Fuhrer in L.A is a top-down action game that has us playing as Adolf Hitler. As fate would have it, that sneaky son of a gun had a backup plan during the last moments of WW2 and shipped himself to Brazil. At least that was the plan as he now awakens to find himself in Los Angeles, California. His first plan of action is to escape the museum he currently finds himself in and link up with some Nazi special agents. That is if he can make use of his environments and close-ranged melee attacks to overwhelm the museum’s security forces impeding his way.
No clue why they want to kill us on sight, but Adolf is just as eager to throw-down. A single swipe with his cane is enough to take down most enemies, yet at the cost of somehow getting close enough to do so. Scattered throughout some levels are one-time use weapons that allow for ranged attacks. These come in the form of pipes you yank off of objects, vases, and guns to name a few. As silly as the entire concept of this game is, it actually carries a rather eerie tone to it alongside its tongue in cheek nature. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the visceral way your opponents are taken down, which reminds me of titles like Manhunt or Hatred.
When an opponent is unaware of your presence, you can at times find ways to kill them without a struggle such as violently rolling a heavy container towards them. It is more of a neat gimmick than anything. This is in no way a stealth game, and it won’t be long before you are faced with many more foes. There is a wide variety of enemies you’ll battle throughout your nine-level journey. The most basic of these are the security guards, which pose very little threat, though can overwhelm in sheer numbers if not careful. Some enemy types carry guns, others throw bottles, and one is even immune to damage until you dodge their attacks long enough to wind them.
It honestly has far more effort put into it than I was expecting from this meme game. Sadly, a few aspects do hold it back. Chief among these are the slow moment speed of your character as he limps around the level. That makes it a pain to take down those aforementioned enemies that are immune to damage unless you can wind them. It felt more like sheer luck if you’ll be able to avoid their attacks long enough and then run to hit him before he regains his composure. Second, are the hitboxes. These can be quite jank at times, especially in stages that have vehicles in them. You’ll find yourself getting run over and losing a ton of health while seemingly being nowhere near the car. That combined with the slow movement makes crossing a highway full of speeding vehicles a pain.
Thankfully, the levels are really quite short. Most can be beaten in a few minutes if you are skilled enough or have the level down. It isn’t a particularly challenging title, but a few of these stages are difficult enough to likely make up the bulk of your playtime. In total, I spent 32 minutes until I reached the end credits and there is nothing else to see after that or any replay value. Being a game priced at a measly two dollars, that is fine, in my opinion. Furher in LA greatly changes things up every stage and lacks any filler levels. From using my mech suit to fight off the US army to piloting a UFO, it is always full of surprises.
All of these levels are entirely linear. Your task is always to reach the end of it and there is nothing to see off the beaten path for those that like to explore. The pressure is always ramped so high, you likely won’t be tempted too. That in combination with the fact that the camera is off-centered and is only moved as you walk towards the edge of a screen would make it a pain. As is, the camera is annoying, yet you always know exactly where to go despite the pitiful view distance from how close you have to be to the edge your moving towards.
There is no controller support here. You’ll use the cursor keys to move, A to interact, and the Spacebar to attack. While in tanks or mechs the A key also switches weapons. Mystifyingly enough, that is not an option while on foot. In a certain section, it tasks you with breaking down a fence right after getting a gun. That will force you to waste precious ammo as you shoot at the fence instead of using a melee attack. Whether that was trolling or bad game design I do not know, but it did detract from the experience a bit. Luckily that wasn’t a common occurrence. Not much of anything is really. This title is all too eager to show you the next trick up its sleeve and changing things up, so it doesn’t leave much time to dwell on specific flaws that could have been a huge problem if they tried to make a coherent game.
With all that said, I don’t mean to say it is good either. It ends up being just acceptable as you trudge your way to the next goofy cutscene and see what other ideas the dev throws at us. All of them have flaws, especially the Shmup section, yet were serviceable enough to be playable at least. The on-foot normal sections were the areas where this game showed serious potential. If they tightened up its loose ends and polished it, they could create something quite fun. At the end of the day, what we have is Adolf Hitler beating down an entire dojo of Karate users with his pimp cane. If that’s not a selling point, I don’t know what is. Joking aside, you should only buy the Fuhrer in LA for a laugh, considering you are into dumb and loud edgy humor. As a game, it lacks the fun, polish, or playtime value to recommend to those just looking to spend a lazy afternoon on a cheap title without liking its explicit type of comedy.
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