Review: Romeo Is a Dead Man (PS5) – Absurd, Entertaining, and Tedious All at Once

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Suda51 is known for making unique and unconventional games, but ‘Romeo Is a Dead Man‘ is still surprisingly bizarre and unexpected.

Suda51’s newest game is a real mixed bag – brilliantly funny and inventive one moment, then strangely confusing and irritating the next. It’s a frustrating experience, but also surprisingly enjoyable.

At the end of it all, Romeo Is a Dead Man comes out the other side just about worth playing. Just.

Where do you even start?

The story starts at the beginning, when everything is clearest. You play as Romeo, who is nearly dead but rescued by the Space-Time Police. As a way to repay them, he must journey through time and space to find his lost girlfriend, Juliet – though he’ll actually be searching for monsters that resemble her.

After the story gets going, it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening. The narrative jumps between different characters’ viewpoints, includes confusing scenes that pop up unexpectedly, and often revisits the same events.

We really have no idea what’s going on in this game, even after watching all the cutscenes and reading every line of dialogue. It’s a game where you just have to experience it as it unfolds.

What we can explain is everything else.

Romeo Is a Dead Man is primarily an action game where you fight with close-combat weapons. While you can carry guns, you’ll mostly be using swords, clubs, and other melee weapons to battle your enemies.

The game’s campaign takes around 13 hours to complete and is divided into stages. You’ll return to your spaceship frequently, which serves as a central hub. From here, you can enhance your weapons, develop your team of ‘Bastards,’ and interact with quirky characters. You can also use your spaceship to access optional dungeons for extra upgrades and items.

You’ll journey through space and time in a spaceship, visiting different points in history to defeat monstrous duplicates of Juliet. Each level involves clearing out enemies, finding keys to unlock new areas, and ultimately battling a boss before moving on to the next challenge.

Levels are generally compact, but cleverly designed to initially show you only half of the environment. Gameplay alternates between two areas: ‘real space,’ where you battle enemies, and ‘subspace,’ which features puzzle-solving. You move between these areas using floating TVs, and this transition can be surprisingly tricky and annoying.

Each TV in the real world can only connect to one TV in the alternate dimension. You can have up to six TVs actively used for teleportation at once, but it’s impossible to know which TV leads to which location. The different locations all appear very similar, and a map is available, but it doesn’t show which TV connects to which place.

Okay, so this game, Romeo Is a Dead Man, can get really frustrating. Seriously, trying to figure out which TV to hit next in the subspace puzzles is a nightmare, especially when you die and suddenly find yourself totally disoriented after respawning. It quickly turns into just blindly wandering around and hoping you stumble onto the right thing – a lot of trial and error, and honestly, it can get pretty tedious.

The game doesn’t offer much guidance, especially within its puzzle sections. You’ll spend a lot of time moving between different screens, and occasionally you’ll need to build paths like bridges or ladders to progress. Figuring out how to solve these puzzles is often confusing and relies heavily on experimentation – the game provides no tutorials or helpful hints whatsoever.

Romeo Is a Dead Man is a game of frustrating highs and lows – you’ll likely find yourself wanting to uninstall it one moment, then appreciating its challenges the next.

This game is full of surprises – you’ll never know what to expect next! One moment you’re in a fast-paced action game, and the next, you’re facing a terrifying survival horror scenario. This variety keeps the gameplay exciting and helps you overlook the less enjoyable parts. However, when those frustrating elements do reappear, it’s especially annoying.

The combat is simple but enjoyable, letting you mix close-range weapons, guns, and special abilities. It’s a straightforward action game – you just attack monsters until they’re defeated, without having to manage stamina. You’ll have standard and powerful attacks, plus a variety of guns, from pistols to shotguns and rocket launchers.

Romeo Is a Dead Man features unique monsters called Bastards that you fight. What sets it apart is that you can also raise these creatures on a farm within your spaceship, improving their abilities and stats. By the end of the game, you can equip up to four Bastards, which add extra attacks, healing, or ways to slow down your enemies.

These abilities come in many forms: some act like massive bowling balls, others strike enemies with lightning, and a few create tornado-like damage. They also improve both close-range and ranged attacks.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from really poor performance, even on a powerful PS5 Pro when set to Performance Mode. The frame rate in Romeo Is a Dead Man is shockingly low; while it tries to reach 60 frames per second, it rarely achieves this unless you’re standing still.

The game often slows down during fights, making the action feel sluggish and disruptive. This is particularly disappointing on a powerful console like the PS5 Pro, where we expect smoother performance.

The game really shines visually, constantly switching up its art style – from realistic graphics to retro 8-bit and everything in between. Paired with a fun soundtrack, it creates a great atmosphere. It’s frustrating, though, because the game doesn’t perform as smoothly as it looks.

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2026-02-10 17:08