La vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddo: vengence, means “a dish best served cold.” This is especially true for the game Milanoir. It’s a game that is not like any game I had played before. If I could describe it, I would say that is an action movie turned video game, turned arcade shoot-em-up. Yeah, I know it kind of doesn’t make sense, but nonetheless it is a game like no other.
Milanoir’s presentation is top notch. Honestly, at times it feels like you are watching a beautiful pixel-style movie. The game starts with an assassin (that you control in the first minutes of the game). He gets into a bar and asks for Piero, the bartender, who doesn’t give a flip. The assassin is told to go to the bathroom. You make your way and you shoot a stall…just to die since our target was on the other stall, and the assassin is sent to his grave. Cue in Piero, the game’s kick-butt protagonist in this story worthy of Hollywood. After the deed is done, he tells the janitor to clean the mess on the bathroom, hops on his Vespa (famous scooter brand in Italy) and rides on. On the next scene, he gets where the Big Boss is and assigns Piero with a simple mission to get rid of enemy faction’s lieutenant “Africana.” You are told that she likes to have “fun” in the brothel, and you leave to get the job done.
This first mission where you infiltrate a brothel is what got me hooked on the game. For starters, this scene plays out with ample nudity and when you walk past numerous open windows and doors, you see silhouettes engaged in any number of M-rated activities. But particularly, I enjoyed the setting, and I like the fact that at the beginning of the mission as you walk past NPC characters, you overhear their particular conversations. There were a couple of women complaining that the special someone of one of them wants her to quit her job (wink wink) and settle for family with him. Then you walk past some dudes talking that his girl doesn’t want to quit her job to have kids and settle with him, and you find a couple of buildings ahead the janitor (can’t say if it’s the same one from the opening scene of the game). Simply saying, “In my time kids raised themselves.” This little touch is what makes Milanoir so special. Or, while you are in the middle of your infiltration, a grunt says, “Wow, they are really going at it.” I found it funny, and dialogue wise, I expected it with the kind of characters you find in this place. Nothing is particularly new in the world of gaming, but it’s nice to see it, as you make your way to your target.
Now, when you finally get were she is, and the unexpected happens ,another woman tells you she is on the other room when you turn your back. And a woman pops out of a bathtub naked in all pixelated glory, era accurate grooming and all. She was also packing heat and my mind was blown. (But this was not the first naked digitized woman on a Nintendo console remember Kirby’s Dream Land 2).
More than the fact of the fact that Africana was naked, the top notch presentation that Milanoir has for each character that’s story related is so well done, that I couldn’t care less about the digital nudity,it was a pitch-perfect, tone-setting moment.And if you thought that the game was slow, oh boy you are so wrong, following that naked bombshell moment,you start a hi speed chase through the brothel, trying to catch up with Africana and finish your mission, but it’s not easy since you have to deal with all the grunts, and prostitutes that are not happy you came to rain on their parade.This atmosphere, and vibe contribute to shocking and memorable moments and scenes like the one aforementioned.
Now if you are a pixel art lover like me, you are in heaven with Milanoir. It is possibly one of the best ever. Milanoir is full of personality, from forsaken bars to street corners, to train stations, to a crowded street full of vendors to the side, to the aforementioned brothel. Each location has been carefully crafted to the point that sometimes when there isn’t any action or bullets flying around, you can just take it easy and admire the terrific art and detail they have. Graphically, the way Milanoir delivers its visuals and story, not to mention the music, it is polished in a way that is worthy of praise. If this was a movie and not a game, I would pay big bucks to see it.
Like many gamers, I pressed the A button and anything animated that moved. I thought I could make choices and interact. There were many times that I tried to take the briefcase that was left on the bar, but it makes sense when you consider the story. You are Piero, a skilled assassin/ex-convict, looking for answers and sweet, sweet vengeance against the person that framed him. Throughout the 6 plus hours of the story, you’ll meet up with a femme fatale and shoot (and occasionally chase) just about everything that gets in your way–All in the name of bloody vengeance. It has been done before but never with this style.
Now here is the thing: nothing in this world is perfect, and Milanoir is not without its woes. It could be because the Nintendo Switch sticks are small, but aiming is not as accurate as you want, or need it. This is a problematic issue because Milanoir relies on that precision to succeed and is pretty hard. Occasionally, it is NES-era hard. It sometimes requires the use of trick shots to hit concealed enemies (totally awesome to be honest), using a traffic sign to ricochet, or split the bullet to kill multiple enemies, or long car chases where you’re required to keep tabs on multiple moving parts. This is made much harder than it should be by the inaccuracy of the aiming controls.
As a twin-stick shooter with cover mechanics and some stealth elements, Milanoir cries out for some form of a lock-on or aim-assist. When I completed the game’s second mission, a frustrating car chase, I needed to take a rest because my hands were cramped. So while normally I try to play as much as I can in one sitting, I could not do it with Milanoir. It sucks because it lowered the experience a little bit, and I really wanted to play more, but alas my hands couldn’t take to much beating (LOL). While you can fiddle with a sensitivity slider, it wasn’t much help to be honest. It could be that the buttons on the Switch controller are very small, so it could be a factor on the inaccuracy, but even with lots of death, cramped hands, and frustration, I did enjoy it but not as much as I thought I would.
Bottom Line: Milanoir is a fun game. It is like watching a well done gangster movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat with a ton of beautiful sights and thrills on offer. I really hope they can issue a patch for the aiming, or add lock-on at least, and it would be a more engaging experience than it is right now. However, I must commend the studio because it’s a treat for the eyes. I would be a fool to write them off. They have the talent and eye for cinema, scene, composition, and drama. I hope that if Milanoir gets a sequel the controls get the same polish as the rest of the game.