The first terminally online game that also manages to be a good tactical shooter. Behind the shitty AI there is a lot of janky depth hidden in this game will all the gun types, implants, and hidden passages. The graphics are beautiful with every area being filled with memorably surreal oddities and a consistent attention to making details as repulsive as possible without making the game unplayable. Sure at first you'll be slowly sneaking around corners sniping enemies while hanging on for dear life. but with a few implants and guns the game opens up. Secrets permeate every aspect of the design. When it comes to concepts alone Cruelty Squad might be the most creative shooter in a decade.

The story is fun but the satire is a little straightforward compared to the aesthetics and gameplay. Someone talking about excess violent and consumerism can't compare to painting a face covered house with the blood of mutants. The writing is filled with online references like funk pops, Nick Land, and Curtis Yarvin. Along with more conventional rich targets like Elizabeth Holmes and Elon Musk. This creates a strange satire where the caricatures are quite simple but made biting by their inclusion in this world. The strangest bit about the story is when the endings somehow manage to get even more surreal then the main game with even more abrasive visuals and gnostic references, but of these and other philosophical references feel quite shallow next to /biz/ memes.

Cruelty Squad is a shitpost game but it's also one of the most inventive FPS's I've played in a while.