Released (on Steam): 21 May, 2019
Genres: Action Games, Adventure, Indie
Developer: Fallen Tree Games Ltd
Publisher: Curve Digital
Steam Price: £17.99
"GTA: Chinatown Wars + Dukes of Hazzard + ex-TimeSplitters developers = American Fugitive"
IGN UK
"It successfully pays homage to a fondly remembered old game while adding something meaningful."
The Guardian
"American Fugitive is a fun romp through a colourful, top-down GTA-inspired open-world crime-fest."
Wccftech
Inspired by classic GTA, American Fugitive is a modern take on sandbox action, offering a new 3D top-down open-world single-player experience. Developed by Fallen Tree Games, the two studio founders have extended AAA backgrounds; including titles such as TimeSplitters, Crysis, Black, and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded.
Welcome to Redrock County, a sleepy American town with a booming criminal underbelly.
You take the role of Will Riley. No angel for sure - but not a killer. Yet the cold-blooded murder of your dad is the crime they locked you up for. Fuelled by grief and a burning desire for vengeance, you’ll bust out of jail intent on finding the real culprit.
Once outside, you’ll need to blend with the townsfolk to avoid recapture. Establish contact with the criminal underworld and stay one step ahead of the police dragnet.
Set in the deep south of the 1980s, American Fugitive is a love-letter to the classic movies and games of old.
Completion: Main campaign completed once and some time spent on extra challenges and hidden content
Playtime at Review: 19.5 hours
Total Playtime: 19.5 hours
Achievements at Review: 33/46 (72%)
My rating: 8.2/10
Vehicles and weapons all have a very different feel
Fun dialogue
Extra content such as time trials, painting collection, hidden stashes, vehicle jump challenges
Driving feels great and is good fun
Beat people up with a toilet brush
Very easy - even on highest wanted level
Ran into a couple of random issues/bugs (nothing a game restart wouldn't fix)
Bank deposit boxes seem useless
AI isn't very intelligent (although it can lead to some funny events)
I liked the look of American Fugitive from the start, and was really looking forward to playing it. I'm glad I did! It has it's flaws, but overall it's a really fun game! I've spent around 13 hours in game so far and I've just finished the story, but I've still got plenty of time trials to do, hidden stashes to find, and paintings to find and sell. For many of the stashes you need to find a clue to crack the code which adds a little extra fun to the whole search.
There's no point in having different vehicles if they all drive the same, is there? Good job they nailed it here then! Every vehicle has a completely different feel to it, which I absolutely loved! Driving is such great fun in the game, as is finding the different ramps for the jump challenges! Driving was probably the part of the game I enjoyed the most!
The next best part was the fighting! Like with the vehicles, the weapons have a different feel from one another too. You get a variety of ranged weapons and melee weapons. My favourite? The freakin' toilet brush! Gotta love knocking out some guy with the same toilet brush you've just stolen from his house!
Breaking into houses and stealing whatever you find is also a big part of the game. You can look through each window to see if a room is occupied or not before robbing the place. If you enter a room with somebody in it you can tie them up, kill them, or release them, depending how you're feeling. Of course they may get the better of you, grab your weapon, and throw your ass out of their house. Holding up stores is very similar to this, but a great way of topping up your donut supply!
It's not a particularly difficult game, even on the max wanted level. The wanted levels are easy to lose and health items are in abundance. The AI is pretty dumb, similar to GTA where they'll happily drive into a lake and die. It can lead to some funny moments though! I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more involvement with banks, and especially the deposit boxes. Other than the one needed for a quest, they others seemed to have no use (unless I've not found a use yet).
I ran into a couple of random issues in my play-through. One was where I needed to get my wanted level down to finish a mission, but it wouldn't go down at all. It appeared stuck on 3 stars. The other was my the size of my baton. No, I'm not bragging ;) Every time I came out of a building my baton seemed to double in size. It got so big at one point it took up the whole screen! Impressive, right? Both of these were easily fixed by restarting the game though.
Overall I really enjoyed the game and I'd certainly say it's worth a play, especially if you're a fan of the earlier GTA games! I'm sure I'll be jumping back in to complete some of the extra challenges, especially the hidden stashes!
Posted on 23-06-2019
Coming in a future update!