Vampires… everywhere. Vampires in front and in back of you, above you, beneath you and all around you. Hundreds of thousands of vampires all over the place, everywhere, all the time.
Fangz HD, the newly-released polishing of Game Whizzes’ celebrated Fangz, casts you as everyman Frank as he traverses through a colorful, corpse-laden wasteland. At every conceivable moment, you can expect to be rushed upon by a charismatic array of manic-eyed vamps. There’s a lot to love in Fangz HD, but first thing’s first – the gore. Man, oh man, the gore.
As you can surely see, this is an extraordinarily ultraviolent videogame. Vampires erupt in a never-ending flood of blood, limbs, and skulls. Headshots occur often, and are depicted with Fangoria-level clarity and richness. It’s the kind of thing you might get looks about on the bus, but there’s just something deeply fulfilling about chainsawing the arms and legs off of stuff. Ask anyone.
Pictured: Gore.
Fangz is a traditional brawler, with a wide assortment of melee weapons and guns, and 10 levels. It’s also maddeningly tough, and most of the later stages require you to dramatically upgrade Frank’s stats and arsenal to stand even half a chance of surviving. Levels are typically made up of three smaller sections, each of them timed. Bosses are numerous, and generally tough. If you get frustrated, there’s a survival mode, where you can rack up some cash and XP (Depicted as brains. Heh.).
“Now starting the Junkyard level. You will never finish it.”
The game creates and maintains an effective 3D environment, with clearly defined layering. Often, you’ll see an out-of-focus streetlamp or the like in the foreground – it’s these little details that aid Fangz HD’s dimensionality, and provide a genuine B-movie personality.
The sleazy horror tone comes through in the story, too, which is all camp. The Wall Street-inspired “Vamp Street” level, for instance, throws a few lawyers into the mix for you to kill. They’re not vampires, but you’re encouraged to kill them as fast as possible anyway, because they steal your money. And you need that money to buy more guns, to kill more lawyers.
Not pictured: Lawyer.
The visuals are detailed, smooth, and vibrant – this is easily one of the best-looking games on the Play Store. the game’s score is effectively low-key as well, and the sound effects come through crisply, from shotgunblasts to exploding torsos.
Fangz HD’s $1.99 price tag is also a plus, and while none but the seriously dedicated will ever beat it, the core gameplay is more than enough fun for casual gamers.
