Sunday Gold (Computer)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): October 13, 2022
- Release Date (EU): October 13, 2022
- Publisher: Team17
- Developer: BKOM Studios
- Genres: RPG, Point-and-click, Puzzle
Game Features:
London in the 2070s is in a dismal state; with an all-time high rate of employment and homelessness which are fuelling a life of crime for the everyday man while the corrupt elite bathe in riches. A reckoning is long overdue and trio of criminals Frank, Sally, and Gavin have a lead to thwart billionaire Kenny Hogan’s plans.
But enacting his comeuppance doesn’t go exactly as planned and quickly turns bloody and gets littered with obstacles. However, our ragtag band won’t back down so easily when there’s so much dough to be made. They just have to see this job through…
Sunday Gold’s strongest suit is its aesthetics. The comic book-styled panels during conversations and cutscenes add to its unique look which is fleshed out by the soundtrack and professional voice acting. Even the combat sequences are depicted in a stylish fashion, especially when special abilities are used. While the presentation often reminded me of Deathloop, Sunday Gold stands out on its own in terms of presentation and it executes it well.
What also makes this title stand out is its mix of gameplay mechanics. It’s equal parts exploration and puzzle solving in a point-and-click fashion and equal parts RPG with turn-based combat. As you guide the trio in their billionaire-toppling plan, you’ll explore locales ranging from offices through warehouses to Hogan’s own mansion. Each room of these locations presents puzzles and combats of their own which you have to best in order to progress.
As usual with point-and-click puzzlers, you’ll need keen observation skills to identify clues and retrieve items to solve puzzles. In many cases, this will also require employing the unique skills of each member of the trio: lockpicking for the nimble Frank, moving obstacles for the brawny Sally and hacking for the tech-savvy Gavin. You’ll have a set of Action Points (APs) for each character which you can use to perform certain actions (such as using their specific skills or picking up items) during the turn-based sequences that exploration also progresses through.
The APs also carry onto the combat system which are turn-based styled against enemies and bosses you’ll encounter. Based on the available APs, you’ll be able to perform actions such as regular attacks, special abilities, use consumables or defend (and replenish your APs). An interesting addition to Sunday Gold’s combat system is that of composure. If it falls below a certain threshold, your character’s morale lowers and they can behave unexpectedly. You can help them regain their composure by using consumables at the cost of a character’s turn.
Emerging victorious will thus require a skillful juggle of attacks, parries and keeping an eye on the composure of your party. This offers a welcome challenge and a rewarding feeling when winning battles. And doing so will earn you some XPs that level up your party members and unlock new skills which can be upgraded via a skill tree.
This interplay of gameplay genres in Sunday Gold surely is interesting and feels refreshing; but only for so long. Unfortunately, the novelty runs out rather quickly as the mechanics are overused and feel repetitive throughout the game. The moves involved in performing Frank’s lockpicking, Sally’s physical tasks and Gavin’s hacking are all the same throughout the game and they recur multiple times in each location. This high rate of recurrence makes those actions feel more like a chore than a fun activity.
As for the combat, while the turn-based aspect is slow by nature, it also falls into the trap of feeling repetitive due to the limited enemy types and move set. Combined with the slow-paced nature of the face-offs and the repetitive moves, the battles feel like they drag for too long.
While it’s common to encounter roadblocks in point-and-click puzzles, some still require some good ‘ol trial-and-error. In the first chapter for example, finding the correct sequence of activating some elements was hinted at in a security footage. However, after viewing said footage, only the first two items’ sequence were revealed while the reset did not follow any specific order. I was relegated to trial-and-error and this is far from being the only instance in the game as Gavin’s recurring hacking mechanic often leads to resorting to such methods.
On top of my gripes with the overused mechanics, I came across some technical issues in my pre-release build of the game. While I understand that the game is launching on PCs, there was no controller support in the build I played. I am not sure if it is due to this being an early version or if the final version will also rely on keyboard+mouse controls. Given the rising popularity of handheld PC consoles, it would be welcome, if not expected, that PC games also feature controller support.
Speaking of handhelds, I played the game on a handheld PC and the font size was way too small for comfortable reading. There was no means to adjust the text size to one that fits the relatively small screens of handheld devices.
In addition, this build would only load/continue from the last auto save, even if the manual save was the latest. This can be quite annoying as I had to manually scroll through the save options and load my latest manual save to start from the last location I stopped at. Hopefully this is resolved in the public version of the game.
All in all, while Sunday Gold delivers a striking presentation and brings some interesting mix of mechanics, it is ultimately limited by the overuse of those very mechanics and some nagging technical issues.
Sunday Gold | Release Date Trailer
Verdict
- Stylish presentation
- Original mix of gameplay
- Some interesting mechanics
- Overused mechanics
- No official gamepad support
- Limited enemy types
- Need to rely on trial-and-error for solving puzzles
