Ok, first impressions: Ugh!

Uuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhh!!!

I don't even mind the sorta ugly pixel art (with the character models that look and move like something straight out of a Cyanide and Happiness cartoon being the worst offenders). But so far it's simply not much fun at all. Yeah, I do enjoy the frequent allusions to those Italian classics. But the actual gameplay is where it's at, and that's where I find this game to be sorely lacking.

The actual gunplay, frankly, sucks. Your pistol feels woefully underpowered. Even on easy it takes a couple of hits to take down an enemy. To make it worse, you run out of bullets after a few shots, so you'll have to reload by clicking the right mouse button. Go in guns blazing and take down a room full of baddies in one decisive strike? You'll be cockblocked by running out of ammo within a second or two and then the flow is already ruined. The weak sound effects do the rest to make the default gun genuinely unsatisfying to use. Italian movies from the era used the most awesome, powerful gun sounds conceivable, but that pistol sounds like a friggin popgun. I'm half-way through the game now (at Chapter 4 of 7) and (aside from a Magnum power-up that is only good for 6 shots) I was never able to pick up any other weapon. The NPCs carry Uzis and Shotguns which look like a lot more fun to use than this shitty-ass gun. The game makes use of health regen and a cover system (and you'll make ample use of this, as you're frequently swarmed with enemies). All of these things combined make sure that you never ever get into the groove of the action.

Similar to Hotline Miami, this makes use of a checkpoint save system (ie. a save every time you enter a new part of the level). Some of these sections are fairly drawn out and it's just frustrating getting one-shotted by the same NPC over and over after a drawn-out nondescript shooting section. But what's really bugging me about the save system: The game doesn't tell you when it does a chapter save. You won't be able to continue from where you left off, you'll have to play the whole chapter again. And it's up to you to guess when this chapter save occurs. Chapter 3 was a long, unending slog that I just wanted to get through ASAP, so I can quit the game and continue with Chapter 4 later. So you have shooting, boss battle, chase scene, shooting, another boss battle, another excruciatingly long chase scene, and so on and so forth. No chapter save in sight. And then, the game threw at me the most annoying section of them all: an instadeath stealth section! Remember the hospital from Hotline Miami? Like that, only a gazillion times worse. I'm talking bullshit design straight from hell: Whereas in Hotline Miami the enemies follow a set patrol route (so you'll eventually get the hang of it), Milanoir's patrol routes seem somewhat randomised - great fun when you have to start all over because some unseen enemy spotted you from the corner of the screen. So I suffer through this damn stealth section for no other reason than not wanting to throw away my previous 1+ hour of progress. Eventually, I made it to a park and a chapter title flashed up. That was the sign that I, hopefully, had made it to the next level. So I quit and, indeed, I could access Chapter 4 now from the menu. And what do you know? Chapter 4 doesn't start at the park. It starts with that godforsaken stealth section. You'll have to suffer through the stealth section every time you want to get to the not-too-fun shooty bits.

Whose idea was it to put a stealth section into this game in the first place? What kind of sick and twisted maniac comes up with something like this?

I'm 1 hour 55 into the game. If this were Steam, I'd be contemplating a refund. There might be a fun game somewhere buried underneath the layers of suckage and I hope the devs will try to unearth that in future patches. My recommendations: Get rid of reloading for the pistol, put in some meaty sound effects, remove or heavily alter the forced stealth sections.

edit: Another thing I forgot to mention: the spacebar. It serves as the all-purpose-button in this game: it lets you climb over obstacles, take cover, crouch, roll on the floor to evade attacks and perform stealth kills. Needless to say that the controls got me killed more often than anything else in the game! I wish I had a dollar for every time I tried to take down an enemy from behind and ended up doing a dodge roll right in front of him.

Game looks really nice, wont' get it because of to many effects/flashes and motions but this game is one of the few new releases that actually look good and fun to play.

10.79 is a very good listprice

This is one of the better games released recently, hats off to the devs.

So if this gem can be released how about getting this gem:

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans ,

okay its almost twice the price : 19.99
but it looks very very good , so i assume this game will be next to arrive ?:D no english audio ? ouch ... that will cost some points
wow.... it looked good ... at first sight ...i guess they will add 3 USD to the listprice or maybe more after they add the requested.
Have you seen the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill game? its 19.99 ( steam only) but the audio sounds good.

not for me, dont like its looks or gameplay, for those that do, enjoy

Ahahahaha, oh wow...

Just pushed myself through Chapter 4 like a trooper (including muh beloved stealth section all over again). After a series of stealth sequence, shootout, shootout, shootout they gave me an uzi! This being Milanoir, that uzi has to be gimped in some way. So it doesn't shoot full-auto, it shoots in bursts of 3 shots. It also has lame sound effects. Still, more satisfying to use than the pistol. The game uses this as an excuse to now throw significantly more enemies at you in very confined spaces (including axe-wielding thugs that one-hit-kill you on top of uzi and shotgun carrying thugs). So after a bunch more shootouts and a boss battle, I get to the obligatory chase scene/boss battle: you're racing a streetcar, while trying to shoot the thugs in another streetcar.

Here's where it got nasty. Apparently the aspect ratio (which defaulted to 1280x720 on my computer) led to the picture getting cropped on the sides. Even after I eliminated all the enemies, I keep hearing gunshots and eventually died. Turns out that there is one unseen enemy that keeps killing me. I can't even aim at the guy and try to shoot in the dark, no matter if I have aim assist turned on or off. Worse yet: I can't even change the resolution during a mission. I had to quit and now I have to play all that shit over again (in the vague hope that the resolution is correct now and I won't have to keep starting all over again because the game won't display a single enemy - which I won't find out until after about a half hour of gameplay that I'm not particularly enthusiastic about playing again)!

Seriously, I think I've had it with this thing...

the cool thing about bad games is that one really feels like they accomplished something upon completion. lol.

@fronzelneekburm: Thank yout for the detailed review. I had this wishlisted instantly since I am also interested in Gallo and Golem. Your review helped me to decide which ones to buy and it's not this game - even though I am a fan of Tarantino and the 70s. If the gameplay is just that bad (especially the save system is a real no go) I don't care if the story or atmospere might capture me. I want to enjoy a game and not be tortured by it.

Really? I played that, it's really not good. Your character can hard or soft punch and move up,down,left,right. That is it. Not even a jump. Had a fun concept that was never realised, story is dull, locations are bland, enemies all look the same, linear. Shame as it had promise. Maybe it's more interesting for those who knew the main protagonists, I didn't.

Too bad, at glance it seemed good...

Imo it looks pretty boring and repetitive (watching gameplay) - and I love those two and their movies.

Yep. It looks interesting from the screenshots, and they could have gone a long way with and the Wild West theme. It's just too plain and repetitive though.

It's a complete fan service game, and it seems to have been received very well in those circles. The films were linear, repetitive, and most of the enemies looked the same, but we still love them =D

Oh, and I do appreciate every time there is one of those very rare games that don't have a jumping mechanic. I don't understand video games' obsession with jumping (and jetpacks, and portals, and grappling hooks). And it usually bugs me. I never jump in real life =P

Don't mind not jumping, it's the lack of doing anything which is the problem. Just keep bashing the one button, no point even using hard punch.

Yep, this is it, thanks! ;)

Looks nice, basically "top down", pixelly and gory Scarface-ish.

Always funny to see that GOG is fighting with their own forum. I would be ashamed to post such hyperlinks in a newspost (and used workarounds in my own thread which looks better than "this").