Laika: Aged Through Blood
by Brainwash Gang
Finished: ✓I really like this game.
2D Metroidvania where you're a coyote named Laika and you ride on a motorbike and shoot enemies while doing backflips in a post-apocalyptic world. Heck yeah.
My first impression of the game was that the 2D physics-based movement reminds me of a lot of certain flash games. Things like Line Rider, Red Ball, Earn to Die, or, god forbid, Happy Wheels. I say this as a high compliment: it has a sense of playfulness in its design that loads of games from that era had. You can almost see the game's core concepts stemming from the idea of "wouldn't it be really cool if..."
You have a limited amount of bullets in your magazine and you need to do a backflip to reload (cool idea) and you can block bullets from hitting you by shielding yourself with your bike (really cool idea). It is incredibly fun to ride up to a squad of enemies and unload every bullet that you have to dispatch them with precision, all while doing jumps, backflips, and loops. All of the enemy spawning locations are consistent, so each subsequent trip through the areas becomes a rehearsal for this very specific dance between you and the enemies. There's something special about doing a wheelie while charging a machine gun turret to block shots, and then swiftly finishing off the enemy with a bullet as you drive past it.
It's very easy to die if you aren't paying attention. Enemies shoot at you and if you get hit once you die. Also, if you hit your head on the ground, you die. So you have to juggle making sure you don't get shot and also making sure you land your jumps properly in order to survive. That slight initial friction of reckoning with the controls only makes your subsequent mastery of the bike even more satisfying. At the beginning, I struggled with the concepts of "turning around", "going up ramps", and "making sure you don't land on your head", but I got better at maneuvering to the point where it became natural. I love the sense of physicality that the bike gives you while playing the game. Where you get shot can be the difference between dying or blocking the bullet. You end up developing a sense for your current rotation in space and can take advantage of it. This concept isn't something that I see a lot in games, so it's always fun to see a game play with the idea. The nature of how easy it is to die still leaves room for a bit of comedy here and there. Sometimes, you will be the greatest gun-slinging coyote that has ever lived, expertly weaving through enemy bullets while taking down a whole squad with perfect accuracy (Laika is just that skilled). Other times, you will be the silliest buffoon that probably shouldn't have access to a gun or a motorcycle (it's the player's fault).
The game is absolutely gorgeous. I think that its willingness to lean into the blood and gore is really cool as well, and it's done in a way that really enhances the feel of the game. Enemies pop like balloons, painting you and the environment red as you ride around and do combat. I like the way that the smooth, solid lines and textures contrasts with the blood, and grunge, and dirtiness of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Everywhere in the game, from the world, to the UI, has a sort of run-down look to it. Everything is still surviving, but has aged in a world that has not been kind to it.
All of the music in the game has this wistful and somber feel to it. The music sounds as if it is kindling the last bit of hope left in the world. Some of the songs really got stuck in my head long after I finished the game. I love how most of the music you hear in the game is through a barely functioning cassette player that Laika listens to as she rides alone through the world.
I highly recommend checking this game out.
(In this next section, I'll be talking about specific story details from the whole game)
The story itself is pretty good. Coyote mother goes on a quest to save her village from the violent occupation of birds. Though, I feel like its best moments are the ones in between all of the action. Beyond the guns and gore is a gripping story about motherhood, generational trauma, and the world that we leave for those that come after us.
The women in Laika's lineage have the curse of immortality, which is passed down from mother to daughter while going through puberty (a milestone that is often never reached for children in this world). Laika bears the curse, so she has to shoulder an entire village's worth of burdens because she is the only one that can venture out into the dangerous world and come back after a likely death. As is the case for all women in her line, Laika was trained at an early age by her mother, Maya, to fit this role: to be a ruthless killer that can survive in the world. The many side quests that you can do for your community provide a lot of insight into what kind of person Laika is. In the quest menu for each fetch quest, we get a bit of writing from Laika's point of view about the task and, the person who asked for help. Often, it's her talking about how she should probably focus on saving her village from destruction, but can't help but want to assist the villagers with all of the problems that they have. Although she was trained to be a killer, Laika is sympathetic to the pain that her community is in and wants to help in any way she can. Even if it results in the smallest of comforts, Laika recognizes that those small comforts are the difference between simply surviving and truly living.
Laika has had daughters in the past, but none of them survived long enough to inherit her immortality. After that, she swore off on trying to have a child, but the pressures of passing the curse to the next in line for the sake of the village led her to have her most recent child, Puppy. In fear of another painful goodbye, Laika didn't want to grow attached to Puppy (hence her name), but of course, she couldn't help herself.
At various points in the game, you see certain flashbacks of Laika's past. In one of them, Laika recalls the time when Maya first taught her to use a gun. Laika was working on her new bike while Maya was berating her, calling her useless and weak, but not to worry, because she will turn Laika into a killing machine with whatever it takes. The first time that Laika handles a gun, her aim is shaky and is knocked off of her feet by the recoil. This scene may have hit a bit too close to home for me. I understand the experience of staying silent while your mother is upset and is taking it out on you, essentially speaking at you instead of speaking to you. It’s clear that the way that Laika raises Puppy is a direct response to the way that she was raised by Maya.
Laika's hope for the future, despite everything, and her immense love for her daughter is embodied in the way that she raises Puppy. In contrast to her upbringing, Laika tries to give Puppy as normal of a childhood as she can. Maya raised Laika to live in the world that she would inherit, but Laika raises Puppy to live in the world that she hopes to create before her time is up. This effectively puts a time limit on Laika: Puppy is growing up, so Laika needs to do as much as she can while she still has immortality to make this future a reality. This strains Laika and Puppy's relationship, as Laika is often busy and away, and Maya looks after Puppy when she's gone. In the first quest of the game, Laika writes that she fears the day that Puppy will grow up, perhaps both in terms of Puppy inheriting the curse, and Puppy losing the childhood that Laika tries so hard to make for her. It is in this way that "bleeding" takes a double meaning in the story. Of course, the story is about the ways that Laika's blood is split and the blood that she spills in order to protect her family. However, it is also about Puppy growing up within this blood-soaked environment and, potentially, inheriting the responsibilities that her mother is desperately trying to avoid passing onto her. To me, it was obvious that the story would conclude with Laika sacrificing herself. Of course she wouldn't hesitate to give her life so that Puppy could live in a better world, that's just the kind of person she is.
If I had a nickel for every time I've seen a piece of media feature a dog character named Laika that rides a motorcycle and goes around helping people in a post-apocalyptic world, I would have two nickels.