Bedlam: The Game by Christopher Brookmyre

Bedlam serves as an homage to the first-person shooter genre. It's not quite as polished as the games it emulates, and its nature as an imperfect replica should be quite apparent to any FPS veteran. In spite of its shortcomings, Bedlam is highly entertaining and well worth your time.

Bedlam is undeniably an enjoyable kick for those who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, surely drawing from personal experiences with the games it’s emulating. The eccentricities found in Brookmyre’s writing may work to alienate those merely passing through, but for those drawn in by the familiarity of its charming block graphics it’ll simply be an added bonus.

Bedlam is a simplistic game with average shooting, varied levels but bland character and textures. The game needlessly becomes frustratingly difficult at times towards the end and the bosses are uninspired.

An ambitious and fascinating wander through gaming’s history, but one that can’t replicate the addictive gameplay of the forefathers it documents.

All things considered, an interesting premise and good storytelling can’t make up for bad game design.

The problem is it's not fun. [Christmas 2015, p.83]

Bedlam's concept is absolutely brilliant, and it's voiced very well too. Unfortunately, its stiff, unforgiving gameplay just isn't much fun, and what you're left with is a great idea whose potential just hasn't been fully realized.

If the idea behind the game interests you enough, read the book it’s based off of instead.

A faux-retro shooter with an irreverent sense of humour, Bedlam is hard to recommend as anything other than a curio, despite its popular source material.

Bedlam: The Game isn't particularly well made, nor much fun to play, but it is interesting. I've played far better games that I'll remember less.

In the end Bedlam has an interesting premise at its core and dialogue that will amuse for a while, but it gets same-y very quickly in each environment. Perhaps if the game started more quickly and had you hopping genres a little earlier in the game, it wouldn’t outstay its welcome quite so quickly. As it is, it can only really be recommended if the genre-hopping idea has you weak at the knees.

Bedlam tells a really interesting and genuinely funny tale. So it’s a shame then that few will stick round to hear all of it because the game itself is so lacking in joy.

Although Bedlam has quite a few areas to improve on, what makes the game bearable is the story.

Where the PS4 version of Bedlam could have been a trip down memory lane, it is instead a test of endurance. With so many other novel PSN games, I’m not sure this history lesson is worth the time investment.

A great idea executed poorly. £15.99 on PS4 is a big ask for a shoestring budget shooter that handles far worse than the games of yesteryear it seeks to emulate. Nostalgic retro FPS fans would be better off spending the money on a copy of the book.

Rubbing shoulders with its cruddy combat and occasionally criminal controls is a release with a strong sense of humour and some razor-sharp writing. It's just a shame that this escapade fails to ever elevate itself beyond the properties that its parodying, serving up a sloppy first-person shooter that should have been so much more.