You can kick, punch, use weapons, and throw weapons at anyone you see. The objective in Scenarios is simple: kill everyone using whatever weapons you find until no one is left. Scenarios are short but sweet sandbox environments featuring unique elements that give you the opportunity to enact chaotic mayhem in many ways. When you begin PTTR, you’re presented with three modes (Scenarios, Beneath, and Arena), all of which play slightly differently. The freedom that exists in PTTR is not worldbuilding nor performing tricks in an open world environment, but one of killing. When I would talk to Minecraft and GTAV enthusiasts, they would praise the opportunities of playing however they wanted, whether it be creating elaborate buildings, stealing cars, and performing exhilarating feats. The sandbox genre is one I have always struggled with enjoying: having too much freedom overwhelmed me.

Instead, this game is best considered an action sandbox game with a decent rogue-like mode. While it markets itself as an action game, calling it “just” an action game would discount the variety of ways you can enact bloody mayhem on blockheads like those in the bar. This scenario is but one of many you can find yourself experiencing when playing Paint the Town Red (PTTR), a an indie Steam early access game that has in development since 2015 and is now available on consoles. Tonight, you will paint the bar, and the town, red. It is not an alcoholic drink you seek, but one of blood. In a fit of sober anger, you grab the nearest barstool and clobber blocky drunk after blocky drunk to make your way to the bar where your drink awaits. The bartender is overwhelmed with unruly customers, and there is nowhere to sit. At the far end of the room, a cover band is playing what you think is rock music, but their dreams of musicmaking need not leave the premises.

You find yourself in a bar packed from floor to ceiling with blockheads (not stupid people, mind you, but actual folks with blocks for heads).

Paint the town red beneath