Have you ever come across a game with such an amazing premise that you just had to give it a shot? It doesn’t happen often, but the urge to indulge in these unique experiences is very strong when it hits. Honestly, why on earth would someone not want to play as a businessman beating the living daylights out of werewolves? I’ll tell you why: Because it’s not a particularly fun game to play.
Developed by Noodlecake Studios Inc, The Executive is an Android action game in which you play as the extremely fit CEO of a company that is under attack by various beasts. He’s no Bruce Wayne, but the CEO is very capable of using kicks, punches, and flaming kicks to annihilate his enemies. In addition to pummeling anthropomorphic animals into oblivion, you must also traverse the collapsing buildings through means of parkour and quick time events. How could this game not be incredible, you ask? Let me count the ways.
The biggest thing that The Executive has going against it is that the combat system is too shallow. Considering that you’ll be spending over half of your playtime wailing on your enemies, this is significant problem. The battle system allows for kicking, punching, and blocking, and that is essentially it. Depending on the orientation of the enemy, you have to choose whether to hit or block low or high. This only adds a minuscule amount of strategy to the combat, but at least it’s something.
You can eventually learn some more moves later on, but they are just more punches and kicks. Due to its lack of depth, the fighting gets extremely repetitive early on in the game, which is abysmal for an Android action game. Granted, these issues won’t be too bothersome if you only play this game in short bursts. However, if you ever plan on playing through more than two missions in a single session, you will be feeling combat fatigue, and that’s not a good thing at all, even for a mobile game.
One aspect of The Executive that definitely aids in adding some depth to the gameplay is the upgrade store, where you can buy skills and buffs. In addition to new kicks and punches, you can increase your strength and defense, and there is also a healing upgrade for purchase. Unfortunately, the depth that these upgrades add isn’t much. As previously mentioned, you can buy new moves from the store, but they do not enhance the gameplay in any significant way; it’s mostly for show. There is also no discernible change in combat after applying the buffs, considering that your stats only increase by 1% when you first start upgrading them. When purchasing these nigh-useless items in the store, I felt like my in-game cash was being wasted.
The parkouring element of The Executive is kind of fun, but only for the first two seconds. After that, the quick time events needed to accomplished the leaps and wall-jumps become incredibly easy for anyone over the age of four. If you’re into a bit of spectacle, they’re fine. Otherwise, they’re a waste, just like this game’s potential. All in all, The Executive squanders its fantastic premise by being barely okay. The concept is great, but it’s also pretty silly, so the game could have benefited from some humor or even flashier combat. At its best, it’s just mediocre. The Executive would be all right to play for a day if it were free, but I cannot recommend paying for a game that is just barely competent. You should spend your time and money elsewhere.
Is it Hardcore?
Not exactly.
The Executive has incredible potential, but nothing about it ever rises above mediocrity.
