Shakedown: Hawaii was originally released back in 2019 on multiple platforms including PC via Epic Games Store. The developer Vblank Entertainment is known for their previous title Retro City Rampage which serves as the foundation for Shakedown: Hawaii. This retro top-down action game has been released on nearly all modern consoles including some of the previous-gen consoles as well including PS Vita, PS3, Wii, and Wii U. Now after a year of its initial release, Shakedown: Hawaii has arrived on Steam as well and we finally decided to review this title. This is our review of the Steam version of Shakedown: Hawaii in which we blow up some businesses and take over the rest to become the biggest tycoon in the city.
Shakedown: Hawaii is a top-down open-world action game inspired by early GTA titles however it brings its own unique twist to the whole idea. It massively adds empire building to the point that nearly every property or business can be purchased or ‘acquired’ in the game if you know how to. Combine that with some basic company management features and you have a perfect game that allows you to become the worst and the biggest business tycoon in Hawaii. Right at the start, you can either jump in the main campaign of the game or experience the city in the freeroam mode without any liabilities. You can also take part in different challenges that allow you to jump in action quickly and try to earn the best medal possible in that challenge.
Shakedown: Hawaii might feature a single campaign however you get to control three different characters during your missions. The main protagonist of the game is an old man whose business is on the brink and he is trying his best to expand into further ventures in order to take over Hawaii. Apart from the father, you also get to play as his son who is young and is helping out his father in various activities however, he has his own agenda as well. Finally, we have the old man’s contact who is helping him out in his overseas farms. During missions, we take control of all three missions. While the generic gameplay is the same for all characters, the missions are completely unique for all of them.
The missions in Shakedown: Hawaii are an absolute blast to complete. Most of the missions are simple activities that are unlocked for you after completing the main missions of the game. Speaking of activities, you have tons to complete. Your main goal in Shakedown: Hawaii is to take over the town and that too in a corporate manner. You have to take over every business and property in the city and nothing is there to stop you. You have fully established businesses, residential areas, car showrooms, eateries, and other manufacturing industries.
It is natural that some of the businesses are not very keen on joining your venture so in these cases you have to use some other sabotage methods. You can damage their properties, kill people, or simply wipe out the competition from the face of the earth. Smaller businesses simply require a little bit of intimidation which the game calls ‘Shakedown’ however larger businesses require a little more than that. You will be required to drop a lot of bodies in certain scenarios in order to add a more lucrative business to your inventory. You can view all businesses in the city and plan your takeover over at the Business Map of the city which shows all businesses and properties that you can purchase in the game.
After you have completed the required tasks which might require piling up some dead bodies after murdering people or simply smashing up some shelves, you can purchase the property or business and increase your daily revenue stream. Every single business is good for your revenue. At the end of every day, you get the revenue from all of your income sources. While it may appear like earning money is hard in the game but play for a few hours and you will be earning tons of money pretty easily after acquiring some businesses and properties around Hawaii. Your main character and the son are located in the main city however the contact will take care of your overseas fields. At the end of each mission, you will get details on more farms and he will help you expand to even more international territories by wiping out cartels.
Purchasing businesses is not the only way by which you can earn some quick cash. As the CEO who knows no boundaries, you can sabotage your rivals as well so that you can have the best take of the market. Each industry you invest in, comes with some rivals and you can destroy their property or sabotage it to make sure that your business is still staying on top of the game. For example, right at the start of the game, you are tasked with destroying some delivery vans because they are promoting eCommerce and you do not really understand the modern ways of online shopping causing your own company to go down. You can perform similar tasks later in different businesses which will allow you to grow your own empire and damage your opposition.
Despite being a really small game in size, Shakedown: Hawaii features an amazing and diverse area for you to wreak havoc in. The game has tight city infrastructure as well as open streets of surrounding streets to wide-open fields and jungles. You can also destroy most of the stuff that comes in your way. Apart from the main structures, you can blow up everything that comes in your way. For this purpose, you have an arsenal of some of the best weapons in the game. Ranging from bats to rocket launchers to flame throwers, you can use these weapons and explosives to make short work of your enemies and the law enforcement who is the most annoying aspect of the game and will remain on your tail for 95% of your gameplay. You have a GTA style weapon scroll system which allows you to keep all of your weapons in your inventory.
You will be exploring Shakedown: Hawaii in a large number of vehicles as well. Ranging from scrapyard junkers to modern sportscars to massive monster trucks, you will find a vehicle suiting to every need. There are also some unique vehicles in the game for example the Water Trike which is essentially a trike, but you can drive it on the water as well. Random vehicles that you steal from the roads can be stored in your garage as well because why not. Some vehicles like the tank and the monster truck are perfect vehicles if you want to cause some mayhem in the city. Everything that comes in their path is destroyed instantly and you can use them to cause chained explosions resulting in some really big explosions in the game.
Final Verdict:
Shakedown: Hawaii is the ultimate 16-bit open-world top-down action game that you can play today. It offers an impressive world which is full of life and ripe for the taking. The gameplay mechanics are solid while the amount of content this brilliant game offers is just astounding. Bringing back the retro GTA style top-down to modern PCs, Shakedown Hawaii is the ultimate empire-building simulator filled with explosions and a brilliant audio design. If you love the classic top-down gameplay of the early GTA titles and want a title offering a little more empire-building thrown in the mix, Shakedown: Hawaii is your ultimate corporate playground.
Final Score: 9.5/10
