Jydge Cover

JYDGE Xbox One Review

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype…” wait a minute, that’s from a different product, Robocop to be more specific, let me start again. “In the crime-plagued future, the only thing standing between order and chaos is Judge Joseph Dredd. His duty: police the violent metropolitan sprawls that crowd the decaying earth, and kill criminals on the spot if necessary…” I’m sorry, wrong product again, this is from Judge Dredd, but if you like those kind of movies, then keep reading because you’re going to like what is coming.

JYDGE is a lawful but awful roguehate top-down shooter where you get to build your own cybernetic JYDGE and eradicate crime in the never-sleeping megacity of Edenbyrg. Create your own play-style by augmenting your JYDGE, modifying your Gavel rifle, and choosing companion drones to suit the tasks at hand. Basically you create your own Robocop or Judge Dredd to clean the streets of Edenbyrg, and for many, that’s a dream come true. Sending robots to fight crime and saving civilians without getting any casualties, well, unless you are part of the bad guys, then everyone will die. Some cool things are the different choices of customization available, with abilities, cybernetics, items, mods, companions, not all with visual changes on your JYDGE, but they do affect the way it moves.

Just about to destroy or get destroyed

JYDGE features four acts, which consist of five missions each, sounds straightforward, but after finishing them, the title unlocks a harder difficulty, similar to playing action RPGs. I don’t mind it, but I did feel the game can get repetitive after enough time spent blasting everything. You have different objectives depending on the mission; rescue civilians, eliminate the targets, don’t get spotted, don’t receive any damage. Don’t receive any damage is one that caused me a bunch of trouble. After spending time with the game and unlocking more customization options, it becomes easier, or harder, depending on your play style, but JYDGE makes you adapt to different play styles in order to complete various objectives.

At first, the goal seems to be about eradicating crime from the streets of Edenbyrg, but the real goal is to get all of the medals, so you can continue story progression. Every time I finished a mission or a chapter, I felt excited to know what kind of different objective would pop up next for me to complete and earn my next medal. Some medals are straightforward, beating the times that with just a couple of tries, but others can be frustrating, challenging enough that I had to spend many attempts and still fail at beating them. JYDGE offers its challenge in a very satisfying, it feels rewarding when managing to complete each task, but it can still be frustrating when things aren’t working out. Challenge feels fair, though, and I never felt it was impossible to beat.

Kill the leader, one of the different objetives present in JYDGE

10tons mentions that there are over a BILLION configurations with all the customization. I didn’t get my calculator to see if that was right or not, but what I can assure you is that, yes, there are a lot of combinations, configurations and upgrades that you can use to craft your perfect JYDGE. Other aspect of the game that I enjoyed was the sound effects and the music tracks. The voice acting could have been done better, with more enthusiasm, but the music and sound effects balance the scale for the weak voice work, especially so when you are hunting down the final gang leader with no health left (just enough to keep moving) and the music was getting me pumped to hunt my target and finish up my mission.

JYDGE isn’t a perfect game. The gameplay could be improved in some sections. Stealth is one example, where some missions require not being spotted, but I never felt that stealth fitted right with this game, what with all the shooting and movement. Little issues with the game can be ignored when all the action is happening and you are in the zone, the great soundtrack adds to the feeling that you are the perfect cyber cop and must accomplish cleaning the streets of Edenbyrg. I had a great experience with the game, and being a fan of such movies like Robocop and Judge Dredd certainly adds to my enjoyment I had with all the action going on in JYDGE.

8 out of 10