Review of Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand on Xbox Series S
Welcome to Pecaminosa, a border city between the United States and Mexico where gambling, corruption and crime reign in its dusty streets. A home for all those who live outside the law… and for our protagonist, John Souza, a former detective, a man who lived through better times before finding comfort at the bottom of the bottle.
ABOUT THE GAME
- Released: Feb 28, 2024
- Price: $9.99
- Played on: Xbox Series S
- Also on: PS4 & 5, Xbox One & Series X, Switch and PC (Steam)
- Developer: Cereal Games
- Publisher: 2Awesome Studio SL
- ERSB Rating: Mature 17+ for Blood, Sexual Themes, Simulated Gambling, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
John would never have suspected that his next job was going to come at the hands of a ghost. Charlie’s “Two Angels” spectre appears to him with a task: to capture his former associates in order to achieve redemption for their sins and be able to pass through the gates of Heaven. To hunt the living in order to bring peace to the dead.
Pecaminosa – A Deadly Hand blends the charm of pixel art and the mechanics of an Action RPG with the atmosphere of film noir. You have not seen and played anything like it. Interrogate suspects, explore a city dominated by crime and sin, and never hesitate to use your fists and guns. These are hard times in a very tough city.
Customize your character’s appearance and equipment and have it evolve through the L.I.F.E. system, distributing experience points into four different parameters: Luck, Intelligence, Force and Endurance. Play Blackjack to earn extra money, visit the liquor store, socialize with the scum, visit the police station and the brothel, in addition to other venues recreated with great graphic detail… and don’t trust anyone. There is a bullet with your name on it, and it’s eager to meet you.
Full Review
This review is based on my almost-complete playthrough of Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand on Xbox Series S. (I’ll explain what “almost-complete” means a little further down, as I want to point out the positives first.)
Pecaminosa is an ARPG kind of like Shadowrun on the SNES. You mostly walk around and talk with people, and as you level up you can put points into certain stats like Intelligence (which increases the accuracy of your aim) and Force (which increases the damage you dole out). Everytime you level up you get a few points to apply to your various stat categories. Experience is earned by discovering new areas, solving puzzles and killing baddies.
The combat involves aiming your reticle with the right analog stick and then pressing RB to use whatever weapon you currently have equipped, even if its just your fists. Weapons like pistols, shotguns, and tommy guns have various ranges depending on the specific weapon type, and your fists (of course) have a rather short distance, that is basically right in front of your character. You can also dash to avoid getting hit, as several enemies will continue to attack you while you are dealing damage to them.
The story in Pecaminosa is detective noir style, but with a healthy amount of supernatural thrown in. Even from the very first beats of the story, you end up talking with the spirit of a mobster you killed and his dead henchmen, who sends you on a quest to bring other mobsters to justice. Of course not all is quite as it first appears and the story evolves over time to reveal who the real antagonist is. It’s well written enough that it keeps you engaged in the story, but several points are rather cliché within the story it tells. But for an indie game it’s certainly good enough.
Graphically it looks much like a Super Nintendo game from the 90s, will well drawn pixel art, and interesting locations to explore. I wouldn’t expect the graphics to win any awards, but they certainly look good enough to get the job done. The music is also really good, even though it does loop a bit faster than I would ideally like, but it certainly sets the tone for the various environments you are in.
Once you get used to the controls, it is easy enough to control your character and engage in combat, although a few of the default button placements do feel a bit strange. Gameplay is generally pretty easy, with a few exceptions at certain bosses. Even the first boss killed me quite a few times, before I realized I just had to retreat and stock up on ammo and health before attempting it again.
That being said, the reason I “almost-completed” the game is due to a gameplay-ruining bug that will likely keep me from wanting to finish the game. I’m currently at (what I believe) is the end boss, but I won’t spoil anything about it here. What I will say is that I had a bunch of full health restore items in my inventory going into the fight, and when I saved and reloaded the checkpoint (since I had to take a break for a minute) it resumed right where it should, outside the door for the end boss, but WITHOUT any of the health packs I had accumulated.
I attempted to fight the boss anyways, but it’s a difficult fight. After a few failed attempts, I loaded my previous save so I could buy more health packs and try again (yes, for anyone playing the game, when I say “health packs” I mean full bottles of Mack Daniels). So after I spent some time grinding and buying more health packs, I saved the game, and when I went back to it I discovered the health packs were gone AGAIN!!
There is no way I’m going to try to get more health packs at this point, and the boss fight is extremely hard, so I probably just won’t go back to it anymore. It’s a shame because I was hoping to finish it and see the ending, but I’ll probably just watch a playthrough on YouTube. My overall score for the game is going to be knocked down a point or two because of it, but only because there is no guarantee someone else will run into the same bug I did, and if you do, then it essentially ruins the game for you. However, if I knew the bug would happen to everyone each time they play it, I would lower the score a lot more, since it essentially makes the game unplayable unless you want to do a deathless attempt at the last boss fight. (which I do not)
Pros
- ✅ good looking SNES-style pixel graphics
- ✅ nice soundtrack that helps establish the mood in each location
- ✅ interesting story, if a bit cliché
Cons
- ❌ somewhat awkward control scheme for fighting
- ❌ encountered a bug near the end of the game that certainly ruined it for me
Gameplay
Verdict
6
Pecaminosa is a good looking SNES-style noir detective ARPG somewhat similar to Shadowrun, but not as polished. Overall it looks and sounds great, and even though the controls can be a little awkward, you get used to them pretty quickly. It’s clearly an indie game, so there are spots where you can see it could have used a bit more polish and detail, but overall it’s pretty fun.
I would have scored it a point or two higher, but I encountered a game-ruining bug that ended my playthrough and practically ensures I won’t go back to the game to finish it. It’s a shame because Pecaminosa has a lot going for it, but it just goes to show you that certain bugs can almost completely ruin a good game.
Hopefully the bug doesn’t show up for everyone, because otherwise there really isn’t a reason to play it, since you never know when the bug might appear and ruin your playthrough.
Gamatroid 