Jazzpunk Review

Polyblank, the silent protagonist, works for a top-secret espionage agency working out of an old abandoned subway station. The game takes place in Japanada, an alternate reality in the 1950’s where the Empire of Japan ended up winning the war and conquering most of North America. You start the game out being mailed in a suitcase to the agency and given a bunch of missions to complete. The first mission requires you to take prescription medicine. The following missions you are tasked with all makes little to no sense, and are nods and easter eggs to older video games and movies.

Mission number one takes you on an infiltration job recovering data from a Soviet consulate. The following mission involves stealing a cowboy’s artificial kidney. Almost getting caught Polyblank goes on vacation. Here he is phoned and tasked with finding a syndicate man called The Editor and switch briefcases with him. Succeeding on his mission, Polyblank ends up passing out drunk and waking up in a hotel room next to a message. The message tells him to meet up at the pool. Doing so Polyblank is told that the resort he is visiting is a simulation, and that he needs to kill and cook a mechanical pig in order to escape it.

This is of course no match for our spy protagonist, and he returns to the subway station. Here he finds that his boss and his secretary are cardboard cutouts. With them are a note from The Editor telling him to visit his house if he ever wants to see them again. In The Editors house he is told he has to beat him in a game of sport. There is no way of winning, so the sore loser we are has to collect prizes for The Editor, inflating his ego. When inflated quite enough Polyblank pops the Editor with a needle like a balloon. In order to free The Director we need to push one of two buttons. Regardless which one pressed The Director turns into a crocodile, and ends up eating Polyblank. The credits are then rolling inside his belly. In order to escape, Polyblank is given a special tablet which he takes, thus ending the game.

Jazzpunk is a one-of-a-kind game. It is incredibly hilarious, intensely weird and chalk full with easter eggs and pop-culture references. Everything from old spy movie tropes  to Hunter Thompson. Even a typewriter with a written note a la The Shining. The game takes place in a cyberpunk future, and functions mostly as a walking simulator where exploration is more important than solving puzzles. It works well, since the story is so odd that it is funny. Within the game are multiple mini-games, such as “Wedding Qake” where you shoot a wedding cake gun in true Quake deathmatch style. Interacting with NPCs is another fun factor to the game. Each of them have their own gag and it never becomes boring interacting with them throughout the game.

The graphics of the game are quite unique, characters looks sort of as big cardboard boxes with no facial impressions. The environment is very colourful with plenty to look at. If you take your time, you might find references scattered all around the game, hidden away in every corner. Every character is voiced, with a deep, deep mumbling, adding to the weirdness. The music and ambient sound are fitting to the silliness of the title, usually playing on musical tropes from old movies.

All in all Jazzpunk is a satirical bomb. It is endlessly hilarious, silly and fun to play. There might not be much in term of gameplay (a little) nor puzzling, but wandering around the world, looking at the weirdness makes up for it tenfold. There is plenty to see, albeit the game is sort of short, taking a couple of hours to beat. That being said it will be a couple of hours very well spent. From start to end, the game keeps you laughing. Jazzpunk is a walking sim you don’t want to miss.