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To Hell With The Ugly is a cracking name and even better gameCelibate good times
Celibate good times
Image credit:ARTE France
Image credit:ARTE France
A decent name is one thing, but one likeTo Hell With The Uglyplain demands to be looked up. That’s when you see the striking art style, and yeah okay, I’m already on on board.
Release date teaser | To Hell With the UglyWatch on YouTube
Release date teaser | To Hell With the Ugly
This article was originally exclusively available to RPS supporters, but we’ve brought it backFrom The Archivefor all to read. It was first published on June 16th 2023.
Rock himself is a great protagonist, too. The phrase “big himbo energy” comes to mind, but also does him a disservice. He’s not half as dim as people assume, but heisa little on the dope side. Moreover, he’s slightly strange. He’s in love with dancing with girls, but for the love of dance itself, not as a means to an end. Practically every woman he meets wants to sleep with him, which he meets with a Benton Fraser-esque celibacy. He’s vain but not narcissistic, flirtatious but not manipulative. It’d be easy to make him a moron or an insensitive jerk and then use the plot to transform him into a better person, but he starts out a good lad, and that makes all the difference.
How it blends the light mystery adventure feel and such serious plot beats (not to mention the light sci-fi element) is one I’ll need longer to ponder, but it’s not just a riveting story: it plays damn well, too. The fights are simple turn-based affairs built on timing your keyboard taps, the detective parts are about assembling information before making some logical deductions, and even the stealth parts work. All of them take just a little thinking through, but are simple and brief enough to be natural parts of the adventure. To Hell With The Ugly is a damn likeable game, and assuming its core is a faithful adaptation, it definitely feels like Vian was seizing hold of a genre to make something bigger of it through subversion and critique. I’m certainly curious about his whole body of work, but for now this is an unqualified recommendation.
