Shepdoog Shootout

It’s always a lot of fun to enjoy video games with a friend on the same computer, ever since hot seat sessions were a thing in turn-based strategy games. Nowadays it’s all about competitive online gaming, thanks to games like Dota, Counter-Strike or Starcraft. On the other hand, the casual crowds can still find a variety of simple games to entertain themselves, which lack the profanity and frustration that comes with online gaming.

Shepdoog Shootout is a simple reflex-based game, in which your sole purpose is to draw the gun and shoot your opponent before he gets a chance to do the same. You have a variety of characters to choose from, although nothing else ever changes. Everyone can understand the gameplay from the first couple of seconds, since all you need to do is press a button on the keyboard at the right time.

The characters you can choose from range from dogs and kangaroos to Wild West cowboys and hamsters in a space suit. It should also be mentioned that this is but a mini-game designed with parts from a larger project, which has yet to be released. As such, do not expect too much complexity in any regard, although you can still have a lot of fun with the game in the right circumstances.

There is no game over screen or limit to how many rounds you can play, which is both good and bad at the same time. The good part is that you do not have to worry about restarting, unless you want to change the characters. The bad part is that there’s never a final winner, unless you arbitrarily decide to stop when someone reaches a certain score.

Visually, the game sports three-dimensional graphics, which are not bad at all, although there’s not much to see anyway. You cannot move around the environment, and the animations become repetitive after the first couple of rounds. Given the simple nature of the game, on the other hand, there wasn’t any need for anything too fancy, so it doesn’t really matter that you cannot enjoy next-gen post-processing effects.

Shepdoog Shootout is not the kind of game that grows on you over time, because you won’t be able to stay excited about it for more than 10-15 minutes. However, you can go back to it every once in awhile, at least to practice your reflexes and maybe improve a little bit.