Psychotoxic Demo

In case the world ends somewhere in the next few hundred years, there's certainly a book or a movie that has already considered that specific scenario, whether it's robot uprising, or a stray asteroid with its sights set on Earth. However, there is always the classical biblical apocalypse as well, the one that features rains of fire, famine and metaphorical horsemen.

Psychotoxic is first-person shooter that tackles the familiar end of the world theme, while also mixing in a few fantasy elements for good measure. Thus, you play as Angie, a rather violent-looking girl that possesses a unique set of skills, which come in handy when the Earth is about to be annihilated by the fourth horseman of the apocalypse.

The story revolves around the horseman, which is actually a machine, rather than an actual man and it produces a sort of virus that infects everyone who comes in contact with it. The virus works by causing unusual levels of anger in the brains of its victims, thus making everyone extremely mad and violent at all times. Hence, the enemies are mostly just random people from around the city, as well as the occasional sea monster to spice up the gameplay.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, the mechanics are not that refined and they can be quite frustrating sometimes, especially when it comes to the shooting sequences. The levels are very small and linear, which makes it increasingly more difficult to find cover or avoid the scripted enemies from assaulting your position. Speaking of which, the AI uses some very basic algorithms, meaning that they are incredibly predictable and their main strategy is to simply run into your gun whenever they see you.

From a technical point of view, the game does not excel in any way, especially not when it comes to graphics quality. While the textures can be considered acceptable, the character animations are very rugged and inexpressive, which makes for some really funny death scenes. Nothing out of the ordinary in the sound department either, although some of the guns make an effort to sound believable.

Psychotoxic may nave a rather interesting idea at its core, but the execution is not exactly top class, which severely hurts the overall experience. The silly gameplay mechanics make the shooting sequences feel very dull and boring, which is the last thing you'd want to feel during an apocalypse.