Offering plenty of thrills, the brief adventure is magnified with too many short-comings.
GAMEPLAY
As the lead man, Afro Samurai scours the land with a massive sword in hand and a serious chip on his shoulder, gruesomely slicing down any fool who crosses him. This is where you meet the supporting cast: nameless nobodies. Ninjas, swordsmen, guys wielding axes, really big guys wielding pillars and the occasional boss here and there. Pretty standard stuff, until you clash swords with these unknowns in combat. Most of the baddies are limited to a few attacks and the ability to block or dodge your incoming barrage.
Lucky for Afro, your skills are pretty diverse offering light, heavy, and kick attacks with the added ability to jump and block. As you mow down enemies experience is gained through smooth execution of particular attacks, which leads to the expansion of flashy death-dealing combos and overall stats. One area of great interest is the ability to "focus" attacks. Being a deadly swordsman, you can build up focus energy, which can be released in a slow motion attack that is time based and can be aimed at particular limbs of your target. It takes a little getting used to, but once you master the basic combos and the timing function, these focus attacks can easily dismantle a group of bad guys with one hit.
Unlocking all the attack combos and skills is not solely based on combat performance. You can also find patches of birds hidden through out levels which reference to the main villain you seek for vengeance. Being that there are only 6 chapters to this story and a brief prelude, it's safe to say Afro might be revisiting certain areas more than once to milk the experience.
Another sour note is the camera control. Working through an inverted system, the camera is like fighting another goon without your sword. You can adjust Y-axis in the options menu, which controls the up and down motions, yet the left and right functions are cemented. It's not difficult to adapt to the camera controls, because the environments are pretty compact and linear. It is a bit troubling when Afro is surrounded by numerous baddies in the later levels who are a bit stronger and the camera gets a little wonky, which can lead to some unfair deaths.
VISUALS
If you've ever watched the Afro Samurai series, the art direction is very reminiscent of the Aeon Flux show that use to air on MTV. With a little more polish and cool character designs, the Afro stands out much better. One glance at the video game and you'll notice right away there was an immense amount of attention put into how well the main character and the overall art style came through.
Unfortunately, it seems like that's the only area that got special treatment. With decent animation of the main characters interacting and actually expressing a range of emotions with their faces, the rest of the game suffers from very sub-par body animation and terrible level variation. Dicing through mountains of bad guys never really requires serious detail, but to set the game back a few years by simply adjusting clothing color and weapons as a ploy for diversity is just lame. Even worse, the polished main characters stand out ten-fold while exploring the bland environments that are very flat. Based off an animation series, the dull color schemes and simple level design work well enough in some areas, while a great portion of the rest reminds me of children's adventure game.
One huge saving grace is the combat visuals. While Afro dishes out huge combos with devastating impact, the blood and gore strikes a pleasant cord for any fan of the mature show. Even the boring bad guys come to life in a different way as their body parts are lopped off in bloody detail and the aftermath of them coping with a missing mid-section is very entertaining.
AUDIO
If there was an award for best in-game music, Afro Samurai would get my vote! Being such a short-lived adventure, the game doesn't require a wide range of music to help nudge Afro from one area to the next. Since exploration is very limited and most of the events that take place are context sensitive and very brief, the main tracks and ambient moments never feel forced.
As for other sounds heard in combat such as swords and gushing blood, you'll likely hear the same effects applied to a good portion of interactions. Afro traverses over water, snow, wood, jungle terrain, and cracks a lot of skulls – unless you're stuck in focus mode, there is a good chance you won't hear as many distinct sounds as you'd like. To anyone who is a huge fan of the show or Samuel L. Jackson, you can be sure to hear him most of the game as Afro's cynical side kick, Ninja Ninja, who never misses a moment to bang on the funny bone.
EXTRAS
For gamers who love constant fighting or beat'em up titles, achievements are pretty clear cut in Afro Samurai. You gain experience that is hard to gauge by spilling lots of blood in the most entertaining ways possible; as you do so, Afro becomes stronger and learns more combos. Applying these loving moves to the masses of sword fodder is fun, but the joy can easily ware thin if you never really experiment with the moves list.
From start to finish, you can rake in about 300 points playing through the story. Along the way you chop up a lot of bad people that rewards you for: number of kills, dismembering precision, particular attacks, blood spilt, skills unlocked, and finding hidden birds that pertain to each level. After one play through there isn't much left to the replay value, besides a whomping 200-point achievement for completing the harder difficulty.
OVERALL
To claim something is solely created and reserved for the "fans" is a subtle way to alienate other gamers and an even worse way to excuse garbage production values. I don't really feel like that's the case with Afro Samurai. It may be a matter for debate, but I rented this game with appreciation for the animation series, and as a gamer seeking something to keep me busy for a few hours – both delights were fulfilled. Would I recommend this game as a purchase to any fan of the series or the hardcore gamer – not at all.
What the Afro Samurai game offers is strongly in tune with what the show delivered; a decent cast of characters, respect to how strong music and voice acting affects a production, not much deviation from the main story, and plenty of action. When you desire an injection of mindless violence, not many games can fill that void without causing guilt or shame. With Afro, you can kick back and enjoy the music which is perfectly themed for the game, take in a little story that doesn't really hold much relevance, mash a few buttons with big pay-offs, and rejoice in the fact that not every game is meant to be played for weeks on end with immense details.