probably one of the best biopunk games out there. resident evil and parasite eve often lean a little bit into anti corporatism and punk ideology but can usually be ignored. cruelty squad makes its disgust with eugenics KNOWN. visuals are the perfect amount of abrasive, but each aspect serves a purpose and you get used to it...eventually. gameplay is a mix between immersive sim and hitman, and some of the later biomods break the game into pieces (the grappendix allows you go gain so much momentum ive been able to beat almost every level without touching the ground) and the level design is as confusing as its visuals (in a good way). really solid game to add to the ever growing list of retro style “meat games” alongside golden light and the dread x collection

What possesses a person to make this?

Regardless, it's good. A surprisingly intricate immersive sim tactical shooter... thing, as portrayed through some combination of team fortress 2 community servers, deep fried shitposts, quake, geocities websites and pure abject horror.

It must be said that it's really the tone that carries cruelty squad. From start to finish, it is intensely uncomfortable, in both its visual design, music, and what i was able to actually gleam of the context of the game's events. There's two missions in particular, one near the middle, and the other being the penultimate, which have just fantastic atmospheres and are probably where the game veers most into the horror side of it's absurdity.

The gameplay is pretty alright. The closest comparison I can think of it is probably dishonored of all things, and it frankly has similar issues. The level design is great, creating little sandboxes for you to tear shit up in, and you get some particularly interesting upgrades like your intestines becoming a grappling hook that can latch onto everything - but the balance isnt quite there and it has the classic mini-sandbox-murder-game problem of the route of least resistance - i.e, running up and shooting your target right in the face, or sniping them from a distance - has little to no downsides. There's some levels that mix this up a lot and later in the game the emphasis becomes far more in getting to to the target in the first place, which is nice, but it's still an issue. Also must be said that the AI is dumb as a bag of rocks, which feels mildly deliberate but also means they're not that engaging to mess about with and have nothing in the way of interesting interactions.

Aside from that, my only real issue is the escalation, or rather, for the most part, the lack of it. The two levels in mentioned earlier are fantastic and really kick it up, but aside from them most of the game retains this very constant level of bizzare intensity. The game arguably starts at 11, but it never quite getting to 12 means it's kinda easy to get used to the atmosphere by the time the game is wrapping up. If the main story maybe had a few levels less it would probably be better off. Also, the last level is absolutely awful. It might be making some sort of statement with it's awfulness but the one prior is immensely more cathartic and would have been a good way to go out.

Overall though, this is very neat. One of the more effective horror games I've played in a good while, and a decent immersive sim murder simulator thing to boot.

Special mention for the soundtrack, by the way, it's fantastic and the game would not be nearly as effective without it.

A game that combines the immersive sim aspects of Deus Ex with the premise of Hitman is extremely, right up my alley. So, I'm really surprised I was this underwhelmed.

On paper, this is my dream game. In reality, it's an ugly looking but solid enough tactical shooter with decent level design. The game looks and sounds kinda awful, with barebones stealth and ridiculous difficulty spikes. Enemies are almost indistinguishable from civilians which really doesn't help the already shitty stealth mechanics.

For the first few hours, it seemed like it would by my GoTY but it lost its novelty pretty quick.

Cruelty Squad postures itself as a game that wants to hurt you. And it does! But it also wants you to have plenty of fun while it's making you miserable. It's not a "bad on purpose" game, it's a ""good on accident" on purpose" type of game.

If I were to make the above point again except this time without being an asshole I would say, "It's very good you should play it!" very emphatically.

Honestly just an amazing game all around, and it's one of those strange anomalies where it takes the structure almost of a tactical shooter and just plays around with it like nobody's business. It's such an efficient little game (literally where you just hunt down and kill people for a company), but then there's definitely something really appealing about its stripped back, minimalist design - and just about how everything feels like a giant acid trip.

So much great things about this game, and I like how the plot is just really irreverent - acting like this giant satire of a corporate hellscape, and there's certainly a lot more done with this game than just churning it out as a random meme game that people go towards and forget about within a week or so. There's definitely a lot of really inventive mechanics in this one and a real control with the atmosphere and level design, and the intentionally garish and off-putting visual design which oddly doesn't detract from the experience but rather adds to it in a really compelling way.

This game is still in Early Access, and there's already so much about it to enjoy - no doubt it will be even better upon its full release.

𝓬𝓻𝓾𝓮𝓵𝓽𝔂 𝓼𝓺𝓾𝓪𝓭 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀


𝓒𝓡𝓤𝓔𝓛𝓣𝓨 𝓢𝓠𝓤𝓐𝓓 by 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖊𝖗 𝖘𝖔𝖋𝖙𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖘 🄶🄴🅃🅂 🄰🅆🄰🅈 with 🄰 🅆🄷🄾🄻🄴 🄻🄾🅃 🄾🄵 ˢʰⁱᵗ 🄹🅄🅂🅃 🄱🅈 🅅🄸🅁🅃🅄🄴 🄾🄵 🄸🅃🅂 คєรՇђєՇเς รєภรเ๒เɭเՇเєร. ₛᵢₘₚₗy ₜₕᵣₒwᵢₙg ₒᵤₜ wₒᵣdₛ ₗᵢₖₑ 🅲🆁🆈🅿🆃🅾🅲🆄🆁🆁🅴🅽🅲🆈 and l̶̦͍̖̪̂̄a̸̧͖͍̠̤̜͇̮̯̅̈́̈́̔ͅt̷̳͈̔̀̑̓̌͝ȅ̵̛̥̠̯̖̯̮̹̃̅͛̓̂ͅͅ ̵̪̜̹̏̆̃̂s̸̭̙̱̰̓̎̋̇͋̿́́͝t̷̥͔̤̰̻̥̱̪̝̄̊̇̉̓̌͜a̴̡̨͔̙̦͓̮̠̦̮̾̉̎̈́̕͝g̵̰̻̥̊̎͗̂̈́ẹ̷͉̼͉̠̲̪̰͑̈́͆̉̀̔̄͜ ̷̼̩̣̪̺̎̏͋͊ͅç̴̭͕̹̼̓̎̽͛̆̈̚͝a̶̡̟͖̫̫͙͙̤͖̾͂̉̄͒͛̌̓͘p̸͚̖̰̓̓̓̈́͛͋̎̏͠͠i̵̧̮͓̎͛̕ͅͅt̷̠͇͊́̒̃̽̃͌͗̊͒ą̷̝̹̥͇͖̫͖̭̉́̀̄͋́̌̏̕͜͠l̴̺̈́͐͒͋̾͑͊̈́͊̿i̷̧̞̹͗͆̓̆s̵̡͙̝̖̳̳̭͕͚̣͊̌̀̓̕m̷̧̉ seems to be enough to ֆǟȶɨֆʄʏ (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ online video game critics ♥ 【ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｄａｙｓ．．．】! "𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙪𝙣𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚" is the 𝓒𝓞𝓦𝓐𝓡𝓓'𝓢 𝓒𝓛𝓘𝓒𝓗𝓔 𝓒𝓡𝓘𝓣𝓘𝓠𝓤𝓔 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕚𝕥 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕠 V⃣ I⃣ D⃣ E⃣ O⃣ G⃣ A⃣ M⃣ E⃣ R⃣ E⃣ V⃣ I⃣ E⃣ W⃣ S⃣, but I think ｃｒｕｅｌｔｙ░ｓｑｕａｄ（ゅヮ桜）, by [̲̅v][̲̅i][̲̅r][̲̅t][̲̅u][̲̅e] of its ιⓝşίˢᵗ乇ᑎς𝐄 on 𝓃𝑜𝓃-𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓂𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉-𝓂𝑜𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓃 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟢𝓈 𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓎. truly đỖ𝕖Ⓢ ʏᎸɘb ᴎɘƚᎸo 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦-𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦. . . . . . . . ᶜᴬᴺ ʸᴼᵁ ᴵᴹᴬᴳᴵᴺᴱ ᴼᴾᴱᴺᴵᴺᴳ ⒺⓁⒺⒸⓉⓇⓄⓃⒾⒸ ⒼⒶⓂⒾⓃⒼ ⓂⓄⓃⓉⒽⓁⓎ OR 🅶🅰🅼🅴🆂🅼🅰🆂🆃🅴🆁 🅼🅰🅶🅰🆉🅸🅽🅴 αɳԃ ｒｅａｄｉｎｇ 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 about c̴̢̹͔̦͍̯̮͙̜̓̕r̸̦̭̮̼͉̲̒̈́u̴̫͉̞̓̅͌̓̾̚͠e̵̡̠̹̩̱̓̄͂͆́̾͜ļ̷͉͇̱̈́͝ť̵̨̺̗̹̪̑̚ỵ̷̰̥̥̼̈́ ̶̪̙̘͇́̉̉͗̑̇͊̄͌̕ş̶̠͕̭̈́̄͌q̸̧̤͋̎̈̑̈́̆̐̈́͌̿u̸̼̞̟̬̪̻̰̖̇͝a̴̢̞̻̹̩͌̍̅̅d̵̨̨̳̖͔̈̓͠?


🄶🅁🄰🄿🄷🄸🄲🅂0/10
🄶🄰🄼🄴🄿🄻🄰🅈6/10
🅂🄾🅄🄽🄳4/10
🅁🄴🄿🄻🄰🅈🄰🄱🄸🄻🄸🅃🅈7/10
🄾🅅🄴🅁🄰🄻🄻8/10