DuneCrawl’s on-foot fighting is no match for its crab walker warfare

rockpapershotgun.com:

A question, readers. What sounds more fun: doddering about on your own two feet – like an idiot – or storming through deserts on a cannon-packing megacrab? I only make such a clearly self-answering inquiry because for some reason DuneCrawl, or at least the Steam Next Fest demo that shows off its isometric action, seems to think both sides have valid points.

They do not. I’ve played solo and with licensed crustacean pilot Brendy in co-op, and on neither occasion did the on-foot combat sections click. There are rare moments of comedy chaos, where one teammate accidentally detonates another in the midst of blasting an enemy or breaking open a cracked wall, but ultimately it feels less like a swashbuckling Magicka and more like a kind of multiplayer Death’s Door where everyone’s on their fifth G&T. All awkward swordfighting, sluggish shooting, and constant rolling in place of positioning nous.

Then you get on the big crab, and it fuckin’ rocks. Beyond the simple, base pleasures of duelling other battle walkers on a manor-sized shellfish, this is where DuneCrawl finally starts feeling like a proper co-op game. With one player at the helm, others will scurry hurriedly around the deck, loading and firing cannons while slathering on goop to heal the crab’s damaged legs. The demo only contains one crawler-versus-crawler duel, but it’s easily the highlight: a delightfully shambolic spectacle that, like a Guns of Icarus dogfight or Sea of Thieves naval clash, manages to feel pacey and urgent in spite of the inherent unwieldiness of the craft involved.

I’d say that DuneCrawl would be better if you never left the crab, but then that would deny it two of its funniest quirks. One: it’s possible to be blown off the deck entirely by enemy fire, a detail I could appreciate from the vantage point of thirty feet in the air after a cannonball flung me clear of Crawl McCartney (Brendy let me name the crab) and into the sand below. Two: it’s possible, if not outright encouraged, to fire