I Am Your Beast review: Rip and tear as fast as you can

I Am Your Beast is a short and sweet thrill-ride of destruction and mayhem

I Am Your Beast / Strange Scaffold

A game I still go back to at least once a year is Superhot. In that game, you move in super-slow motion, and you use that to play out incredible action scenes that would otherwise require lightning-fast reflexes and inhuman skill to execute. I Am Your Beast looks at Superhot and asks what it would be like if, instead of super-slow motion, the game ran at four times normal speed.

You are (former) Agent Barker, a man with super soldier-level skills on the run from his former employers after deciding to go rogue. That’s really all of the plot you need for a game like this, but the team goes the extra mile, throwing in short audio clips between each level to build a world and humanize these characters that would otherwise just be action movie stereotypes.

That all serves as window dressing for the gameplay though, which is all-action all the time. You’ll be thrown into small levels with a simple objective – activate three laptops, destroy five satellites, or simply kill everyone – then let loose to do that in as chaotic a fashion as you possibly can.

I Am Your Beast / Strange Scaffold

The flow of movement is the bread-and-butter for this system and it feels so smooth. You glide around the terrain, leap with ease, and can perform maneuvers like sliding and climbing with minimal extra input needed. With a base that solid, you can let it become muscle memory as you focus on the many enemies the game throws at you all at once.

By taking down an enemy with melee attacks they’ll drop their weapon, which you can then pick up to fire a couple of rounds before throwing it into someone’s face once it’s empty, only to find a brand new gun in the very next instance to continue your rampage. That entire sequence I just described will happen in the space of about a second, maybe two if you’re still learning the ropes.

That isn’t an isolated or scripted instance either, it all happens dynamically and you’ll end up in cool set-pieces like that in every level. That’s just scratching the surface of the action too, things get all the more wild when you also have to worry about avoiding an attack chopper that’s raining hellfire down on your area, or reaching your objectives quick enough to prevent an airstrike leveling the place.

I Am Your Beast / Strange Scaffold

It gets the adrenaline pumping and makes you feel unbelievably cool as you sink into this magical flow state of knowing exactly where to move, grabbing weapons out of mid-air, and blasting away anyone stupid enough to stand in your path. Or at least, that’s how it feels. The truth is I’ll be making plenty of mistakes as I do this, but even so, I still feel like I’m being really cool and doing everything flawlessly because the game is able to pull you so deep into its power fantasy.

With even the longest levels in the game lasting barely a few minutes, you’re here for a good time, not a long time with I Am Your Beast. I finished all of the campaign’s levels in 90 minutes, but there are reasons to keep coming back if you love the gameplay. First of all, there’s a ranking system based on how quickly you complete levels, encouraging you to strive for perfection in how you route levels and perform skillful kills to get time bonuses.

On top of that, every level has two special objectives, but you’ll only find out what the first is after beating the level, and the second only comes after beating the first special objective. These will be things like beating the level without killing, not taking any damage, or getting three knife kills. All things that ask for true mastery of the mechanics, and you’re rewarded with a few extra challenge levels if you complete them.

I Am Your Beast / Strange Scaffold

Still, even with all that, I was left feeling like I could’ve done with a little bit more. Maybe that’s a sign of a good game – always leave ‘em wanting more and all that – but I was hoping the game would step up the action for the finale, letting things get truly ridiculous. Instead, you just do the same things you’ve been doing the whole time, but on a slightly bigger stage. It’s an absolute crime that the game’s dullest level is the one where you take down an attack chopper.

I don’t know if I Am Your Beast will be one that I ever come back to, maybe it was better as a one-night stand, experiencing its whirlwind of action and excitement for a little while before moving on to something else. Either way, I’m very glad I got to spend time with it – not many games get the blood pumping like this one does.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PC (Steam)