At Sundown – Shots in the Dark
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Mild Beast Games
Published By : Versus Evil
Category : Action, Arcade, Multiplayer
Released : Jan 22, 2019

At Sundown for the Nintendo Switch, is a top-down multiplayer shooter with a heavy stealth aspect. Built for up to four players, the game offers both on and offline modes and a unique style of gameplay that can be a put-off at first. But, once you get used to it and understand it better, this game is incredibly tough to put down.

One thing I would like to note right off the bat in this review, is the issues I had with the generic online matchmaking. More specifically, how it appeared to not work. I would queue up a search for a match, only to not find one at all. Now…as concerning as this is, I also don’t want to fully fault the game for it because there could be any number of reasons why I experienced this issue : level differential, latency issues. However, I can confirm that the online service for this game does work period because I was able to bank in a handful of matches with my TSE team-member Brett.

The game is absolutely playable offline as well, offering both a challenge mode to keep you busy, and an option to fill up the free-for-all mode with bots. These bots can be customized to their difficulty as well so you can tone them down to gather your wits, then crank ’em up to see if you can hang.

Regardless of how you play, the experience is quite the same. At Sundown offers a number of different zones, each with a handful of maps to shake the arena up. You’ll get to choose from one of four fighters which, during my time with the game I couldn’t notice any difference between them. So if there is one, it’s quite minimal. You’ll pick a weapon to start with, but these can be swapped out at will during the game between spawns, and lastly set up your rules : do you want to play against the clock, or a score limit?

Once you’re in the arena, all hell breaks loose. You’ll notice right off the bat that some areas are bathed in light, while others are heavily secured in the shadows. This is what plays into the games stealth element. If you remain in the shadows, you effectively become invisible, which operates as sort of a Catch 22. It makes it hard for you to see yourself, but it’s just as hard for your opponents. The one thing that works in your favor is the game’s rumble feature. If you end up running into any sort of hard surface, the joy-con’s will vibrate to indicate such, so if you’re keeping at least a rough eye on your position, this feature may help.

Everything else just comes down to who’s got the better aim, reactions, and situational awareness. You’ll run around, trying to stay hidden from your foes while also trying to discover where they are. The weapon you start with is a choice between a shotgun, some revolvers, a machine gun, but these can end up being swapped out for much more powerful ones that can spawn sporadically in the arenas such as big lasers and Claymore swords. Whoever survives the onslaught and comes out on top will be the victor, and then it’s rinse and repeat as much as you want.

At Sundown has been an amazing experience to play. Like I said in the beginning it’s a bit weird to get used to at first. I wasn’t sure if being invisible was intended or not, but I quickly realized the games light-and-dark system and fell in love with it. It’s also worth noting that playing against people you know is much more favorable than playing against the bots, but that generally goes without saying.

Final Verdict

At Sundown is a wild good time. Without being able to really offer an opinion on the online matchmaking services, I’d have to say make sure you’re going into getting this game with people to play against. The challenges and bot-matches are fun, but they run their course quickly. It is, however, an amazing game that you should definitely convince others to buy with you, there will be absolutely no regrets I can guarantee it!