Maniac (PS5) | REVIEW | GTA Meets Survivor-like With A Dopamine Rush!!!

Skystone Games returns from indie hibernation to release what could literally be the GTA6 killer. Maniac, as it is called, brings with it the old top-down GTA experience on crack. Blending GTA crime mechanics with the addictiveness and Dopamine dosing of games like Vampire Survivor. As one of six maniacs including a drunken Santa Clause, a psychotic clown, and even a little girl you will unleash wanton destruction upon the civilians and authorities as you commit everything from grand theft auto to mass murder on a scale of evil that is realistically unfathomable. 

Whether you're on foot, or in a hijacked vehicle you'll be dealing death and destruction in spades as you tour the vast cityscape for bum vendors who will offer you one of three random passives per visit. Shooting and booting everything in sight that moves along the way. The end goal in all of this being to rank up police, military, and even alien pursuit to the point they have no other choice, but to nuke the location in order to stop your rampage from spilling over. 

Maniac is a pure adrenaline rush of absolute criminal carnage. Nothing is out of bounds in the way of violent crime, and it is this criminal behavior that will ultimately help you fund future killing sprees and destruction derbies via passive upgrades, equipment, and a special skill beholden and unique to each maniac. Each of the six characters or maniacs, which require unlock requirements to be met (mainly a kill quota), come complete with in-game stats that pertain to their mobility, damage dealing, avoidance of impact, and health. These things vary from character to character as does their unlockable equipment which is themed accordingly. Making their outings more challenging or easy depending upon which one you choose to play as.

Whichever character you choose to be as your maniac is whom you'll head out to town with, with the intent to steal, kill, and destroy. With said maniac you have 20 minutes to survive in each run and reach the wanted/Defcon point that the nuke is deployed as a last ditch effort to stop your anti-social antics. Between start and said finish you'll deal death with guns, hijack vehicles, and secure vendor passives that stack added effects the more that you get. Picking up one such passive from the randomly showcased three will then point you in the direction of the next vendor via an arrow prompt with mileage shown, rinse and repeat until the fiery conclusion. These vendor wares improve upon survivability and functionality in a variety of different ways. This includes things tied to on foot combat, movement speed, and health restoration as well as in-vehicle enhancements/armaments that will turn any hijacked vehicle into an armored tank on speed given the proper passives are chosen.

When it comes to the more permanent upgrades in this roguelike survivors-like, coins and cash dropped by the dead will be the currency with which you pay for carry over passives, extra equipment, and a special skill. These are permanent upgrades that can be enhanced multiple times as they carry over into the next playthrough, and will also stack with the vendor passives of a similar effect making your chosen maniac an unstoppable powerhouse. To the point surviving to that nuke will be a walk in the park. At the end of each run, be it by nuke or premature death, your efforts will be tallied in full detailing things such as the final wanted level you reached, overall damage dealt, pedestrians and officers killed, and vehicles blown up by type. That and achievements which tally collective feats of civilian and automotive casualties will be shown for your personal bragging rights.

The Presentation ...

Everything from the maniacs to the large scale top-down environments come to life in vibrant cartoonish color, and polygonal 3D animations. All of which is highlighted by the resulting chaotic sounds of your crime spree, and the ramblings of each maniac as they deal death to the city's populous. The sound of bullets, explosions, and civilian freak outs become audible ear candy to heighten that dopamine fix, and gameplay adrenaline rush.

The Verdict ...

Like Vampire Survivors and the original GTA series mashed together in perfect harmony, Maniac comes on the scene as a brutally unrelenting murder and mayhem indie experience with destruction and death dealing so plentiful it'll have you hooked like a bad addiction. It is GTA on crack stripped down to the pure criminal aspect of gameplay, and spiked with a constant drip of Dopamine from the non-stop onscreen action. It is so refined and aware of what made the two games that inspired it so great that it not only has the player overdosing on Dopamine with each run, but will have them hooked at least until they max out all permanent upgrades. It is truly a potential GTA6 killer. Fans of the OG GTA games will love it as will any fans of roguelikes. I highly recommend it!!!