Bank Job: Help Paulie escape the most secure bank in the world!
Ever feel like the banks are robbing us of all our cash? No problem! The developers at Screwtape Studios have made this light hearted way to get your own money back.
Gameplay: You play as Paulie Barbosa and the rough aim is to travel as far as possible in the bank vault with your sack of cash. When you touch on the screen you’ll stand up against the wall and in doing so you’ll avoid the high-tech security lasers in the vault. But of course, this is no normal bank… in fact it’s like a huge dungeon full of spikes, anvils and spinning grinders. Bizarrely there’ll be various items rolling across the floor including gems, wads of notes, piggy banks, Faberge Eggs… and… bombs. Being the helpful burglar that you are, of course you’re going to lend a helping hand by collecting the valuables floating around. You think it stops there?… oh no… this ultra secure prison bank has a huge sewer line running through it!! (… a very clean one at that too!) Anyway… so you get the picture… it’s a rather intriguing setup which is very enlightening.
So in a nutshell, this is a runner-type game where you want to travel as far as possible without dying. Around the core gameplay there’s a mini mission list – much like in Jetpack Joyride. These smaller targets break up the monotony of the runner game and vastly increase a player’s interest in the game. After every set of three missions, you’ll be given another set of targets. It’s not entirely obvious, but we think that your robber rank increases with every set of aims completed.
Paulie has 2 detection lives, which means that you can be hurt/detected twice before ending your running streak. But if you’re only hurt once, then you can revitalise yourself by walking through a checkpoint – this will also bank your loot into your account. In case you’re particularly bad at avoiding any obstacles, then you can purchase a variety of special hats to boost your defenses.
Graphics: Everything in the game is a well stylised cartoony 3D. All the grinders, spikes, anvils, and items are fully 3D animated, thus making this a very elegant and pretty game. You can even equip Paulie with different hats, and these are also added correctly onto the 3D models.
Music and Sound Effects: The jazzy music seems pretty good because it sets the mood and doesn’t seem to be too distracting. There could perhaps be a little bit more refinement in the tracks, or maybe they could have a different tune when Paulie is in the sewer. But otherwise, the sounds effects are themed to perfection and make the game lively.
Gutfeel: The whole stopping mechanism to avoid obstacles makes this a slow paced game, and there’s a lot of time to think about your moves. Although this may make it seem like there’s not enough difficulty in Bank Job, it’s actually surprisingly easy to die at some points. Nonetheless, this is still very decent survival game. If you’re not very good at high paced runner games, then you’ll probably enjoy this because you can survive for a very long time.
Something very subtle in this game are the gems… its not easy to spot at first, but the jewels are thrown at you at specific times. They often come out when you’re on a run and make you feel good about playing the game. (Eventhough sometimes they’re just there to tempt you into a hazard!)
Rating: 4/5 Bank Job is a refreshing change from the common runner games out there. It’s very addictive and easy to play…. and most importantly – it’s free! Interestingly, it has various gameplay strategies to it so it doesn’t feel monotonous. We’re quite sure that this game will only get better as the developers release future updates.
Bank Job Promotional Video
Bank Job Tips from Android Games Review:
- Walking along the top has the feeling of more space and thus it should be easier, but actually we found it harder to travel along because the spikes seem much more hidden, and the anvils create tougher scenarios to dodge.
- Looking at our statistics, we travelled along the sewer much more than the surface because it’s more controlled and the obstacles are more apparent. The trade-off here is that there are no checkpoints in the sewer. This means that if you hurt yourself or you want to bank your cash, then you’ll need to go topside to reach the checkpoints.
- When you start initially, focus on familiarising yourself with the patterns of traps. Don’t be tempted to your death because of gems.
- Watch out for bombs hidden amongst the gems!
- Once you’re familiar with the traps then get used to stopping a little space before them. This will let you stutter back and forth to collect the gems which often appear when you’re stopped near traps.
- Although jewels are incredibly valuable in real life, they’re pretty worthless here. Presumably this is because you can’t sell them for a good price. Eventually you should remember to dive for the Faberge Eggs, piggy banks and wads of notes because they’re worth more.
- Before buying a hat, look at your playing stats and think about the value you get from buying one. Will you be able to recoup the money you spend on the hat? It’s probably highly unlikely that you’ll be able to earn your money back without a long concentrated playing session.
Developers: Screwtape Studios
Bank Job QR Code
(Click on the image below or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play)
