Shank (video game)
Encyclopedia
Shank is a 2D
side-scrolling beat 'em up
developed by Klei Entertainment
and published by Electronic Arts
. It was released on August 24, 2010 for the PlayStation 3
, August 25, 2010 for the Xbox 360
and October 26, 2010 on for Microsoft Windows
. The game features both melee and ranged combat, as well as some acrobatic gameplay. The story was written by God of War
co-creator Marianne Krawczyk and tells the tale of Shank's quest for revenge. A sequel, Shank 2 was announced on September 27, 2011 and is slated for a 2012 release.
Shank received mixed reviews from critics, but generally positive reception overall. The PlayStation 3 version holds a score of 75.86% at GameRankings, while the PC version holds a score of 76.33% and the Xbox 360 version a 75.11%. In its first week over 9,200 units were sold on Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2010 alone sold 41,000 units on the same system. It remained in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games for the month of September 2010. Critics generally praised the art style of both the gameplay and cutscenes, however some critics felt the game had uneven level design and repetitive gameplay.
beat 'em up
with a comic book art style. In the game the player controls Shank, an ex-mob hitman
. The game features three main types of weaponry: a pair of knives, heavy melee weapons (the starting one is a chainsaw) and firearms (the starting one is a pair of pistols). Each weapon is assigned to a controller button, and the attacks can be combined to perform various combos. The player can collect temporary-use weaponry from fallen enemies, such as machine guns and rifles, as well as grenades.
Shank has other attacks such as multiple grapple attacks, throw enemies, and is able to perform a pounce maneuver, in which he jumps in the air and lands on a nearby enemy. Some acrobatic abilities can also be performed, such as swinging from lampposts or other tall structures, and running along the front of things such as billboards. On screen enemies each have a health bar that displays on the player's heads up display, akin to Final Fight
.
Shank features a cooperative
campaign designed to be played locally, which is a prequel
to the single-player campaign. The multiplayer allows players to play as Shank and his partner-in-crime Falcone. In this mode players are often required to work as a team to accomplish objectives, such as defeating level bosses. Players can combine moves for special attacks with the characters perform together. Also available is the ability to revive a fallen teammate should they die in combat.
Later, Cesar phones the two hitmen and asks them to go and oppose a priest and the members of his congregation. After killing a number of SWAT members they succeed in kidnapping the priest, taking him to Cesar and Father Angelo. After giving him a life lesson, Angelo takes out his magnum and shoots the priest in the face, much to Shank's disapproval. Afterward, Falcone calls Shank about an important hit: the deputy mayor is in town and he must be eliminated. By taking him out, the mob will be able to gain control. Shank and Falcone kill the deputy's final bodyguard, and are about to take the deputy out when Eva is taken hostage. Suddenly Shank is full of doubt, and is not able to pull the trigger. Rudy, Cesar's personal assistant, kills the deputy mayor, threatening to kill Eva since she's deemed as a nuisance. Shank quickly dives in front of her and kills him. Realizing they must flee, Eva and Shank drive off into the sunset. The player then hears the voice of Cesar who tells his assassins to find and kill them.
After a violent train ride Shank arrives at a meat factory, The Butcher's hideout. The Butcher reveals that he killed Eva. He taunts Shank, stating that he enjoyed every second of it. Shank and The Butcher fight, with Shank finally choking him with a chain. He then makes his way to Club Stardust, a strip club owned by Cassandra. Shank meets with Cassandra at which point a flashback shows that as Cassandra was about to kill Eva with her katana, Shank stopped her, slicing the right of her face and leaving a large scar. He kills Cassandra and escapes the club. In a nearby bar he encounters a man from the Venom gang named Mello who has information. The player learns through another flashback that Shank used to be part of a mob ruled by a man named Cesar. Shank was Cesar's best hitman. He'd asked Shank to kill Eva as a test of loyalty, but when he refused Cesar ordered his top men to track down and kill them both.
He follows an ex-friend from his former mobster life to track down the evil Father Angelo. He soon catches up with his prey, severs his left arm and tells him to tell Angelo that he's coming. Shank follows the trail of blood left by the mobster which leads to a church. At the church Shank has another flashback, which shows that Angelo lit Shank's house on fire, ensuring Eva could not be saved. As Shank fights through the church, Angelo attacks him with a rocket launcher. Shank battles him, gaining the upper hand, but Angelo fires a rocket causing a church bell fall on Shank, knocking him unconscious. He wakes up strapped to an electric chair, face to face with Cesar. After Cesar leaves Shank frees himself, then ties Angelo to the chair and electrocutes him.
Shank pursues Cesar to his villa, where the final showdown begins. As they fight, more of his past is revealed. Shank would have obeyed the order to kill Eva, but upon arriving Eva revealed that she was carrying his child. Shank explains that Cesar had always taught him the importance of family and so he didn't kill her. Cesar replies that if he had known this things could have gone differently. As the fight nears its end, Shank is stabbed and shot multiple times in the chest. Despite this, he still manages to kills Cesar. The game ends as Shank walks towards the sunset, his revenge fulfilled.
2009. On March 4, 2010 Klei Entertainment signed with Electronic Arts
and were able to finalize which platforms the game would be released on. It was shown at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
in San Francisco, California
where new features were showcased, such as environment hazards and new types of enemies, such as attack dog
s. Also showcased was the ability to throw enemies in to said environment hazards. It was subsequently at Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles
, California. It was released on August 24, 2010 for the PlayStation 3
, August 25, 2010 for the Xbox 360
and October 26, 2010 on for Microsoft Windows
. Cheng said the game was an "ode to Double Dragon
with a Tarantino
film feel to it."
Character designs were first created as paper drawings before being recreated via computer. Creative Director Jeff Agala was responsible for the primary design of the characters. Klei Entertainment Artist Meghan Shaw was responsible for conceptualizing the level design for the game. The team used a combination of level and effects tools along with a custom flash pipeline for the animators to build assets in. Development for Shank began in January 2009, shortly after the closing of Klei's previous publisher had closed. The idea for the game was created by CEO Jamie Cheng and Creative Director Jeff Agala. The majority of the character animation was done by artist Aaron Bouthillier. The animation team was composed mainly of cartoon animators, making the flash asset pipeline more intuitive and production faster. Lighting in the game is also dynamic, with characters becoming darker when away from light sources, or appearing as silhouettes against a sunset background. The art style was influenced by golden age comics, Saturday morning cartoons and graphics novels.
On August 5, 2010, Klei Entertainment announced that they would release Shank's Original Soundtrack
for free to download on their official website, if 1500 people joined their community on Facebook
. They reached their goal in three hours. Subsequently the full soundtrack was remastered
to be "suitable for consumption" and released free of charge. The story was written by God of War
co-creator Marianne Krawczyk and tells the tale of Shank's quest for revenge. As a cross promotion for the game, the titular character from DeathSpank
is available as one of Shank's alternate costumes.
reports similar scores, with the PlayStation 3 version averaging 75/100, the PC version 74/100, and the Xbox 360 version averaging 71/100. In its first week over 9,200 units were sold on Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2010 alone sold 41,000 units on the Xbox 360. It also remained in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games for the month of September 2010.
Reviewers were universal in praising the game's art style. 1UP.com
's Scott Sharkey called it "gorgeously, fluidly animated, in both its cut-scenes and within the actual gameplay." Joystiq
's Justin McElroy stated "animations are so smooth between attacks that you scarcely get to enjoy snuffing out one human life before you're on to stabbing the next soon-to-be-ghost." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot
agreed, adding "colorful visuals and well-crafted cutscenes add a lot to the experience." Mc Shea also praised the cooperative campaign, stating it was the best aspect of the game. Scott Sharkey further praised the cooperative campaign for its inclusion of a separate story, complete with cutscenes.
The game's gore and graphic display received mixed reception among critics. GamesRadar
's Carolyn Gudmundson called it "Embarrassing attempt at "Mature" rating". Joystiq's Justin McElroy was more forgiving, stating that the blood and gore has "a great Americanime, Samurai Jack-esque style that makes the murder look cool but never so real that you wonder about the families of the people you're beating to death." 1UP.com's Scott Sharkey expressed approval, stating Shank is "bloody, violent, adolescently indulgent, and absolutely beautiful in execution." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot stated it is "a savage game that revels in the brutality of street fighting." The reviewer from GameTrailers
called Shank "a savage Saturday morning cartoon filled with blood, boobs and Berettas.
While some reviewers gave high marks for the game's control scheme and responsiveness, others expressed frustration with the same issues. 1UP.com's Scott Sharkey lauded the controls, saying they were "split-second responsive even with the absurd amount of lovingly rendered action happening on screen." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot criticized the controls, stating that they were inconsistent and did not respond at given times. Carolyn Gudmundson of GamesRadar echoed these comments, citing similar control issues. IGN
's Arthur Gies was critical of the short three hour campaign. GameTrailer's review, likening the game to a cartoon series, then calling it a "short season, [...] one that you can finish in a single sitting."
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
side-scrolling beat 'em up
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
developed by Klei Entertainment
Klei Entertainment
Klei Entertainment is an independent game development studio located in Vancouver that develops downloadable video games for the PC and Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. Klei was formed in July 2005 by Jamie Cheng. They are best known for two of their original intellectual property games, Eets and...
and published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. It was released on August 24, 2010 for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, August 25, 2010 for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and October 26, 2010 on for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. The game features both melee and ranged combat, as well as some acrobatic gameplay. The story was written by God of War
God of War (series)
God of War is a series of action-adventure video games based on Greek mythology.The main trilogy—God of War I, II, & III—in the series were developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division , with Ready at Dawn Studios developing the PSP and Javaground the mobile phone installment...
co-creator Marianne Krawczyk and tells the tale of Shank's quest for revenge. A sequel, Shank 2 was announced on September 27, 2011 and is slated for a 2012 release.
Shank received mixed reviews from critics, but generally positive reception overall. The PlayStation 3 version holds a score of 75.86% at GameRankings, while the PC version holds a score of 76.33% and the Xbox 360 version a 75.11%. In its first week over 9,200 units were sold on Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2010 alone sold 41,000 units on the same system. It remained in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games for the month of September 2010. Critics generally praised the art style of both the gameplay and cutscenes, however some critics felt the game had uneven level design and repetitive gameplay.
Gameplay
Shank is a side scrollingSide-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
beat 'em up
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
with a comic book art style. In the game the player controls Shank, an ex-mob hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
. The game features three main types of weaponry: a pair of knives, heavy melee weapons (the starting one is a chainsaw) and firearms (the starting one is a pair of pistols). Each weapon is assigned to a controller button, and the attacks can be combined to perform various combos. The player can collect temporary-use weaponry from fallen enemies, such as machine guns and rifles, as well as grenades.
Shank has other attacks such as multiple grapple attacks, throw enemies, and is able to perform a pounce maneuver, in which he jumps in the air and lands on a nearby enemy. Some acrobatic abilities can also be performed, such as swinging from lampposts or other tall structures, and running along the front of things such as billboards. On screen enemies each have a health bar that displays on the player's heads up display, akin to Final Fight
Final Fight
is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game originally released by Capcom as a coin-operated video game in . It was the seventh game released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hardware...
.
Shank features a cooperative
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
campaign designed to be played locally, which is a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to the single-player campaign. The multiplayer allows players to play as Shank and his partner-in-crime Falcone. In this mode players are often required to work as a team to accomplish objectives, such as defeating level bosses. Players can combine moves for special attacks with the characters perform together. Also available is the ability to revive a fallen teammate should they die in combat.
Synopsis
The story of Shank is told in two parts, single player campaign, and a cooperative campaign, which serves as a prelude to the former. It follows the character Shank from his time as a hitman in the mob through his revenge on the same mob for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.Cooperative campaign
The cooperative campaign begins with Shank and fellow hitman Falcone as they head to Cassandra's strip club, which has been overrun by a biker gang. As they arrive she is kidnapped by the biker leaders. Shank and Falcone chase them to a back alley and kill one, leaving the other for Cassandra. The pair then head to a wrestling match that their mob boss Cesar had rigged. The Butcher was supposed to lose the fight, but the wrestler instead decides to defeat his opponent. Shank and Falcone are ordered to teach The Butcher a lesson.Later, Cesar phones the two hitmen and asks them to go and oppose a priest and the members of his congregation. After killing a number of SWAT members they succeed in kidnapping the priest, taking him to Cesar and Father Angelo. After giving him a life lesson, Angelo takes out his magnum and shoots the priest in the face, much to Shank's disapproval. Afterward, Falcone calls Shank about an important hit: the deputy mayor is in town and he must be eliminated. By taking him out, the mob will be able to gain control. Shank and Falcone kill the deputy's final bodyguard, and are about to take the deputy out when Eva is taken hostage. Suddenly Shank is full of doubt, and is not able to pull the trigger. Rudy, Cesar's personal assistant, kills the deputy mayor, threatening to kill Eva since she's deemed as a nuisance. Shank quickly dives in front of her and kills him. Realizing they must flee, Eva and Shank drive off into the sunset. The player then hears the voice of Cesar who tells his assassins to find and kill them.
Single-player campaign
The single player campaign begins as Shank walks into a bar looking for vengeance for Eva, his murdered girlfriend. He asks the bartender where he can find a wrestler named The Butcher. He pulls down a poster of a fight that mentions The Butcher's next fight. As he leaves the bartender reports to Cesar, Shank's ex-mob boss, about Shank's return. As Shank makes his way to the wrestling arena, the player learns through flashbacks that The Butcher had kidnapped Eva. Shank arrives at the arena and confronts The Butcher, killing him. He soon realizes that he killed an impersonator, as the dead fighter doesn't have the same tattoo as The Butcher. He discovers that The Butcher is in another town and travels there.After a violent train ride Shank arrives at a meat factory, The Butcher's hideout. The Butcher reveals that he killed Eva. He taunts Shank, stating that he enjoyed every second of it. Shank and The Butcher fight, with Shank finally choking him with a chain. He then makes his way to Club Stardust, a strip club owned by Cassandra. Shank meets with Cassandra at which point a flashback shows that as Cassandra was about to kill Eva with her katana, Shank stopped her, slicing the right of her face and leaving a large scar. He kills Cassandra and escapes the club. In a nearby bar he encounters a man from the Venom gang named Mello who has information. The player learns through another flashback that Shank used to be part of a mob ruled by a man named Cesar. Shank was Cesar's best hitman. He'd asked Shank to kill Eva as a test of loyalty, but when he refused Cesar ordered his top men to track down and kill them both.
He follows an ex-friend from his former mobster life to track down the evil Father Angelo. He soon catches up with his prey, severs his left arm and tells him to tell Angelo that he's coming. Shank follows the trail of blood left by the mobster which leads to a church. At the church Shank has another flashback, which shows that Angelo lit Shank's house on fire, ensuring Eva could not be saved. As Shank fights through the church, Angelo attacks him with a rocket launcher. Shank battles him, gaining the upper hand, but Angelo fires a rocket causing a church bell fall on Shank, knocking him unconscious. He wakes up strapped to an electric chair, face to face with Cesar. After Cesar leaves Shank frees himself, then ties Angelo to the chair and electrocutes him.
Shank pursues Cesar to his villa, where the final showdown begins. As they fight, more of his past is revealed. Shank would have obeyed the order to kill Eva, but upon arriving Eva revealed that she was carrying his child. Shank explains that Cesar had always taught him the importance of family and so he didn't kill her. Cesar replies that if he had known this things could have gone differently. As the fight nears its end, Shank is stabbed and shot multiple times in the chest. Despite this, he still manages to kills Cesar. The game ends as Shank walks towards the sunset, his revenge fulfilled.
Development and marketing
Shank was announced at Penny Arcade ExpoPenny Arcade Expo
The Penny Arcade Expo is a semi-annual gamer festival held in Seattle and Boston. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop...
2009. On March 4, 2010 Klei Entertainment signed with Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
and were able to finalize which platforms the game would be released on. It was shown at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
where new features were showcased, such as environment hazards and new types of enemies, such as attack dog
Attack dog
An attack dog is any dog bred, trained or used for the purpose of attacking a target either on command or on sight. Attack dogs have been used often throughout history and are now employed in dog fighting, as well as police and military roles.- History :...
s. Also showcased was the ability to throw enemies in to said environment hazards. It was subsequently at Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California. It was released on August 24, 2010 for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, August 25, 2010 for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and October 26, 2010 on for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. Cheng said the game was an "ode to Double Dragon
Double Dragon
is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Kunio-kun series ....
with a Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
film feel to it."
Character designs were first created as paper drawings before being recreated via computer. Creative Director Jeff Agala was responsible for the primary design of the characters. Klei Entertainment Artist Meghan Shaw was responsible for conceptualizing the level design for the game. The team used a combination of level and effects tools along with a custom flash pipeline for the animators to build assets in. Development for Shank began in January 2009, shortly after the closing of Klei's previous publisher had closed. The idea for the game was created by CEO Jamie Cheng and Creative Director Jeff Agala. The majority of the character animation was done by artist Aaron Bouthillier. The animation team was composed mainly of cartoon animators, making the flash asset pipeline more intuitive and production faster. Lighting in the game is also dynamic, with characters becoming darker when away from light sources, or appearing as silhouettes against a sunset background. The art style was influenced by golden age comics, Saturday morning cartoons and graphics novels.
On August 5, 2010, Klei Entertainment announced that they would release Shank's Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
for free to download on their official website, if 1500 people joined their community on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
. They reached their goal in three hours. Subsequently the full soundtrack was remastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
to be "suitable for consumption" and released free of charge. The story was written by God of War
God of War (series)
God of War is a series of action-adventure video games based on Greek mythology.The main trilogy—God of War I, II, & III—in the series were developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division , with Ready at Dawn Studios developing the PSP and Javaground the mobile phone installment...
co-creator Marianne Krawczyk and tells the tale of Shank's quest for revenge. As a cross promotion for the game, the titular character from DeathSpank
DeathSpank
DeathSpank, , is a comedy action role-playing game by game designer Ron Gilbert. It was developed by Hothead Games and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released on July 13, 2010 on the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network and on July 14, 2010 on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade...
is available as one of Shank's alternate costumes.
Reception
Shank received mixed reviews from critics, but generally positive reception overall. The PlayStation 3 version holds a score of 75.86% at GameRankings, while the PC version holds a score of 76.33% and the Xbox 360 version a 75.11%. MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reports similar scores, with the PlayStation 3 version averaging 75/100, the PC version 74/100, and the Xbox 360 version averaging 71/100. In its first week over 9,200 units were sold on Xbox Live Arcade, and in August 2010 alone sold 41,000 units on the Xbox 360. It also remained in the top 20 Xbox Live Arcade games for the month of September 2010.
Reviewers were universal in praising the game's art style. 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's Scott Sharkey called it "gorgeously, fluidly animated, in both its cut-scenes and within the actual gameplay." Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
's Justin McElroy stated "animations are so smooth between attacks that you scarcely get to enjoy snuffing out one human life before you're on to stabbing the next soon-to-be-ghost." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
agreed, adding "colorful visuals and well-crafted cutscenes add a lot to the experience." Mc Shea also praised the cooperative campaign, stating it was the best aspect of the game. Scott Sharkey further praised the cooperative campaign for its inclusion of a separate story, complete with cutscenes.
The game's gore and graphic display received mixed reception among critics. GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
's Carolyn Gudmundson called it "Embarrassing attempt at "Mature" rating". Joystiq's Justin McElroy was more forgiving, stating that the blood and gore has "a great Americanime, Samurai Jack-esque style that makes the murder look cool but never so real that you wonder about the families of the people you're beating to death." 1UP.com's Scott Sharkey expressed approval, stating Shank is "bloody, violent, adolescently indulgent, and absolutely beautiful in execution." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot stated it is "a savage game that revels in the brutality of street fighting." The reviewer from GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
called Shank "a savage Saturday morning cartoon filled with blood, boobs and Berettas.
While some reviewers gave high marks for the game's control scheme and responsiveness, others expressed frustration with the same issues. 1UP.com's Scott Sharkey lauded the controls, saying they were "split-second responsive even with the absurd amount of lovingly rendered action happening on screen." Tom Mc Shea of GameSpot criticized the controls, stating that they were inconsistent and did not respond at given times. Carolyn Gudmundson of GamesRadar echoed these comments, citing similar control issues. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Arthur Gies was critical of the short three hour campaign. GameTrailer's review, likening the game to a cartoon series, then calling it a "short season, [...] one that you can finish in a single sitting."