clickbliss — The Takeover Review

The Takeover Review

The Takeover
Developer: Pelikan13
Publisher: Antonios Pelekanos
Switch, PC, PS4

With a high detail, pre-rendered art style, an aggressive techo-rock soundtrack and high-speed free flowing combat, The Takeover feels like an alternative history sequel to Streets of Rage, and its accompanying 90’s brawler aesthetics. Homages are abound in every moment, with plenty of familiar characters and settings, and tracks that channel SOR so hard that they even hired composer Yuzo Koshiro to contribute. There are even interlude missions that break up the pacing with minigames in the style of classic SEGA arcade games. Matching those aesthetics so closely provides a good example of how they can be modernized, and what remains fraught.

To start with, The Takeover is FAST. Following in the mold of Streets of Rage 3 and other late era 90’s brawlers, characters move fast, hit fast and can run over mobs with a single well placed combo. Dash attacks and vertical dodge rolls supplement the moveset, alongside combo extending and juggle mechanics that let you continue laying on damage for a long time when you get a hit in.

Health burning specials return, which can be used to deal big damage up close, with limited ammo gunfire letting you knock down and juggle enemies from long range. Keep the pressure on and you’ll build a special attack that’ll clear the screen with missiles, and fly into a rage that allows you to deal high damage and automatically blocks attacks.

Bringing together all of these mechanics is incredibly satisfying. Mobs get thrown around, and I was able to easily juggle multiple enemies at a time, mixing in throws and knockdowns to control crowds and force them to approach on your terms. Small details, like how the gun unholstering animation has a hitbox, kept me finding new ways to approach enemies and build combos over the entire runtime. For all its old school stylings, The Takeover feels thoroughly modern, with an expressive, fluid combat system and breakneck pacing.

The aesthetics and attitudes don’t match those modern sensibilities though. In adhering so closely to the material that inspired it, The Takeover unwittingly channels the vibes of Reagan-era politics and films, with a premise that involves a collective of gangs attempting a takeover of the city, with only a cop and his buddies being able to stop it. It’s as if you’re playing through the film The Warriors, but as the cops tasked with putting down the gangs.

It doesn’t come off as malicious, clearly modeling itself after the same exaggerated tropes and violence of its inspirations (and it’s worth noting that The Takeover spent years in development before its release on the Switch), but there’s a discomfort in playing a game that wants you to feel good about taking down mobs with machine gun fire and missiles, while in real life cops line up with military firepower to mow down demonstrators. Demonstrators who are often talked about with the same terms and language used to criminalize populations of people in the 80’s. Even putting that aside, there are plenty of exaggerated settings and characters that fall into racially charged stereotypes without a single critical look.

That’s a larger problem with our cultural moment, and the ongoing uncritical fetishization of the era, one that The Takeover isn’t exactly equipped to address, but it’s worth thinking about regardless. It’s the one area that makes the game feel archaic, and it’s an example of how straightforward homage can make media feel weaker than its inspiration, if not reconstructed with the proper care.