From the banner graphic, screenshots, and trailer, Angry Alligator seems like it is a Feeding Frenzy-style arcade action game but first impressions can lie. Instead, AA is a broken mess of an open-world action game with light RPG mechanics that could very well drive the player to drink.
Starting in the corner of the map, players assume the role of a small alligator and takes initial direction from an older and more experienced gator named Wisecroc. After a very brief tutorial, the player is free to explore the island to grow in size and complete tedious objectives.
On paper, the game design sounds like it is composed of logical and fun design decisions. Unfortunately, everything falls apart minutes into the quest. Chasing down turtles, frogs that hop away, and rabbits that are too fast is never fun especially with the tank-like alligator controls and limited stamina. The camera control is also very loose and might be make the game unplayable for some as there is only one camera setting in the options to invert the camera. Checking this option reverses all camera control, just not Y axis. I am not sure how you can release a 3rd person game in 2021 and not have the most basic camera options available but here we are.
If you watch my stream embedded here, other issues appear at every moment. For example, the alligator can walk down the steepest hills and grip to it like Spider-Man but yet cannot climb the shallow beach. There is more clipping of 3D objects in this game than hair at a salon. There is also no true indicator on where to go or what exactly to do. Dropped frames happen every few seconds. The absence of a soundtrack makes the game feel empty. There is no point to the day/night cycle. There is an emphasis on stealth, hiding within tall grass, but the game never uses this. I died once and restarted, after a long loading screen, getting attacked by hoomans. The tail whip attack doesn’t do anything. Sometimes you can break through buildings/objects, sometimes not. And completing tedious and annoying objectives, like eating hundreds of small creatures, rewards the player with a dumb and pointless accessory like a hat. At one point, the game told me to use the “E” key to perform an action – I was playing this game on a PS4 – there is no “E” key.
Angry Alligator is a broken, mess of a game that doesn’t feel complete. The overall concept is there, growing bigger and stronger to become the killing machine you were born to be, but the execution is horribly flawed and never fun. Playing AA might send you to AA.
Not As Good As: Hungry Hungry Hippos, the board game
Also Try: either of the Popcap/EA Feeding Frenzy games
Play It Instead: DEEEER Simulator
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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