Entertainment

Games: Japanese gumshoe beat-em-up Judgement pushes PS4 tech to 'insane levels'

Judgement pushes the tech to insane levels, with lifelike facial animations and gorgeous textures
Judgement pushes the tech to insane levels, with lifelike facial animations and gorgeous textures Judgement pushes the tech to insane levels, with lifelike facial animations and gorgeous textures

Judgement (PS4)

By: Sega

FOR my money, Columbo was the perfect TV show. The cycloptic lieutenant may have looked like he slept in a bin, but there was no better gumshoe for luring murderous gadabouts into trench-coated traps.

However, I can only assume it was a common complaint that the series never exploited Peter Falk's athletic physique or ability to exist in Japan, where – high on primo sake – he could mercilessly pummel folk into the ground with his thick, hairy knuckles.

Well dream no more, my friends, as Sega has turned that dream into, well, a game. And rather than shambling around in a cloud of cigar smoke, our Far Eastern flatfoot can take a punch.

With 2016's Yakuza 6 giving the legendary Kazuma Kiryu a fitting farewell, Judgement marks a sweet return to where it all began – the city of Kamurocho. While fans have had a bellyful of this place, never before have they roamed its seedier side as a private eye.

Across a series of hardboiled TV-style procedurals (complete with "Previously on" recaps), players follow disgraced lawyer turned detective Takayuki Yagami as he takes the law into his own fists, investigating a serial killer with a penchant for removing Yakuza eyeballs.

Series vets will be in familiar territory with this wrong 'un banger-upper as they punch faces and build cases in Tokyo's viceland. Rather than stoic heroics, the focus here is on gathering evidence and trailing suspects, while keeping a careful bead on people around you.

There are locks to pick and informants to bribe while Yagami's arsenal includes app-connected drones and dodgy disguises. And when you tire of the procedural, pent-up frustration can be released on the mugs of street punks.

With fistfights aplenty, Yagami juggles standard, heavy and finishing blows, shifting between two fighting styles and using street junk as weapons.

Being a Yakuza game, Judgement is stuffed with distractions and loopy side-quests, be it playing match-maker, helping a clairvoyant or testing your landlady's home cooking. You can indulge in mah-jong, sock a few balls at the batting centre or take up residence in Kamurocho's Club Sega arcades, where Fighting Vipers, Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier rub shoulders with brand new rail-shooter Kamuro of The Dead.

Running on the Dragon Engine developed for Yakuza 6, Judgement pushes the tech to insane levels, with lifelike facial animations and gorgeous textures. It's also the first game since the original PS2 Yakuza to include a full English dub, though purists should still reach for the Japanese audio with subtitles.

With brains and brawn, Judgement is a unique twist on the Yakuza formula, offering 60-odd hours of top sleuthing and plenty of meat-and-spuds violence.