Feature: Going Platinum #10: Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut

Platinum Trophy #10: Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut

Date Earned: 7th October 2018

Dopamine Index:

Comedy is incredibly difficult to get right, and that goes double for video games.

When the player is in control of the action, the developer essentially relinquishes most of its control over a game’s carefully constructed jokes. Many games have funny moments, but they’re usually found within more directed sequences like cutscenes or scripted events.

Jazzpunk’s solution is to basically stuff every corner of its short espionage adventure with micro-jokes, visual gags, and unexpected dialogue. The result is a very strange game with an unusual sense of humour, but if you’re on its wavelength, it works brilliantly.

I was about four years late to the party on this one, but somehow had managed to avoid spoilers, so all the game’s daft jokes were fresh for me.

It’s a sort-of open world adventure game, set in a surrealist landscape clearly inspired by spoof comedy films.

You play as a secret agent who is given a series of bizarre missions to carry out, and while you need to complete certain objectives to progress the story, you’re free to explore each level at your leisure.

It’s well worth doing so, as there are countless incidental jokes and funny moments spread across each stage.

Without spoiling things, it’s a difficult game to describe, but if you’re in the mood for something unapologetically silly with some truly absurd and hilarious moments, I’d highly recommend Jazzpunk.

Removed from context, the game’s Trophy list is insane. Among other things, you need to spray people with pheromones, capture spiders in a restaurant, use a bidet, and apply liberal amounts of lipstick to yourself.

It’s a very easy platinum. At the time of writing, 54.1 per cent of players have earned it, which is an uncommonly high percentage for a plat.

That’s probably down to a couple of things; the Trophies are all quite simple to attain, and Jazzpunk itself only runs a couple of hours or so.

It might be an easy list, but for whatever reason, it took me ages to get the plat. Looking back, it seems I played this through a handful of times between 2016 and 2018, so it took me the best part of two years to get around to it.

I think all that says is that I wasn’t really playing it for the Trophies, but that maybe changed when I played it the last time, as I only had a couple to go.

Anyway, Jazzpunk. There aren’t many games that shoot for comedy and get it right, but this is one that does.

Cheers, Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut.

Do you have the platinum Trophy in Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut? Let us know in the comments section below.