Blue Estate is an on-rails shooter that utilizes the DualShock 4's gyroscope for aiming. The idea of using the gyroscope for aiming sounds promising enough. In theory, it should be a decent substitute for not being able to use light guns or PlayStation Move functionality. In theory, this type of game should be a lot of fun, especially for those who enjoy the arcade style on-rails shooters from days gone by. In theory a dark humor, grindhouse style of game should be amazing provided the writing is decent with just the right amount of cheese thrown in.

In reality, Blue Estate is borderline terrible. Outside of a few witty one-liners, the dialogue falls flat. The attempts at cashing in on the grindhouse style just end up coming across as offensive, juvenile, and even misogynistic. Protagonist, Tony Luciano, at one point refers to his girlfriend as a thing. Women in general are treated merely as objects. The title screen even features a virtual dancing stripper. I understand that grindhouse style media relies a lot on exploiting certain subjects or emphasizing things like sex, but it just does not work here. Why? Because it’s not a well written game. It’s not trying to be an homage to anything like the case is with modern grindhouse films like Death Proof and Planet Terror. At least with those films, the writing is smart and women kick as much ass as the men do, sometimes more so. The game tries to use stereotypes and exaggerations as a tool for humor, but it simply does not work. If that wasn’t enough to sour you on the game, it’s now time to move on to the actual gameplay.


The gyroscope aiming, when it works, seems like an adequate substitute for a light gun. It won’t be winning any awards for ingenuity, but it’s passable. That, however, is when it works. Far too often I found myself having to recalibrate the aiming reticule, often times in the middle of a level. I don’t feel as though I was doing anything wrong while playing. I was sitting on my bed and roughly seven feet away from my TV. I tried to aim just by moving my wrists. I then tried to aim just by making use of full arm movements. Neither method really seemed to work as every other minute I would have to recalibrate the aiming reticule back to the center of the screen. Fortunately, the developers had the foresight to know that a gyroscope in a controller perhaps isn’t the most reliable aiming method and made calibration as easy as a single button press.

When I wasn’t busy recalibrating my controller, I was busy dealing with gimmicky game mechanics. Mechanics like using the touch pad to swipe hair out of my eyes, hair that seemed to fall and obscure my eyes far too often. Once was amusing but it happened multiple times for no good reason. It was a mechanic that added nothing to the game and only served to distract from the actual decent part of the game, which was shooting bad guys in the face. Things like this were prevalent throughout the game’s seven levels.

Sadly, the game never really comes back from these pitfalls. The game does have a few interesting ideas going for it, such as the ability to use the DualShock 4’s touch pad to pick up items in the environment or to push enemies away from you. See, that is a great use of the touchpad! It’s not necessary to have that functionality on the touch pad, but it’s also not super gimmicky like swiping hair out of your eyes is.


Visually, the game isn’t anything to write home about for a current generation title. There was nothing here that couldn’t be possible on the previous generation. The audio is right there in line. Sure, the quality isn’t terrible but the writing and the delivery does this game no favors. I won’t lie; I honestly had a difficult time forcing myself to play through this game once. Fans of getting high scores in games may find some more enjoyment here, but I’m not one of those people. There is a co-op component to this game. This changes nothing outside of having a second, different colored reticule on the screen. The dialogue and views still stay the same as if you were playing by yourself.

I’m sure this game is great if you love juvenile levels of humor, sub-par writing, offensive stereotypes, and terrible gameplay gimmicks. Hell, this game may even be right up your alley if you enjoy the comics that it’s based off of. I have no idea if this game is faithful to the level of writing and plot found in the comics, but if it’s any indication I’m quite glad I’ve never read them. The game tries far too hard to force feed the humor down the player's throat and it falls flat almost every single time. As it is, I simply cannot recommend this game to fans of the light gun genre, fans of the comics, or those looking for a cheap Summer game fix.

Overall: 4/10

Gameplay: 4/10
Audio: 5/10
Visuals: 5/10
Value: 3/10




Related Information
Title: Blue Estate
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Website: http://www.blueestatethegame.com/index.html