Screencheat Review (Playstation 4)

To "Screencheat" - verb: to look at your opponent’s screens. “Stop screencheating you cheater!”

Screencheat has been developed by Samurai Punk, a small Melbourne-based independent game developer and is available for purchase from the following:

Screencheat takes a principal that has been around since split screen competitive multiplayer was invented way back when video games were measured by the amount of bits that were processed at a time. Back in the day of the Nintendo 64 when playing Golden Eye 64 with your friends, the owner of the game (i.e. me) would have the added advantage of map knowledge and the ability to cheat by looking over at your friends screen to find where they are based on what you can see of the area of the map they're currently in. Then you could easily sneak up on them and take them down before they even know you're on to them. This is a practice that is deeply frowned upon and has since been eradicated with the use of online multiplayer games where you can only see your own screen. Screencheat takes that old tactic (cheat) and creates a whole game around it which is both fun and frustrating at the same time.

In Screencheat all players in the game are invisible, even when they're standing directly in front of your line of site. The only way to truly know where you enemies are (without guessing) is to look over at your opponents screen, which is visible regardless of whether you're playing locally or online, and make a judgement based on where they're standing. Finding your way in Screencheat relies on your ability to identify the unique sections in map areas. Each map is sectioned into four colours, each with its own iconic landmarks such as couches, statues or wall paintings, to help you hunt down your opponents. A typical sledge during a game will be "I see you there cowering by that red couch in the dark purple room. You're dead". Following this you then fire your weapon blindly into the area that you intelligently suspect that your enemy is standing. If you're right then your opponent dies and you get a point and if you're wrong, you may have just given away your position because your gun fire becomes visible.

This game is a hell of a lot of fun and I would refer it to a super fun party game that is best enjoyed in small doses. The split screens and constant focus that you need to keep an eye on your enemies is mentally fatiguing as you concentrate continuously. You can take this game online with matchmaking or play with bots, but the majority of the fun comes from either playing on a couch with your friends or getting together online while in a chat party and letting the insults fly. It's a great added feature that the developers of Screencheat have included online play. It would have been easier to get away with using only local multiplayer but as we all know these days that would alienate the majority of the gaming population due to the fact that a lot of us play our games at home with network play.

There's no denying the fun that is to be had with Screencheat and besides the mayhem that ensues, the fun is amplified by the absolutely ridiculous weapons, levels, game modes, modifiers and effects that the game employs. This small indie dev team have pulled off a mean feat that a lot of video game companies struggle with. That's originality coupled with good ideas. It's a simple game that ticks all of the boxes when it comes to a quality game that doesn't believe it's bigger than it is.

There's a sense of humour injected into every aspect of the game with localised humour that Australians will appreciate. There's insults and sledges that pop up as you kill your enemy as well as when you kill yourself, that anyone with any idea on how to laugh will appreciate. Overall Screencheat is a game made to have fun with. Experiment with different weapons and game set ups to maximize the crazy time you're going to have with friends. In saying that, you're very much going to need people to play this game with. As for life as a 'play on your own' style game, it's not going to keep you entertained for very long. So take my advice, talk your friends into buying it and get together and talk smack to each other.

Screencheat features 9 game modes, each with standard and team variants. All modes are available locally or online, with up to 8 players. See below for a list of the game types. Screencheat also features 10 crazily unique weapons. All of which are extremely bizarre and have different firing styles. It is very easy to find your favourite and stick to it but part of the fun is to try out all of them to see what crazy result you end up with. The list of all the weapons are also listed below.