I Am Your Beast was provided by Strange Scaffold for review. Thank you!
I first played I Am Your Beast during one of the Steam Next Fests, and I was blown away by it. The gunplay was phenomenal and fluid, making it really feel like I was playing as someone like John Wick, constantly shooting, kicking, picking up weapons, and using traps to kill all the enemies around. It is dangerously addicting, and it immediately went on my wish list. Well, I was also lucky enough to be approved to review the game, and all it did was solidify just how much I love it.
I Am Your Beast is a first-person shooter about an ex-special agent who wants to live alone in a forest. Unfortunately, his old commanding officer wants him back for a job, but he doesn't know how to take no for an answer. Instead, he sends platoon after platoon to bring you in, but instead just ends up starting to destroy the home you have built after getting away. Now, you will charge in and have to demolish the enemy, killing everyone however you can.
Strange Scaffold has always had a unique way of telling compelling stories, even if they seem minimal, and that trend continues here. Dialogue and cutscenes come in what they call "kinetic typography," which is essentially just text on the screen that comes in word by word while also changing the background color depending on who is talking. This may seem pretty normal, but I was surprised by how compelling it is. It helps that the voice actors are great, and I got sucked into each character almost immediately, but there's something impactful about the background changes, the way the words come on screen, the color of the words, and the delivery. It all works together and helps create an engaging story that I wanted to see through to the end.
There are a multitude of different locations, but they all take place in different parts of the forest, day and night, and different obstacles throughout each. Even with this, it never felt old to see similar sights. It has a nice 3D art style that has a nice balance between complex and minimalist. It has a cel-shaded feel to it and does remind me of comic-book art. I think it works well with the game and highlights the gameplay exactly where it needs to be. The soundtrack is booming and fits so well with the game, and it just all works together perfectly.
That brings us to I Am Your Beast's gameplay, which is probably one of my favorites in the first-person genre. You run around different levels to complete objectives, which can vary from killing everyone, destroying satellites, or interacting with different objects. To accomplish these tasks, you will have to plow through enemy agents using their own equipment. This results in a loop of killing, throwing weapons, kicking, stealing weapons, blowing up barrels, setting traps, and doing it all as fast as you can.
It's insane not only what you can accomplish but also how smooth it all feels. For example, I was facing off against 4-5 enemies all in front of me, so I took them out by kicking one to the ground, grabbing the pistol that flung out of his hands, doing a quick turn, shooting the people behind me in the head, quick turning back, throwing my empty pistol at them, grabbing the combat knife they dropped, stabbing 2 of them, then throwing the knife at a further away enemy. All of this was done within a split second, and it felt incredible. I was actually quite amazed by myself when the level was over because there was no way I could ever do something like that in any other game. You can also run around the levels pretty fast and utilize sliding and jumping tactics to pull off even more insane combos.
If you have played Superhot, imagine the gameplay, but time never stops, and you have to do everything in real-time. That's I Am Your Beast. I am still a bit shocked at how great it feels to do all of this in real-time without feeling a little stiff or hard to control, but Strange Scaffold figured it out, and it elevates the game above many other shooters because of it.
There is some replayability with the levels as well. You can speedrun to try finishing the levels quicker, complete different side objectives for each level, and partake in Challenge maps to test your skill. For whatever reason, I was not able to access the Challenge maps, and trying to choose one brought me back to the level selection menu (this happened on different devices and is not a specific Steam Deck issue). They wouldn't let me select anything else unless I went back to the main menu and went back in. I do like having more reason to go back, and trying to improve specific levels is welcome, but I would love to see something like a leaderboard to compare with friends.
There is going to be post-launch content that was announced, like more levels, a no-timer mode, and the ability to rip your scope off of sniper rifles, but I would say the game is worth getting even before this. I would have loved to see these extra features, but the game does feel complete in itself and a joy to replay to just complete levels faster and those side objectives.
While I do love the game, it is unfortunately not the best experience on the Steam Deck.
While I love the actual game, I find the performance on the Steam Deck a little tougher to love. I Am Your Beast is best played as smoothly as possible and demands a higher framerate. Unfortunately, the game suffers a bit in this category. Trying to play out of the box, we are met immediately with drops from 60 and some frame pacing spikes. They are small but much easier to feel in a game like this. Even setting the framerate lower didn't fix it entirely, and while it was more stable, there were spots of drops here and there.
The game is still playable, and I enjoyed it, but it isn't as great as it could be on more powerful devices because of the performance. The battery drain will generally remain around 10W - 12W, but some levels will bring it up to the 18W - 19W range, though this isn't super common.
You can change a multitude of different settings in I Am Your Beast. You can change the field of view, your bobbing back and forth, some visual effect intensity, crosshair, audio settings, camera sensitivity, toggling automatic sprint and gyro, getting into aim and crouch mode, and changing keybindings.
There is no 16:10 resolution support, but we do have controller and cloud saves! There are no HDR settings.
I Am Your Beast is an incredible experience that I find myself addicted to. The fast-paced combat and John Wick-style abilities to kick, grab weapons out of the air, shoot, throw, and more, all in tandem while sliding around and trying to complete objectives, are extremely addicting. Mixed with the fantastic soundtrack, great visuals, and unique storytelling (with fantastic voice acting) really brings everything together into a wonderful time that I wholeheartedly recommend. It's hard to justify it completely on the Steam Deck due to the performance issues, but I think it's still enjoyable and playable if you are willing to drop the framerate.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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I Am Your Beast is one of the best shooters I have played this year, though it isn't the greatest experience on the Steam Deck.
I tried demo on Steam Deck as well and I had no performance problems back then, but for me it was almost difficult to complete the game on SD. I just finished the first level and quit in the second because that was just too intense 😀 Afterwards, I finished the demo on PC. Although it might be a pretty good way to get better on controller.