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.
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.