2019-03-01_PC_Gamer___40_US_Edition

And as goons surround you with guns and

flamethrowers, wholly ignorant of your

strength and fury, you make quick work of

them. You slam, clobber and thrash until

they’re a mushy pulp—all the violence

under a pop art sheen.

This is what Ape Out, a smash-’em-up

fuelled by frenetic action and a snazzy

soundtrack, looks like in its playable

demo. Turning the brutal rampage of

a gorilla into electrifying music,

players can, to an extent, dictate the

game’s pulse. They can kamikaze

through levels to the backbeat of its

dynamic melody, its ebb and flow a mix of

composition and carefree improvization.

While the affair can easily regress into a

haphazard mess of notes and colors, Ape

Out has offered a tight and gripping

experience so far.

Given its flashy colors and rhythmic

music, it’s not surprising that the game

has already invited comparisons to

top-down shooter Hotline Miami. Yet Ape

Out is a different beast altogether–

stylistically distinct from the heady

intensity and low drone of the former’s

electronic beats. Instead, it adopts the

stylings of jazz, a genre often performed

with unpredictable twists, within its

mechanics. “One of the biggest things we

have added is the dynamic drum system,”

said Gabe Cuzzillo, the developer behind

Ape Out. “The drums are being played live,

basically, by this procedural system that

chooses different drum patterns based on

the intensity of the situation.” The drums

beat louder, for instance, when the gorilla

is pummelling the bejeezus out of its

captors. Conversely, the music dampens

to a whisper when it’s skulking around

corners or biding its time behind a door.

This spontaneity is one of the most

captivating features of Ape Out, and it lets

the player participate in the making of the

game’s soundtrack. Improvization is a

core tenet of jazz, after all, and it comes as

no surprise that Ape Out’s ambience is

rooted in a jazz tune Cuzzillo was

obsessively listening to.

“The game is kind of aesthetically

inspired by the song called You Got To

Have Freedom by Pharoah Sanders,” he

says. “I was trying to capture the feeling of

that song in the game. The jazz thing

came [into development] very, very early,

and the original had jazz drumming the

way it is now.” Cementing this vision are

the movies Birdman and Whiplash—

films driven by the intensity of jazz

percussion—which were released the

same year he was coming up with the

game’s concept. Yet, Cuzzillo admits

that he lacked the musical chops to put

this together. He approached composer

Matt Boch, who came up with a set of

algorithms for Ape Out’s procedurally

generated music.

BEAT-BOP

Keeping to the unrestrained spirit of jazz,

Ape Out also features randomly

generated levels. According to Cuzzillo,

ensuring that players don’t become too

familiar with the game’s layout is crucial;

that may otherwise dull its aesthetic,

rendering it into a scripted, even stilted

performance. Moreover, the full release

will also be presented in the vein of four

albums. Each comes with its unique

theme and style—much like a jazz

musician’s eclectic discography. With

every punch and beat orchestrated by the

player, it’ll be fascinating to see how else

Ape Out can translate its anarchic

violence into dizzying performance.

Khee Hoon Chan

I

magine a game in which every kill is

accentuated by a crash of cymbals. Every

punch punctuates a hip jazzy tune, while

the tempo picks up at an exhilarating

pace. Particularly skillful assaults are accompanied

by a cacophony of clashes and drum beats.

Crush and batter foes to the

rhythm of your own music

APE OUT

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST THINGS

WE HAVE ADDED IS THE

DYNAMIC DRUM SYSTEM”

RELEASE

February 7, 2019

DEVELOPER

Gabe Cuzzillo

PUBLISHER

Devolver Digital

LINK

http://www.apeout.com

NEED TO KNOW

FIRST

LOOK

Ape Out

PREVIEW

Stare upon the charred

remains of your foes.