Chess with a shotgun works better than you think. While it sounds absurd on paper, Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is a simple yet tightly designed roguelike strategy title that turns the measured, tactical board game into something novel and unique. However, just because you’re given a firearm, that doesn’t mean you can switch your brain off.
During the game, you play the black king against a large armies of white pieces. As a chess player, you can move, do nothing, or shoot, with the former two actions reloading your gun. Your goal is to destroy the white king, but all pieces in play (including you) move normally. You can’t just blast the king away; enemies will often check you, so you have to escape. Similarly, killing a piece might open up a path for another to follow, so pay attention to the whole board.
The twist is that your enemies also get powerful perks. As you progress through 12 levels, you unlock pretty powerful perks. As you upgrade, you also need to upgrade your opposition, keeping things balanced and forcing you to play differently. It’s also possible to temporarily mimic the movement of the piece you killed, so you can escape a sticky situation. Your passive buffs and extra perks like grenades are always useful, but they don’t carry you – it’s still a strategy game.
Featuring a lo-fi presentation and a fanciful plot about the black army defecting to the white kingdom, this game feels like a forgotten 90s PC game. There aren’t much more to it beyond the main mode, though there are extras for clearing it — Endless mode is self-explanatory, while Chase mode is interesting. In the end, it’s a tight-knit package that succeeds with its less-is-more approach.
Pros:
- A neat spin on chess.
- Strategic yet fast-paced.
- Clever perk system.
- Cool extra modes.
Cons:
- A bit repetitive.
- Presenter’s guide.
Overall, I’d give this game a 7.