Milanoir Reviews
If you're up for a challenging game, this might be right up your alley. However, if you're the type of gamer who prefers a more casual flow to a game, then don't bother – you'll just end up frustrated with controller holes in your wall.
Milanoir has a surprisingly awesome gritty story with some slick story cutscenes you play through. The action will kick your teeth in and can be slightly frustrating at times but it's over the top action will satisfy your action movie craving and not leave your wallet swimming with the fishes.
Milanoir provides pleasure in its own roundabout, corny, lighthearted way. Sure, its combat is very obtuse, awkward, and confounding. I became emotionally detached from Piero as his dense, cocky attitude drained my soul. But with a few neat mechanics and a well-rendered art style, this whimsical crime-film imitation flatters some of its ancestors and lightly entertains with the same campy charm.
A great concept that summarily misfires on all cylinders, Milanoir is an admittedly stylish retro shooter that is simply too frustrating and poorly designed to recommend.
While Milanoir does a whole lot of things right with its fair share of positives and highly stylized aspects, it still manages to drop the ball on some key elements like crucial gameplay mechanics. Regardless, this game is a fun play, and we'd say it's definitely worth your money, assuming you are looking more for a solid story and over the top experience than you are for the smoothest, frame-perfect gameplay.
If you want a quick pick up and put down 2D shooter and are happy to ignore the story then there’s definitely satisfaction to be found in Milanoir and although I played it on PC I feel like it would be most at home in its portable form on the Switch. You’ll get frustrated more than a few times with the controls and lack of direction but there are moments where you hit your stride in combat which can feel almost as cool as a 70’s action movie.
I’ve played games that I would call “not fun” in the past. Somehow, Milanoir is a whole massive leap beyond that. My first and most overwhelming thought is that this is one of the games the devil makes you play for committing one of the seven deadly sins. I don’t know, pride maybe. The fact that so many indie games can look at Hotline Miami and pull all the wrong lessons from it continues to baffle.
To be sure, some of this is my own incompetence - failing to notice the street signs that can be used to ricochet bullets. But much of it is the fault of the game - the eight-person ricochet off stop signs only hitting two of eight foes in a scene designed explicitly to tutorial that very feature. For that reason alone, I cannot recommend Milanoir. If you want to experience the story of a sadistic killer who's plans have gone bust, you're better off watching one of the game's inspirations, the 1973 film Almost Human. Just know it, and Milanoir, are not for the faint of heart.
Milanoir takes an appealing aesthetic with a promising setup and turns it into a dutiful slog without much of a payout. It's basic, it's petty, and it's laughably crude. It is a noir title that really doesn't have a whole lot to say.
Overall Milanoir is an excellent entry into the genre and worth your time and money.