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- Lesser Evil Games
- Lesser Evil Games
- Lesser Evil Games
- Lesser Evil Games
The Executioner
Released On: Sep 25, 2019
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
7.2
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
When comparing The Executioner‘s frustrations to its merits, the negatives outweigh the developers’ intentions. This title seems like it plans to do and say a lot about morality within a cruel society, but its stat-based design feels like it’s going to need a huge overhaul before the statements it wants to make can come out clearly.
The Executioner plays like a dark comedy, but something tells me the developers did not have this in mind at all…
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
7.2
70% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
10% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
20% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 User Ratings
7.2
70% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
10% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
20% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Gorgeous, creepy and interesting story in the game, dark atmosphere and variation of actions make it special. Excellent game for your money. The fans of thrill and the hard moral choices will appreciate.
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PC
Отличная и интересная игра, которая каждый раз заставляет тебя принимать не простые решения, за которые приходится отвечать не только в сюжете игры, но и своим ментальным здоровьем. Тяжела жизнь палача, но кто-то должен...
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PC
It’s hard to recommend a game in which you can listen to the wet squelching noises as you choose to take out a child’s eyes. But at the same time, The Executioner isn’t grimdark for the sake of cheap thrills. The game is trying to say something, and features a solid RPG system that helps me make decisions and learn about the world in a way that helps deliver that message.
The plot, the idea itself is original, which deserves a special advantage. This game stands out for its interesting gameplay. It's a really interesting story, which, like a movie, drags you along. This game - in which you need to think about your every step, action, that creates a lot of branches of development. This game is not as simple as it would seem at first glance, it expects the player to make difficult, morally difficult decisions. For example, torture. I love this genre, so my 10 out of 10 score!
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PC
Good game. quickly immerses and does not let go. Well-written characters, especially the assistant to the protagonist. Great variability in acting out a role. There are many game mechanics in which you can choose how to behave - take the side of evil or maintain your morale.
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PC
The Executioner is uniquely atmospheric and uniquely unfinished.
The Executioner wears its mission on its sleeve: It’s a visual novel that seems grimly determined to immerse the player into the stark realities of the Dark Ages. These are not the Dark Ages from the King Arthur novels, oh no. These are the Dark Ages where even the king led a miserable life and everybody else basically drowns in misery, **** and disease. Lives are cheap, death comes quick and the poor semblance of justice that can be had is found at the sharp edge of the tools of the royal executioner.
Which is you.
The game sells the relentless bleakness hard. A lot of this is the job the player has: Not only are you the man that swings the axe, you are also the man that tortures the confession out of the suspects that justifies swinging the axe. Also also, you’ll be the one cleaning up the bodies.
If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, I hear you. I actually bounced off the game at first, and hard. But I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then I realised: This game is selling a very unique kind of fantasy: Being a righteous man in a terrible time. It presumably also allows you to be a complete monster and revel in the depravity of your profession, but at least in my playthrough, it never quite stepped over the line into edgelord territory. The game isn’t completely dark, either. It will make you work for it, but it does serve up a few kernels of purpose and fulfillment which feel deliciously bittersweet.
Still, it’s a hard game to get through, emotionally, and that’s mostly because the game isn’t a pure visual novel. The most horrifying part of the job, the actual torture, is implemented as a minigame. It’s… a lot. “The Executioner” is very good at making the player feel complicit in the horror it depicts. The very few woodcut-like illustrations in here don’t help either: Their depiction of hopelessness and atrocity is very effective.
Combat is also a minigame, and the protagonist even has an inventory and a skill tree, even though both seem largely inconsequential. Which brings us to the main problem I had with the game: “The Executioner” is woefully unfinished. The plot of the game only covers one chapter and it is painfully obvious that the developers intended to have many more chapters after that. There are several story arcs and all but one just peter out without any kind of resolution. The main plot of this chapter does find a satisfying end but even there the characters clearly haven’t completed their arc yet.
The same can be said about all the gameplay systems. Bugs abound, inconsistencies too, the inventory seems completely useless.
And yet, the prose the game serves is so evocative, challenging and engaging that I can not regret the 3-4 hours and bucks I spent on the game. I can’t say that I have ever played something alike, and that’s… something.
TLDR: IF you are looking to challenge your narrative consuming self and you’ve already finished Spec Ops: The Line, you will find something unique here. Just don’t expect a fun time, or a finished product.
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PC
I am not sure if this was translated or not but there are a lot of mistakes in English and the UI sometimes doesn't show the entire text which is really bad since 90% of this game is only reading.
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PC
Summary The Executioner puts you in the shoes of a man who tortures people for a living while trying to retain his own sanity. In this game the monster isn’t lurking behind you. You are the monster, if you choose to become one.
Platforms:
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
Initial Release Date: Sep 25, 2019
Developer:
- Lesser Evil Games
Publisher: Lesser Evil Games
Genres: