Mad Lab Roulette Review (PC)

It was a zucchini that prevented me from taking a bullet to the eye socket, not the will of God or an all-seeing guardian of enigmatic beauty. It was a zucchini. That’s right, a fruit had more value than a stab vest. But that was just one instance. As it turned out, Mad Lab Roulette had plenty of other situations where I’d start believing that certain things would be of a higher value, but then, after scrubbing through a console and its components, would come to the conclusion that an eggplant would be better for deflecting ammunition. Go figure.

“It’s Russian Roulette,” I said. “It is, minus the zucchini, Headshot Roulette.” And I wasn’t wrong. It was just that: another version of the twisted game, but with a few different synergies and custom curveballs — oblong-shaped fruits, being one of them. But that’s about all that it was. Mad Lab Roulette wasn’t a prime candidate for the job of elevating competitive gaming to the next level; it was a love letter—a letter among thousands, at that—to a bitter pastime that, quite frankly, wasn’t in dire need of a formal introduction.

Like Headshot Roulette, the goal was simple—in your face, simple. The idea was to force four players to duke it out over a series of strategic rounds and, well, present each combatant with the opportunity to use special items to help turn the tide in their favor. And the endgame, well, that was in black and white. If you survived the game, then you would win. You didn’t win anything, other than perhaps bragging rights of some kind. But that was it. That was, in short, all that Mad Lab Roulette wanted to convey.

It Takes Two

Mad Lab Roulette is all about finding the solution for boosting your chances of diverting the bullet from your own brain and having it dissect your opponent. It talks about probability a lot, and it makes it a visible focal point with its inclusion of an on-screen “odds” slider, too. The goal, as you can imagine, is to boost or tailor the odds to either increase your chances of winning or thwart your opponent’s odds. You can do this by simply adopting perks and other wild cards in each round, and strategically leveraging your odds on acquiring greater rewards. The rest, of course, boils down to luck. But that’s Russian Roulette.

There isn’t much of a game to unpack here, nor are there troves of hidden specialties that deserve to be explored, either. In fact, for what it does bring to the table, it rarely takes the initiative to go into too much depth with its mechanics or general structure. To that end, you could argue that it’s a game that lumbers a lofty novelty factor like an iron cross—a sparkle, of sorts, that sadly vanishes after just a few hours of scratching at its surface.

It’s because of the lack of replay value that, as much as it almost pains me to say it, Mad Lab Roulette is very much a one-and-done sort of ordeal. That isn’t a bad thing, though it’s also not particularly great, especially since it’s a game that relies on online multiplayer and local matchmaking to fuel its fires. Headshot Roulette was the same, though, so I suppose it’s etched in stone, the concept and its tendency of struggling to harness enough interest to keep its audience compelled to squeeze the trigger for longer periods of time.

Firing Blanks

The good news is that Mad Lab Roulette does extend its arms to a sizable lobby. With the option to play with friends, strangers, and AI, the game does make it so that you’re never struggling to fill the table and jump straight into the fray. It doesn’t last long—the round, that is—but at least it supplements its lack of depth with a seamless flow of adrenaline-fueled bouts that are both surprisingly easy to navigate and fun to unravel. Mechanic-wise, eh — there isn’t much for you to learn. But then, I suppose that isn’t a bad thing, as it’s more or less designed to reflect a quick-fire PvP environment and nothing more. The fact that it does it well is just a bonus.

The rest of Mad Lab Roulette is, well, it’s passable, to say the least. Visually, there isn’t much for you to write home about here; in fact, the entire composition doesn’t stretch much beyond the usual trappings of a husk of a small room and all of the minimal detail that comes with it. And honestly, I could probably say the same about its audio and other technical aspects, too. That being said, Mad Lab Roulette isn’t a full-fledged triple-A game; it’s a short competitive indie that opts to wear its heart on its sleeve and just roll with the punches. The bullets may not always make an impact, but at least they know where the target is. I suppose that counts for a lot.

Verdict

Mad Lab Roulette shoots its shot not with the intent to secure a bullseye, but to land its haymaker on in the general vicinity of a board that’s teeming with other fledgling Roulette torchbearers. Does it land? Eh, it does and it doesn’t. The game itself is a lot of fun, I’ll admit, and it does a pretty good job of fanning the flames of the existing fire by implementing its own share of wild cards and curveballs. That said, due to the lack of replay value and the fact that it doesn’t bring much more to the table than what Headshot Roulette already released just a few weeks back, it’s also quite difficult to nudge it up the ranks, much less give it a standing ovation for originality. It isn’t original — but it is, weirdly, a great deal of fun, which makes it a double-edged sword, I suppose.

When all’s said and done, Mad Lab Roulette is a belt-and-braces homage to an adrenaline-fueled pastime and nothing more. With that, if you are looking for a way to wax that itch and remediate the post-Headshot Roulette blues for an hour or two, then chances are Mad Lab Roulette will be able to accommodate your needs whilst you sit patiently and wait for the next blank to be fired. If you’re hoping to get your hands on something with a little more weight to it, however, then you might want to consider your options and pursue an alternate solution for your morbid kicks.