I Am Your Beast First Impressions/Review/Breakdown

I Am Your Beast Review: John Wick on Acid

I Am Your Beast is a revenge thriller, that instead of giving you the powerful weapons to take down your foes, it turns the tables, by giving the enemies the weapons & saying to you "You want that weapon? Take it!". This game has the element of throw-and-stun system, where you throw the empty weapon in your hand to your enemies to stun them, taking their weapon in the process & killing them with said weapon you taken from them. Like Hotline Miami, but contrary to HM, this game focuses on speed & style, not just style & clearing floors in 1 go.  I Am Your Beast is a game that makes you feel like John Wick , with the art style of XIII & adrenaline fueled combos & kills, a la Mullet Mad Jack. A humorous game, with great voice acting & characters/story, I Am Your Beast is clever, fresh, funny & nail-biting at various corners. Cutscenes also feeling like a Metal Gear-esque radio transmission screen/conversations, without the faces, just the voices with subtitles. Also featuring a fantastic soundtrack, that makes your heart race, keeps you pumped & in the zone to take down the bastards that came to destroy your home. First released on iOS on August 18th 2024, with a PC release a month later on September 10th 2024, then following with the releases this year for Xbox Series X/S & PS5 respectively, on June 25th 2025. 

MODES:

When you play the game, you're greeted with 4 (Now new) sections of the game: Story, Challenges, COI Support Group & the new set, Cold Sweat. The multiple modes & the fact you have to do certain feats to unlock some of the levels in said modes, adds plenty of replayability to the game, which is always welcomed in games in my opinion.

Story is exactly what it is, and ideally where you should start. The story of the game is: You are Alphonse Harding, one of COI's best agents, now retired. You've been asked to do "1 MORE JOB" way, way too many times, and the job you've now been asked to do, isn't your territory. Now being hunted, throughout the North American Wilderness, They come to your peaceful place & caused trouble, now they'll pay for it.  With the aid of a rogue helicopter pilot who works for the COI, you'll take them down, by any means necessary. 

Challenges is a set of levels which are unlocked through the game as you play (by earning S ranks & completing optional objectives during story missions, I cover these on here, keep reading for more on those!) & tests your speed/skill.

COI Support Group is a hilarious & very intense /fun take on a new mode, which takes place after the story, so this should be played after the story is completed (won't make sense otherwise, the game states this). Basically another story mode, this mode is centered around a support group in the COI, as the soldiers there, are PETRIFIED of your character, Alphonse Harding, talking like he's the boogeyman. The mode is not only very difficult in places, but also addictively enjoyable & hysterical at points. 

Cold Sweat is the new mode that got added last in the final update for the game, which is the hardest the game can offer: long levels, with plenty of snipers, traps & lasers. This mode is a REAL test of your skill for this game. A very difficult mode admittedly, but still fun nonetheless.

ELEMENTS:

Now to mention different elements to the game: ranking system, time system, tips & tricks & optional objectives.

The ranking system: throughout the game, you are graded on your speed & style in the game. The quicker & more efficient you are, the better you are. You want to use anything & everything you find. Gun? Take. Knife? Take. Tree branch? Take. In the game, the best rank you can achieve is an S rank, with the worst being a D rank (much like Hotline Miami as mentioned beforehand). Now you'll want to increase that, but how? That's where the Time System comes in: using certain weapons/doing certain actions makes your rank better & you become faster by removing time. What do I mean by this? So a standard kill won't help you here. In I Am Your Beast, HEADSHOTS are your baseline kills. Certain actions all give a number of time back to your timer, making you faster. A normal kill will return 0.3 seconds, not enough. Headshots are 0.5, better on time & your ammo. Headshots give 0.5 seconds back, Throwing knife kills give 0.7 seconds, stomping finishers give 0.8 seconds, etc. All of your kills & what you use, play into how quick & effective you are against the ever growing horde of COI agents sent after you. 

Optional Objectives add some extra replayability to your story playthrough, by adding side objective that can be accomplished during your runs, or after you've finished (I typically used to do those when I was stuck on a level in general & wanted more chill, as it does not matter how long you take for the optional objectives).

Some tips & tricks I can share with you, is these: When stomping an enemy, jump & stomp them. When doing it normally, Harding slows down. If you jump & stomp, you don't slow down, keeping your flow going & not losing speed. 

Another main tip I can give as well is, when gaining more time, prioritise: explosions, jumping stomps, bear trap/hornet kills & sniper collaterals. These give you nice time: stomps give 0.8 seconds per kill, explosions/bear traps & hornet nest all give 1 second per kill & sniper collaterals give 1 second as well but also add chain kill, which adds another second for each chain (example; a sniper collateral with 4 kills is 4 seconds: 1 second for sniper collat, 2 kills or more quick kills is classed as a chain which is 1 second with 2 more kills behind that, is 3 seconds, totalling 4 seconds for 1 bullet).  There's an array of videos/guides online showing what's best for combos, what routes are quickest & most efficient, etc.

But overall? This game is fantastic & also claims to be in the top 50 of most liked games for 2024 on Steam, and it difficult to see different. It is a very intense, adrenaline fueled, dopamine feeding, badass game that makes you literally feel like John Wick, with a beautiful art style/atmosphere, a compelling story, characters, voice acting & a gripping soundtrack. I loved playing this game, and still play it, despite 100% it in Achievements, but still having plenty of replayability. With a price tag no more than $20, and a game that's worth every penny in my opinion, you should pick this gem up.

OVERALL SCORE?

9.5/10.