Ah, finally. A game to reward my underhand tactics perfected by spending much of my youth on multi-player split screen games. Screen watching was part of playing with your friends, everyone did it. It was about not getting caught doing it obviously. Screencheat is a first person shooter in which you HAVE to look at the opponents screen to see where they are on the map as all of the player avatars are invisible, completely. It works out to create some intense fun. I sat down with some friends to play and we ends up playing well into the early hours. It’s mind bending though, directing your own player whilst working out where the opponents are on the map is hard work and had me doing mental gymnastics to process all of the information. It’s intense with four players. A great little party game for you and some friends to sit down to and waste away the hours.

The graphics are half-life 2 and the controls are slightly clunky, but it’s more than playable. A voice over announcer emulates the likes of halo with call outs during the game as you get kills (there are more than a few references in the ‘medals that pop up, Red Dwarf features highly) and There’s an interesting range of weapons to cycle through. Some close combat and some more ranged. Oh, and one that may be ‘slightly‘ overpowered which we banned during our games (it got SERIOUS). All of the maps have a geometric style with a lot of Symmetry set up to easily identify map area’s for locating each other. However, it’s the concept of the game that makes it so much fun and it kept us playing for hours.

Screencheat (5)

It also has a timed mode for solo play, where you have to hunt down bots as quickly as possible, It’s good for a group of friends or a party game. I’m not sure how long the on line multi-player would keep a solo player occupied unless you have friends as I struggled to find a game against real people, However if the community grows that wouldn’t be a problem. I think a lot of the fun came from those ‘in game moments’ that happen whenever a group of friends play multi-player together, the close calls, the crazy kills, all built on a tense setting as you know everyone is checking out each other’s screens and could be watching you, tactics get developed, strategies are run. A variety of game modes (team death match, capture the flag, King of the hill for a few) and a range of maps come with the game, they are all entertaining. The game modes them selves are nothing new but again, its the the concept that puts a new spin on them.

By the time we got on to head to head tactics had been formed

By the time we got on to head to head, tactics had been formed

I’d say this will be popular with full households or shared accommodation where group play is the norm, for me it falls into the same category as ‘Mount your friends’ (a seriously fun, silly indie game on the 360). I reckon this will go fairly untouched for a while until I have some friends over then it’ll be rinsed hard for a night. Immensely fun to play with friends, but probably not one you’ll be busting out by yourself for big sessions, the timed game mode is fun, but not as holding as the multi-player. I really enjoyed it and give it a strong recommendation and it serves as a great reminder that you don’t have to get a AAA game to get AAA fun.

Thanks to Suprise Attack Games and Xbox for supporting This Is Xbox