Loan Shark Review (PC)

Capitalism is knocking, and I’m falling for its chilling grasp, hook, line, and sinker. With a fishing rod, an old tugboat, and a literal Loan Shark bobbing up like a buoy to badger me into paying off aquatic debts, I’ve suddenly found myself in a bitter cycle—a tidal wave of rustic waters and pixelated gizzards, boggle-eyed bass and a false promises of eternal glory and mass wealth. I’ll catch a fish, and I’ll sell it. Yet, even with a stockpile of guts and scales, I’ll still have more to pay, for where there’s a talking fish frequently declaring that I foot the bill for my morbid curiosities, there’s another reason for me to cast the line and continue dangling the bait in the treacherous waters.

It started with a promise—a somewhat lighthearted proposition that would allow me to make something of myself with the tools and knowledge that I hone. The catch, if that’s what you want to call it, was that I had to pay off an enormous debt, not to a corporate banker or tight-fisted landlord, but to a talking fish—a peculiar creature who dangled the ultimatum over me like a worm on a fishing pole. But, like all cans of worms, once I decided to open it, it quickly doubled in size, and before long it quadrupled, leaving me with a monolithic debt that I couldn’t afford to pay. So, I cast a line, and I resorted to doing what I did best. I caught a fish, and then I caught another one, foolishly believing that I could make ends meet. But I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.

Hook, Line, and Sinker

The last thing that I wanted to do when I waltzed into Loan Shark was to find myself ensnared by a cliche. I didn’t want to play into the hands of a predictable fishing expedition that lacked the depth and capacity of a full-fledged nautical game. No, I yearned for a surprise—a sense of adventure, or a tidal wave of twists and turns, perhaps. I figured, if I was to pour my heart and soul into yet another fishing game, then I’d need something special to keep me from retracting the line and sealing the bait. In short, I needed Loan Shark to be something I hadn’t seen before. And you know, it wasn’t; it was a dash of sea salt in a chlorine tank—a great white in a goldfish bowl. It was, in all honesty, the breath of fresh air that I both craved and desperately needed.

Loan Shark certainly had me at hello — not because it housed a particularly exciting gameplay hook, but because it didn’t settle for leaning on all of the same tropes as a traditional fishing sim. The only thing that really let it down was its length. Unlike a lot of its dormant friends (DREDGE immediately jolts to mind here, weirdly), Loan Shark never made an effort to keep me engaged with its rough waters long after I had finished mopping up the ocean floor of all its aquatic monstrosities. It had me hooked, but sadly, after a little under forty minutes, it was just about ready to cast me back out and leave me searching for another whiff of the bait. That, unfortunately, was the only thing that made me wish I’d spent more time considering my options.

“We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat”

On the flip side of the above, the gameplay (or the hook, to be more fitting with the theme) is a lot of fun. It’s hard work, and it often requires a mixture of luck and precision to master — but it’s oddly enjoyable. Speaking of which, the gameplay mostly consists of using a vertical bait lens to catch fish from the deep blue—a process that requires precise tracking and a good sense of direction. Once that’s done, there is the second part of the process—the gutting of the fish, which predominantly consists of an origami puzzle with a pocket knife. Nothing particularly difficult — but there’s a catch: time, annoyingly, isn’t on your side; the loan shark demands a cut, and it wants you to pay your debts in blood and bait in a timely manner.

The mechanics aren’t massively complicated, nor are they particularly embroidered with any passive flair or special effects, for that matter. That said, where the gameplay often falls short, its grotesque design and disturbing oceanic features power forward and collectively incubate a surprisingly compelling image. Again, it’s a short story, and it doesn’t make much of an effort to keep you jolting back for another spot of fishing. Even still, for the thirty minutes that it does allocate itself to share its message, it makes a pretty big impression — and that counts for a great deal.

Verdict

Bobbing at just thirty minutes or forty minutes in length, Loan Shark reels you in and cuts the tackle just before you snag the bait. Without the breadth of a full-fledged campaign to keep you on tenterhooks, it more or less leaves you hanging, but not before it purposely leaves you with a ravenous appetite for more of its nautical horrors and another trip around the shoreline.

In light of the above, Loan Shark blows most of its fish out of the water. More to the point, it captures a chilling composition of capitalism and treacherous economic conditions, and it finds a good balance between the two in its frequently disadvantageous fishing habits. It’s scary, not just because of its disturbing nature, but because of its natural prowess as a vessel for conveying profound messages and unattainable truths. It doesn’t stick around long enough to provoke a churning ripple effect, but it does cram as much as humanly possible into baiting a short but effective tale of financial distress and imminent doom. That, to me, is a solid foundation for a predator among horrors.

If you are looking to submerge your bait in an ominous ocean that waxes unsettling gameplay with a small splash of storytelling, then there’s a strong chance that you’ll enjoy casting your net over Loan Shark. It won’t keep you for long, but it ought to keep you emotionally invested for all the while it bobs its fishy head above the waterline.