The original Afro Samurai series was, generally speaking, pretty awesome. It certainly didn't revolutionize anime, but it was loud, stylized, gorgeous, and most importantly, fun to watch. Its sequel, the aptly-named Afro Samurai 2, may not be as popular as its predecessor, but for the most part, it's just as enjoyable as the original.
For the most part, the series' first video game adaptation was just as good as the works that inspired it: the Afro Samurai game on last-generation consoles did exactly what it set out to do, even if that wasn't necessarily revolutionary. It had a fun free-cutting mechanic, it did a decent job retelling the series' story - it was a good game, regardless of what the sales numbers may have implied.
It's been six long years, and Afro Samurai has returned - this time, in the form of an episodic hack-and-slash adventure game. Seeing as Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume 1 was developed by Redacted Games (the studio behind the first Afro Samurai game), you'd think they'd be able to match the quality of the original.
If only.
Story
The story of Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma picks up towards the end of the original series: Kuma (the one with the bear mask) awakens after his duel with the titular Afro Samurai, pieces himself back together and continues on his quest for revenge.
There are two main problems with Afro Samurai 2's story. Firstly, anyone unfamiliar with the series - even those who simply haven't watched it recently - will be completely and utterly lost. Characters aren't really introduced, they just appear; events are alluded to, but never shown or explained. Seeing how Kuma is the main character, it makes sense that his story is more fleshed-out, but even that is poorly presented: he's out for revenge, he wears a bear mask, and that's about it. Sadly, it only gets worse when new characters are introduced: it's annoying that the game expects you to know who all these returning faces are, but new characters aren't given any sort of characterization or backstory either. It doesn't help that they're boring stereotypes, essentially cardboard cutouts that exist merely to stand in your way.
Afro Samurai 2's second major story flaw is that its story barely exists. Sure, there are plenty of cutscenes, but characters just talk to the screen and explain what's going on - even then, the story bounces from one event to the next with almost no transition or reason for doing so. What's worse is that the whole thing barely makes any sense: Kuma goes from fighting a Civil War general in the middle of a busy city to cutting down suicide bombers in an ancient Japanese temple. While it's true that Kuma is given a distinct target and a clear path forward, that doesn't make any of the game's events interesting - and the infuriating cliffhanger ending just feels like an insult.
Gameplay
If the story wasn't bad enough on its own, the gameplay is where Afro Samurai 2 really starts to fall apart. Nothing about the game is unique: there are buttons for attacking, countering, jumping and special moves; Kuma can level up three fighting styles with slightly different finishers; Quicktime Events, chases and wall-climbing sections pop up infrequently. It's stuff gamers have seen before, only worse.
Combat is nothing but button mashing: there's no real way to perform unique combos (not that the game offers a combo list anyways), and the collision detection is absolutely awful. Enemies seem to fall apart simply by standing near Kuma's sword, and Afro Samurai 2 quickly becomes the worst kind of easy: there's no skill or concentration required, so you'll find yourself blindly tapping the attack button and waiting for the story to continue.
Unfortunately, the experience system is also a complete mess. The upgrade trees themselves are fine; players can spend points to upgrade Kuma's speed, strength and health. The main problem is that Skill Points appear at random and en masse: you'll gain far more than you'll ever need, and it's possible to finish the game with forty extra Skill Points and nothing to spend them on. The fact that the last three skills are locked out until future episodes are released is just adding insult to injury.
...and then, there are the glitches.
Presentation
To be fair, Afro Samurai 2's presentation isn't all bad. The game's illustrations and character models look good, some of the environments are pretty and the soundtrack is generally great. Everything else, however, is awful.
To put it bluntly, the game's graphics would have looked bad on last-generation consoles, much less the PlayStation 4. Animations during gameplay are jumpy, awkward, and generally terrible, while lip-syncing is basically non-existent. Cutscenes are just as bad, but for the opposite reason - nothing happens. The camera simply flies around nearly-static character models while narration is thrown at the player. The game's alternative, a series of comic book-style cutscenes, are almost worse: they're terrible at telling the story, and they rarely line up with what any of the characters are saying or doing.
Speaking of audio, the game's voice acting is ruined by terrible execution: volume levels jump around at random, and the awful sound quality reveals that most of the game's audio wasn't properly recorded. On top of that, lines will overlap one another: just as you're about to be interested in what one character is saying, another will start talking over the first and ruin both lines. Even the music gets obnoxious, as the entire game only features a few different tracks throughout the entire duration.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, Afro Samurai 2 is basically broken. Despite the game only lasting for a mere two hours, there are literally too many glitches to list in this review. It's so bad that all of the following glitches were all found during the first hour of the PlayStation 4 version:
• Kuma refuses to move
• Kuma randomly falls to his death
• Kuma can't hit enemies
• Kuma earns Skill Points for standing still
• Camera won't show where Kuma is standing
• Quicktime Events fail at random
• Audio dips in and out at random
• Backgrounds disappear
• Characters disappear
• Enemies can't find Kuma
• Enemies refuse to attack Kuma
• Enemies are invulnerable
All of this, plus the fact that the game's engine can barely handle more than a few enemies on-screen, adds up to Afro Samurai 2 being one of the most unplayable games in recent memory. Redacted Games has promised that some of these issues may be remedied via a patch after launch, but no release date has been given quite yet.
In short, the only way Afro Samurai 2's glitches could get any worse would be if the game outright crashed - which, in retrospect, wouldn't have been so bad.
Overall
This is a sincere warning: if you've ever been a fan of Afro Samurai, avoid Revenge of Kuma like the plague. Go back and watch either of the movies, or dust off your Xbox 360 and play the original Afro Samurai - anything is better than sitting through this absolute trainwreck of a game. Its story is confusing and nonsensical, the gameplay is a boring, glitch-ridden mess and the presentation is akin to a low-budget bargain bin game from 2008.
It's rare to see a universally, unapologetically bad title in modern gaming - if Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume 1 is supposed to revitalize the franchise, things aren't looking good.
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