Is this Indie FPS suffering from two left feet, or will it be a shoe-in for Game of the Year? Let’s find out in our Anger Foot Review!

I first got to experience Anger Foot during the 7DFPS game jam in 2020. Experiencing this ultra-violent, bass-thumping action kicker had all the dopamine receptors in my brain working overtime. The original demo was kick-ass, well-polished, and clearly oozing with potential. Just over 3 years on and Free Lives are finally releasing Anger Foot in 1.0. Armed with plenty of toilet humour and rocking a hyper-stylish cartoony aesthetic, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Anger Foot aims to have you collecting kills and sneakers by shoe-ting through waves of goons. Find out more in our Anger Foot Review!

Anger Foot Review – Story

Shit City is about as aptly named as you can get. It’s the premier realm of violence, debauchery, and general scumbaggedness. After getting your primo sneakers stolen by the 4 gangs that rule the city, you take off to get your revenge and reclaim your lost footwear. Anger Foot’s narrative feels like a means to an end, which I wasn’t entirely surprised by. While the simple story beats give the protagonist motivation to see through their quest for retribution, there’s no real development to be found anywhere in the plot.

Boot Crocs with your Crocs!

In between bouts of action, there are areas of Shit City where you get a chance to talk to the local goons and hoodlums, providing plenty of one-liners and situational jokes that will get a chuckle from the player on occasion. The unfortunate reality, however, is that Anger Foot’s type of comedy is very one-note. The world is rife with toilet humour, literally. There’s unfortunately only so many times you can shoot someone taking a dump before it stops being funny, and that’s about the second or third time.

Anger Foot Review – Gameplay

Across Anger Foot’s 6–8-hour campaign is a promised 63 stages for the player to blast their way through. With a steady pace from start to finish, you’ll encounter new types of enemies consistently, providing a new weapon with (almost) every new grunt that is thrown in your path. Accompanying the arsenal of guns at your disposal are your trusty trotters, booting goons into next week at the press of a button.

Weapons range from simple pistols to plungers and more!

Many levels in Anger Foot feel far too familiar and often lead to confusion when navigating around. Many dead ends and double-backing rooms hinder the player’s flow state and often lead to a break in immersion. To the game’s credit, there are a number of stand-out stages that are simply perfect, none that I care to spoil in this review as they are much better if you experience them for yourself. The latter half of the game is far more polished in this sense, featuring many large spectacle fights with more engaging level design.

Toilet humour is severely lacking in this day and age.

Another thing Anger Foot suffers from is boring and janky boss fights, these rows are often turn-based battles in disguise as an FPS. The boss making the player wait out their period of invulnerability (sometimes upward of a minute at a time) only to be immediately felled by 2 or 3 seconds of shooting. This left me wanting more, each chapter builds up a great amount of tension between the player and these intimidating gang leaders — only to fall flat on its face repeatedly when executing the climax.

Funny scenes like this can be found in the quieter moments of Anger Foot.

If you’re finding yourself getting cold feet when approaching a level, then slap on some sandals or a pair of penny loafers. Anger Foot boasts a total of 23 different shoes to unlock during stages throughout the game. Each set of sneakers affects gameplay differently, either giving you an extra jump, an extra kick to your kick, an extra life (these ones have a secret ability), and more. I found only sticking to a few functional pairs throughout my first playthrough of the game, only experimenting with new footwear after going back to repeat older levels.

Anger Foot Review – Visuals

Shit City looks anything but shit. The stylish, cartoony aesthetic flare that Anger Foot exudes makes it instantly recognizable. Environments are intentionally ugly and jarring, with every square inch of the City being filled with trash and sewerage, walls have graffiti scrawled all over, cans of energy drinks and empty beer bottles are scattered al-throughout. This all emphasizes just how far gone the world of Anger Foot really is.

Items regularly litter every inch of a stage, making it difficult to make out important elements.

Gang territories are visually distinct, with each one having its own theme based around criminality. The Pollution Gang lives in a festering sewer filled with discarded waste and glowing sewerage, while the Business Gang features board rooms, offices, and opulent executive suites. Enemy design is another major highlight, with defined and interesting-looking foes. Functionally, these goons are immediately recognizable against the environment during gameplay — something crucial when playing a fast-paced, high-action shoe-ter. If it moves, you’d best boot and shoot it.

If you hear a shout, look out!

Conversely, there are some important elements of the environment that get lost in the mass of visual clutter that fills each stage — specifically, door switches. Too many a-time was I searching back and forth for a lever so I could continue kicking ass, only for it to be on a wall three rooms back. When speed is a factor, details matter. Funnily enough, there are always giant arrow signs directing the player where to go, however it always feels like just another element to the visual cacophony.

Anger Foot Review – Audio

Anger Foot’s soundtrack is one of the most aggressive OSTs in any game I’ve ever played. Complimenting the hyper-violent gameplay perfectly, the bass-heavy techno beats are veritable head bangers that keep the energy at a maximum. While outside of combat, the track becomes muted — only to kick in at full force again once in the presence of enemies, further driving the player to always be in the fray.

Not to be ignored and forgotten, Anger Foot’s sound effects are just as fulfilling. Listening to the cracks and crunches of doors splintering underneath your foot never gets old, and each weapon is uniquely satisfying to hear when firing. Most sound effects outside of direct combat take a backseat, focusing the player’s attention on what matters most. Goons will grunt and cry out as they fall to the ground dead. Deadlier enemies will announce their presence during stages, giving the player enough notice to survive an ambush from a goon peaking from behind a corner or from being blown to smithereens whilst trying to fight other mobs.

Anger Foot Review – What Else?

Many of Anger Foot’s 30 achievements can be obtained through regular play, with the remainder being discovered through exploration and experimentation which are often tied to completing funny objectives in the transitional areas between levels. Players aware of Free Lives previous games may also recognize the BroForce Arcade Cabinet floating around in a handful of levels, a nice reference giving gamers something to break up gameplay for a minute or two.

Immaculate vibes from this bloke!

If you want to have a full footlocker of all available galoshes in the game, players are tasked with obtaining stars in each stage by completing extra challenges. These can range from easy-ish tasks like beating a level under a specific time or foregoing guns and simply stomping your way through the course to harder tasks like taking no damage on a given stage and clearing a course with certain footwear.

Get in my face and I’ll kick your face!

For completionists there are 180 stars to collect, no easy-feet! Luckily, unlocking every pair of shoes only requires the average player to gather 95 — with 63 of those being rewarded by simply beating the game. Further into the campaign, it becomes apparent that there are challenges that require a specific shoe without the description explicitly saying so. Beat challenges to unlock shoes, use shoes to beat challenges. It’s a nice loop that I think players will be invested in, so long as they enjoy the base game.

Anger Foot Review – Conclusion

Anger Foot turned a brilliant and engaging game demo into an ok full release. It feels like Free Lives took their winning formula and tacked on mediocre features to pad content. Its level design may stumble a bit early on but the game catches its footing by the latter half of the campaign. Anger Foot has a solid core, making sure to prioritize the key details in both visuals and audio — essential for the type of game this is. It’s just unfortunate how much the lower moments in the game tragically drag the greater parts down.

Kicking is good but a shotgun is always a bloody good time.

So, why should you play Anger Foot?

• Fast-paced, kick-ass action throughout
• Stylish Aesthetic that catches your attention and keeps it
• Banging soundtrack that pumps you up

But why shouldn’t you play Anger Foot?

• Writing is weak and humour is one-note
• Bosses are a massive let down
• Not a whole load of replayability outside of collecting stars

A review code was kindly provided by Devolver Digital for the purpose of our Anger Foot review.  You can check out our other reviews here and if you haven’t already, be sure to join the Qualbert Discord to find out about the latest game and review updates!