Gears of War 2 was the most misogynistic game I’ve ever had the displeasure of playing, and it had one of the worst attempts at a story that I can recall. Then I played Shank. The only really redeeming quality of this game is the art, which looks fantastic. In terms of narrative, combat, controls, and everything else needed to make a game great, Shank fumbles, wasting the three hours I invested in beating the game.

The combat in Shank was clumsy and imprecise, with hit-boxes and collision detection that felt like they were being generated by an invisible dice rolling system. The gore, over-the-top violence and visual style could have been what made this beat-em-up stand out, but instead it’s the shoddy control system that ties picking health items up with the default melee button that will help Shank live on in my memory.