I have been excited for ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN for a long time. Not only because I am a big fan of Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture, but because the art style, gameplay and bonkers story the early trailers showed tickled my brain in all the right ways. Having played the game extensively I can easily say this is my favorite experience from them and a game I had a blast with despite some odd technical glitches.

The premise of ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN is really tough to explain. There was an anomaly on earth, a space-time FBI force was established and over time forgotten, then an incursion happens and our hero gets mostly killed and then revived as an enhanced ‘Dead Man’. Oh yes and his girlfriend Juliet is a cross dimensional force that the space FBI is hunting, and Romeo’s grandfather is a Rick (from Rick and Morty) style crazy and careless genius, but he died and is now somewhat alive as a patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket. Got all that?

The story starts very abruptly and is enhanced through flashbacks, dialogue sessions, encounters with team mates and villains and found transcripts. It still makes basically no sense, but also make perfect sense as you navigate through this crazy universe created by Suda and his team at Grasshoper Manfacture.

The artistic flairs infused into the game was mind-blowing from the start, Romeo is in a stylish outfit with an enhancing Dead Gear that keeps him alive and a powerhouse of destruction. The world, the spaceship, the enemies and especially the bosses are all so crazy, compelling, gross at times and completely fascinating.

The core gameplay in ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN has Romeo looking for key wanted anomaly creatures across time and space dimensions, landing there, hunting them down and ending their menace. Juliet is a consistent threat, but he is also trying to see if he can find the Juliet he loves and hoping she is not a horrid creature like the many variants of her he has met before.

When Romeo lands in a new world, after a short minigame navigating the space-time FBI ship, he starts exploring the world, fighting hordes of zombie like humans, mutated creatures and some large abominations. Armed with a melee and ranged weapon Romeo is able to execute combos of light and heavy attacks, charged up attacks and blast enemies from a distance with his gun.

As creatures are destroyed they release blood (to charge skills) and a form of currency Romeo can use to enhance his abilities or unlock new weapons and facilities on his ship. Across the worlds there will be TV portals to subspace which is devoid of enemies, has some puzzle scenarios and acts as shortcuts or new paths in the ‘real-space’ areas of the game.

A lot of the game is exploring the new worlds, blasting away bad guys, unlocking new paths, finding upgrade items and cooking ingredients (yes there is a cooking mini game on the ship) and ultimately finding the enemy of that dimension and ending them in a thrilling boss battle. The gameplay is fast and furious and features dodge mechanics but no parrying to keep the combat fast and frantic as designed by Suda51 and his team.

To help Romeo out he can find badges to enhance his abilities, pins to add perks, ‘bastards’ that can be grown from seeds to be added as refreshing attacks and enhancements as well as new weapons to purchase and upgrade. The depth is quite extensive but never overwhelming, but I did find that the currencies found while exploring are slow to scale so I could not upgrade items or get new ones as often as I would have liked. Thankfully all areas can be re-explored to farm more kills to get more currency for upgrades and enhancements.

As far as side gameplay ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN is loaded with optional and secondary paths to explore. Non-critical anomalies can be explored and act as dungeons to complete for rewards and perks. The FBI ship, which hilariously is presented in a pixel art style, has a number of mini games and rooms to explore and the crew can be interacted with for story beats, odd conversations and of course cook in the galley with your mother, who just happened to join the crew once Romeo was drafted.

Each of the pieces in ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN could have been fashioned into a game, but jamming them all together just makes the experience that much more fascinating and addictive. Every time I booted up the game I was surprised, grossed out, laughed out loud and just enjoyed the heck out of the experience. Each level plays out somewhat differently, with a standout horror one being my favorite.

It is not perfect, and what game is, but there is some inconsistent optimization that I hope gets tweaked with patches, as well ultra wide support seems to not be in place which is a bummer with my current monitor setup. The story can also get confusing for some with clunky dialogue and jumps from past to present, but I loved every minute of the absurd story and presentation ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN had to offer.

This is an insane and amazing experience and one that I can’t stop thinking about. The choices of art style shifts, story beats that pull from Rick and Morty, the Twilight Zone and X-Files (Romeo calls himself Mulder once he is brought in as full agent) and insane gameplay shifts just felt so cool to experience.

ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN is Suda51 in his purest, most evolved form. It’s a stylish, blood-soaked, and utterly bizarre adventure that rewards exploration and demands your attention. This is a must play game and highly recommended.

We received a Steam code for review purposes from the Publisher and ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN is available February 11th on PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.