Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days hits Steam next month + new trailer [Video]

(Update: 5/18 1:55pm): Today’s the day. Reservoir Dogs Bloody Days is out now on Steam for Mac/PC with a 10% off discount: $13.50 (Reg. $14.50).

Licensed games, especially those tied to films, have garnered quite a bad reputation over the years. So when we first heard about the new Reservoir Dogs game coming to PC and Xbox One, we were quite skeptical at best. Tarantino’s odd, yet celebrated, mix of exposition and heist flashbacks doesn’t necessarily lend itself to your typical top-down action-shooter. Especially considering most of the film is conversations with a guy dying in an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Nonetheless, it looks as though folks at Big Star Games out of Barcelona have come up with an interesting angle here. This isn’t just a bank robbery/heist game with 4 guys in suits taking out security guards, like you may have expected….

At its core, Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is indeed a shooter where you will control a small team of robbers. Think Hotline Miami without the dirty B-Movie aesthetics and overall atmosphere. But where Bloody Days may lack in style, it clearly makes up for in substance.

In the trailer Big Star Games released today, the developer is showing off what it calls the Time Back System. There is more strategy to this than it sounds. While not in the traditional fashion, this is somewhat of a turn-based experience. Everything is in real-time with a clock in the bottom right corner but you have the ability to zip back in time to control another character on your squad.

For example, Mr. Blonde can run in and take out the initial guards and then you can hit space to jump back in time to control Mr. Blue during that same period in time to ensure Mr. Blonde is covered etc. But these aren’t your typical “turns”. You can choose to take control of a single character for anywhere from 5 seconds up to over a minute, before jumping back to a second or third.

You can get a nice look at how this works in today’s new trailer:

A new trailer released today explains Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days’ original “Time Rewind” gameplay mechanic, a time-bending twist that lets players turn back the clock and control each member of the team in overlapping bursts of action. Time Rewind adds a new level of strategy to every heist, creating unique opportunities for careful tactics and improvised chaos that can turn the tide in a firefight.

Things can get quite interesting on missions with more than 2 characters on your squad. Each of the six members also have particular traits like the usual tank or Mr. Blue’s ability to keep hostages calm and out of the way. There are 18 different missions in the game that will see players ripping-off banks, docks, nightclubs and more.

We now know Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days will release on May 18th. You’ll find it on Steam and all major PC game outlets. The Xbox One version is still in the works however. It is expected to hit “later this year”, according to today’s press release. While it may not be the most authentic use of the IP and die-hard Tarantino fans certainly won’t be jumping up and down for it, the Time Back system has us interested and looking for more.