Max Reloaded II

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Max Interactive Studio

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Review:

Max Reloaded II is a Third-Person Shooter released as an asset on the Unity Asset Store in 2015 as Hammer 2 AKA Hammer 2 Reloaded, a game that has become somewhat infamous as a fertile ground for low-effort asset flips. In fact, it now has the distinction of being released in no less than three separate places on Nintendo Switch – in 2020, it was brought to the Nintendo Switch as The Bullet: Time of Revenge, then again later that same year as the game I’m reviewing now, Max Reloaded II, and then in 2021 it was brought to Nintendo Switch again under its original title of Hammer 2 Reloaded. I do not, at this time, intend to review all three versions, so for the time being this review will have to suffice for all three of them, as it seems that this release put the most effort into changing the game, replacing the main character and primary enemy horde with different character models and… um… that seems to be about it.

The visuals here are stylized in a low-poly, blocky 3D sort of way that might be appealing in a quaint sort of way… if it wasn’t for the horrible, atrocious framerates present throughout the game here. At its best, this game chugs with a terribly slow framerate, but the moment things get more active, Max Reloaded II becomes a slide show. These visuals are backed by a droning, non-stop action theme that gets really annoying very quickly, to the point where you’ll be reaching the mute button on your gamepad.

Oh, yeah, one of the gamepad buttons apparently mutes the game. The plus button, rather than pausing, calls for you to re-sync your game controllers. Game menus don’t seem to work properly. Suffice it to say, the controller layout here makes zero sense, and makes an otherwise simple game unnecessarily confusing. Even once you get used to the controls, and assuming that you’re not thrown off by the atrocious framerates, this game still controls extremely poorly, with your aiming reticule moving in a clunky, over-exaggerated manner, and with the jump button taking a second or two to respond at times.

This game is a horrible, buggy, nightmarish mess. I got trapped in scenery early on and needed to restart. Once, I completed a mission and the game refused to recognize it. And every step of the way, I felt I was fighting either the terrible controls or the atrocious framerate. Oh, and the gameplay itself? Think brain-dead Grand Theft Auto clone, but not really open-world like those games since the game is split up into levels with specific goals, and… and I honestly feel a bit direct mentioning a game as good as Grand Theft Auto anywhere in relation to this one.

Look, I’m not mincing words here -Max Reloaded II is a broken, nearly-unplayable mess. The controls don’t work, the menus don’t work, the framerates are excruciating, there are bugs aplenty. Even if I didn’t know this game was an asset flip, I would have told you within seconds of playing it that it is not a complete product. Do not buy any version of this game.

tl;dr – Max Reloaded II is a Third-Person Shooter that is a version of the famous asset flip Hammer 2. I can’t tell you if the other versions of this game are worthwhile at all, but I can tell you with conviction that Max Reloaded II is complete garbage. It is an incomplete, shoddy mess of a game that runs poorly, controls poorly, and is flooded with bugs and odd design choices that scream that the people who released this game in this state have no idea what they’re doing. Do not pay money for this.

Grade: F

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