Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang is an Indonesian third-person beat-’em-up action adventure game on Steam, developed by Gamecom Team and published by Freedom Games. This game holds a lot of potential but could just as be too ambitious for a development team that hasn’t produced a game at the level it’s trying to reach. We discuss what makes the game promising, but also discuss the many flaws the team still has to iron out before its release in our Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang First Impressions.
Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang First Impressions: Kenka Boleh?
Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang’s premise is simple: you’re a former delinquent who moved to a new high school hoping that here, you won’t get into as many fights as you used to. The bad news is that this school actually encourages fist-fighting, as the class that can win a martial arts tournament will receive a grant to help them stay afloat financially until they found jobs. This led to a culture of violence and bullying in the school, where the winning class who just turned into alumni end up sponsoring the next generation of students for their own ends. This game reminded me a lot of Kenka Bancho, an old PSP game where you play as a delinquent and go around beating up goons to dominate their gangs to prove that you’re the best delinquent on this side of town.
The game itself, however, isn’t so polished. The beat-’em-up action of Troublemaker feels floaty and it lacks a punch, as the feedback of hits and the sound effects used aren’t entirely fitting to what the game is trying to do. There are also a lot of camera issues and graphical problems, like excessive screen tearing, invisible walls, stuttering cameras, clipping issues, and jarring cameras when scenes change. Pepper in minor issues on UI design, generic music, and small bugs like the Sick Move meter filling up even when the game slows down or gets paused, makes the game feel like it’s getting to where the team wants it to be, but still needs about a year’s worth of development before release. On top of all of these issues are the terrible localization efforts with numerous typographical errors in the subtitles and poorly-written dialogue with grammatical errors in every other sentence.
One thing I appreciate about the game is its willingness to wear its culture and heritage proudly on its sleeve. While the game has a lot of references to popular culture, it is proudly Indonesian, and I applaud the team’s decision to make the game primarily in Bahasa. The game also has a nice art style for its cutscenes and dialogue which makes me wish that the entire game followed this art direction instead of using the expressionless dolls they used as 3D models for the game.
I think I was wrong in trying out Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang with the expectation that it will be like a Kenka Bancho game. They have similar premises, after all, but Troublemaker: Raise Your Gang is more about conquering your own school rather than conquering rival gangs from other schools. I thought that the brawler gameplay and free-roaming would be similar, and I think having these kinds of expectations made me more let down than I should have. But still, even without these expectations, Troublemaker has enough troubles that Gamecom Team still has to iron out before the game’s upcoming release date.
Troublemaker will be released Q1 2023 and will be featured in the upcoming Steam Next Fest. For more about gaming and esports, stick with ClutchPoints Gaming.
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