Ren Hu: Rebel Yell Demo

Beat ‘em ups are not as popular as they once were, although the indie market is constantly trying to keep the genre afloat. Hence, there are still a few games released every now and again, but it’s quite clear that the big names of the industry won’t touch it very soon. On the other hand, even small developers can make a great game if they have the proper support from the community.

Ren Hu: Rebel Yell is a unique beat ‘em up game in which you get to combine a variety of combos and use them to crush your enemies. The proper term for this kind of gameplay is “strategic beat ‘em up”, because it’s certainly not easy to come up with the right combinations for every type of foe, especially since some of them can parry or even deflect your attacks.

The story takes place sometime in the future, and it’s a post-human future ruled by machines and what appear to be cyborgs. Although most of your time is spent slashing and punching, the plot features a great deal of philosophical references and ideas, including neo-Darwinism and ultra liberalism, according to the developers. Obviously, you experience these ideas with different characters as well.

As for the combos, the main idea is that you can switch between attacks and customize their offensive abilities on-the-fly. Thus, time slows down when you decide to select different attacks for new combos, which allows you to do so even in the middle of a combat scene. However, the gameplay is much more diverse than just fighting all the time, because there are puzzles to solve as well.

Some of these puzzles challenge you to play retro games against the AI, including gems like the original Pong. Hence, you shouldn’t get bored too quickly, especially since the difficulty level is quite high across the board. The artwork is truly unique, even if the graphics are not very detailed. The same goes for the music, which works wonders for the atmosphere.

All things considered, Ren Hu: Rebel Yell is already quite polished and engaging, even if it’s just at demo at the moment. Hence, if you are a fan of the genre, then you should consider supporting the developers by participating in the game’s Kickstarter project.