appear inevitable in some places, some fatalities feel cheap. Sometimes you are just a victim of the laws of physics; for example, a grenade that misses the first time could bounce off something and arrive at your feet by surprise the second time. While it hurts to have to restart a stage after a successful run, immediate respawns speed up the process of going through levels multiple times and becoming familiar with their layouts.

While it’s fun to kick opponents, Anger Foot also promotes using the surroundings and your opponents strategically. For example, you can kick doors into far-off targets or send enemies that are bursting careening into their comrades. A contrasting ranged element to the melee-focused gameplay is provided by using weapons like flamethrowers and crossbows, which can impale numerous enemies. The feeling of gunplay is fantastic, and you can even stun foes with empty weapons, which makes for excellent kick setups. I particularly like how the many enemy kinds let me adjust my strategy on the go; for example, shield-wielding enemies deflect gunfire, whereas swift, knife-wielding mice concentrate on persistent swarming. The excitement of finishing the normal stages is far greater than the multi-stage boss bouts, which are entertaining (and ridiculous).

Anger Foot executes talent and ingenuity in a joyously chaotic manner when it’s fully fired, which is often. I adore going into the zone where I can sprint into rooms, knock out opponents quickly, seize their weapons, lobbing empty guns to stun additional targets, and kick everything that comes in my path. While a blind strategy might occasionally succeed, it is usually more advantageous to have a perfect sequence of steps for removing hazards and identifying all environmental benefits. Copius destructibility implies that interactions frequently turn into a procession of bursting debris, broken glass, and splintered wood, leaving rooms with the appearance of having been through by a tornado. This feature can be useful; after all, why blast an explosive barrel and send the entire structure falling down instead of taking out thugs positioned atop scaffolding? When the action gets too heavy on explosions and enemy mobs, the framerate occasionally drops, but other than that, everything runs smoothly as butter.

In order to keep the gameplay and challenge interesting, Anger Foot frequently releases new concepts and features. Highlights include kicking across rooftops while ducking a sniper’s laser sight and jumping across and dodging trains in a subway. I was usually astonished and eager to overcome whatever challenge creator Free Lives created, and I always looked forward to discovering what a level had in store.

Up to three stars can be earned by completing stages and optional goals like finishing it in under the allotted time or without taking any damage. These stars can then be used to unlock sneakers that provide abilities. These unique shoes add interesting creases to the action, but you can only wear one pair at a time. Some offer useful extras, such as a shoe that adds an extra life or one that detonates doors upon being kicked. Some shoes work like ridiculous cheat codes; for example, you may have a pair that makes everything, including you, float by reducing gravity. One helpful shoe makes adversaries’ heads absurdly huge, which makes them simpler to hit in the head. Shoes can be powerful game changes, offering a compelling incentive to replay levels and finish extra missions in order to obtain them all.

Review Overview

Gameplay – 92%

Story – 75%

Aesthetics – 85%

Content – 82%

Accessibility – 75%

Value – 88%

Overall Rating – 85%

Very Good

Summary: In Anger Foot, losing can be a hard pill to swallow, but I was surprised at how eager I was to keep going back in. Even after I had played Firefights several times, it was still an interesting challenge. It never stopped to feel good to stop enemies milliseconds before they pull the trigger, either with brute force or by deftly employing my surroundings. In these shoes, you really ought to take a mile stroll.