In a not-too-distant future London, Sunday Gold introduces the player to an intriguing fusion between an action-adventure and an RPG. Is it going to be time well spent? See our review to find out!
Pre-game Introduction
Since all with a gritty kind of comic graphic style with Noir components is somehow exactly that, we would like to ask our loving colleagues to stop referring to this title as Disco Elysium-like. In all honesty, we are ashamed that it somehow slipped under our radar. However, Sunday Gold acts like an odd mash-up of Baldurs Gate and Monkey Island CRPGs. And is likely our current favorite strange game we have played this year.
Since there have been so many excellent independent video games this year, we ought to consider having additional triple-A gap years. We want to keep the trend going. But let’s make an effort to grant Sunday Gold the kudos and criticism it merits.
Adventure game developer BKOM Studios from Quebec, Canada, created Sunday Gold. The firm has previously worked on bigger games like Age of Empires IV as well as products for mobile that were licensed. And we are hoping Sunday Gold will be the one that establishes them as a major force because, in all honesty, it is the kind of genre-bending labor of love that we would prefer to see more of. But perhaps we should define Sunday Gold first.
When Cool Guy and Criminal Team Up
The Sunday Gold story begins simply when an erstwhile partner in crime and gangster Frank Barber meets together with Sally to talk about business potential. Frank just sort of begins to fade, enjoying his best possible life as a self-centered Robin Hood in the grimy, 2070s London. The people surrounding him are engrossed in a mania of cheering and watching as zombie cybernetic dogs attack one another on the racecourse. All are financed by a local jerk named Kerry Hogan, who controls practically everything.
Additionally, Sunday Gold is not exactly subtle in his depiction of a tale about the struggle between man and the machines he creates. It does not want to either, and we can only praise it for doing so since subtext-using writers are cowards. Instead of some type of deep examination of how we function as a culture, you will get to have a pulpy noir tale with a ton of decapitations, body dread, and snappy banter in which everyone topped out the stat of ‘being British’. So perhaps Sunday Gold can be compared to Full Throttle, another incredible Ron Gilbert game that was directed by Sir Tarantino de Britain.
After we get those clickbait statements out of the picture, we want to laud Sunday Gold and provide some constructive criticism. If, however, anything you have read thus far even remotely piques your interest, go get it. Since we enjoy how wacky and entertaining Sunday Gold lets itself be, all of our complaints about it almost seem to disappear.
Appearing Bright
When we read that everyone had likened Sunday Gold’s graphics to Disco Elysium, we are sure that even any artwork major dropout would scream in protest as we had already done. The visual direction of Sunday Gold is a tribute to noir comics from France and the UK, and with a dash of Sin City. Disco Elysium, however, belongs to the genre of impressionist paintings. And we adore how well the immobile backgrounds are always taken from the viewpoint of a security camera to consistently make you feel like you are being watched. We will discuss how that relates to the gameplay in a moment.
Simple designs for characters, such as a muscle lady Sally is a frigid person, and hunched-over Frank has always been game for a photo op. That turn-based fighting can at least appear stylish may also be a result of Persona 5’s enduring effect. Characters strike postures, the camera pans, and special assaults are depicted in scarcely animated stills that resemble comic book panels. Sunday Gold simply exudes style while exercising moderation when necessary.
Character layouts are kept minimal with few textures, and animations are jerky. However, that is not due to the visual artists’ laziness; rather, they are dedicated to the goal of creating a multi-volume noir comic that is, above all, playable and which boldly displays its chest influences.
Two Sections of Sunday Gold
The two aspects of Sunday Gold’s gameplay are sort of connected to one another. We could be mistaken, but this is possibly the very first adventure game that gives you turns while you look around and solve riddles. You must be cautious and efficient with your exploration and puzzle-solving because you are constantly invading spaces. Every moment you are in front of a camera will increase the alert level. Once you have made too many problems, you will constantly be required to deal with adversaries while still conducting your business.
Thus, you should exercise caution while not wasting too much time. Every round, all three chosen heroes have a fixed amount of action points, to begin with. You can use these to explore and solve mysteries in your immediate surroundings, just like in a tabletop RPG. And you will either advance the plot or discover resources you may utilize in battle. We had the benefit and the disadvantage of needing to go through the game blindly because we participated in beta testing. And unlike earlier adventure games, solving puzzles is typically quite simple, albeit you are urged to plan ahead rather than just experimenting with different approaches.
Because if you simply attempt every solution, you will get into regular squabbles with the local security, wasting money that you will undoubtedly need at the conclusion of a chapter. In that sense, we suppose we also might call Sunday Gold’s turn-based gameplay Resident Evil.
A trio of your characters possesses areas of expertise, but the crew’s captain Frank is also skilled at lock-picking and dispensing motivational buffs. Gavin is the cybercriminal specialist, Sally is the strength and tank, and she is also the sole character with healing powers. Since the characters really do not share an inventory, you could occasionally find yourself moving important objects around, which is kind of meaningless. Combat becomes much more fascinating because the characters do not share an inventory, and access to someone’s cache if they are killed in a fight, will be cut off to you.
Consequently, some actions, like looking through a trash can or resolving a simple problem, are accessible to all characters. And in other situations, you must prepare ahead of time and boost your team’s productivity. All of this is effective in creating the mental image of a gang of robbers moving stealthily without enough time to halt and take in the scenery. You always feel pressured and monitored, and a few of your discoveries will have an impact on your mental health. The game is now tuned so that you are constantly running out of anything valuable, which will make your exploring and combat more challenging.
Combat with Stress
You will feel at home with Sunday Gold if you have experienced any type of JRPG within the last 30 years. For instance, Final Fantasy, whose sequel XIV has been making a breakthrough on the eSports scene since July and will surely soon do the same on Entropay betting sites. Three of your characters can play different combat roles, and you have a limited amount of health and materials at your disposal for self-healing. You can use the action points you use for exploration in battle as well. While more sophisticated commands require more action points, standard actions simply use one. However, you begin the next turn with the same quantity of action points you used up in the previous one. Therefore, in some circumstances where you know you will engage in conflict, you have to make some preparations for how you will enter and exit it.
Not merely the body horror and still camera perspectives served as the basis for our earlier comparison of Sunday Gold to Resident Evil. Utilizing only your standard and powerful attacks is an easy route to go and get yourself killed in combat; you must maintain your composure and employ all of your resources. You must always employ every tool in your armory while holding some aside in case an issue arises later. And it always seems like a trapeze act to enter a fight already battered and beat, only to escape by the skin of one’s teeth.
Instead of trying to pound yourself through combat as we did, you should dive deep, play with status effects, and concentrate on your adversaries. Enemies can become stunned after taking a certain number of blows, and some become more vulnerable to a certain kind of damage. You can unleash a group of evil minions that will follow you to infinity and beyond if you combine this with your skills and a few items. And after barely surviving one boss battle, you can even survive a difficult one. Given the extreme difficulty, you will find yourself softly locked out of the remaining portions of the game if you are not into them.
Additionally, there is the madness meter, which can be impacted by either discoveries made in the exploratory sections or particular monster skills. By using recreational drugs or holding a motivational conversation with Frank, you can perk up a little bit. Low sanity in exploration only makes the screen look a tiny bit strange and fuzzy, but based on the figure you are controlling, it might have a variety of bad repercussions in fighting. Reducing their chances of getting a critical hit or dealing damage while under the effects of fear. Therefore, you must look after your team’s mental as well as physical health.
Annoyingly Difficult
The only reason we cannot suggest Sunday Gold to all is that it is a little challenging. There are only a few times when you unintentionally place yourself in a difficult situation and must beg the video game heavens for critical hits. And it is not the type of hard that you appreciate. However, if you die, you at least have the choice to reload a previous save file. This is a two-edged sword because it feels good to get yourself into a difficult situation and figure out how to get yourself out of it. But you must also enjoy exploring new territory and trying new things.
We have not finished the game, but we have not yet encountered a circumstance that required us to reload a previous file. It is rather disappointing that there is no choice to make fighting simpler and the game more approachable if you really do not like being battered in fighting until all of the systems finally click.
Final Verdict
Sunday Gold is so dedicated to its concept and the manner it wishes to tell its narrative that we just have to brag about it. And we adore how each and every one of its systems immerse you in the thoughts of those folks and their absurd circumstances. The artwork and fantastic music portray the brutal story of those three endearing guys who are seeking to expose the big business. Our only real complaint is that the combat portions of the game may be a bit challenging for some players to find enjoyable.
Comparable to some of its more challenging puzzles, the combat is challenging to learn. Additionally, every one of them was fun to solve, so Sunday Gold avoided the typical pitfall of adventure games featuring puzzling approaches to its puzzles. All the other complaints we could level at it, such as hiding interactable features behind an action you have to spend valuable action points on each turn, do not take you out of the game. Rather than squandering valuable resources, you begin hurriedly searching the screen once more for anything you could have missed.
Sunday Gold is grisly and a little bit nosey with its narrative and dialogue, however, that is what makes it appealing in the first place, so we think that many joyful video game enthusiasts will find a lot to appreciate in it. And we are interested in seeing how this strange hybrid genre develops.
On Thursday, October 13th, Sunday Gold will be available on Steam. Go and purchase it!
