Review: Blue Estate | Xbox One

Move over Lara Croft’s bottom because there is a new booty on the Xbox to enjoy. Ladies and gentlemen… Well, mainly gentlemen meet Cherry Popz, the stunning stripper who stars in Victor Kalvachev’s Blue Estate, the new light gun-inspired shooter by HE SAW. But are the strippers and novelty controls the only things going for this on-rails shooter?

First and foremost, Blue Estate is a Kinect game. It might have come out on PS4 first and may have controller support, but for the best experience, this game has to be played with a fake gun of choice standing in front of your big-screen TV. I remember when the arcade classic Operation Wolf came out on my spectrum. Trying to play it with a keyboard and joystick definitely killed the experience.

Unlike the Operation Wolf port, Blue Estate looks great and sounds fantastic. The voice acting is as over-the-top as the script and if you are easily offended or part of the ‘PC-gone-mad’ brigade I would avoid this at all costs. Blue estate shows women in demeaning roles, racial stereotypes and animal cruelty… But it’s funny, so it’s fine!

The story is adapted from the critically acclaimed Blue Estate graphic novel by Viktor Kalvachev. You play Tony Luciano, the psychopathic son of the Italian mafia godfather and Clarence, an ex-Navy SEAL, penniless and now a hit-man bent on cleaning up the mess started by Tony. The two characters play slightly differently due to their differing weapon load-outs, but it’s marginal when you are simply moving a cursor around a screen. Swipe gestures allow you to pick up objects and ammo and you can even swipe to remove Tony’s grease fringe from your field of view.

Blue Estate may not win any awards for graphics or writing, but it is actually one the best adult Kinect games out there if you are looking for a bit of fun. Sadly, a BIT of fun is all you will get, as the game is short at just over three hours and apart from the two-player mode and point-attack mode there is not much here that breaks the on-rail shooter mold. I love the fact that this game exists, as it fills me with retro nostalgia whilst looking looks great. I only wish it was more successful, so they could present the business case for making some of the other arcade shooters (House of the Dead, Time Crisis, and Aliens Extermination). Overall, Blue Estate is silly fun with adult themes and a hot stripper. It’s been on sale twice, so you can be sure to pick it up cheap on the Xbox One Store and I recommend you use a toy gun, as it adds to the overall experience, which is wild, wacky and downright offensive.