honest to god one of the most beautiful cyberpunk cityscapes ever. carlos lizarraga's level design and 3D modeling are so gorgeously bleak, i want a more fleshed out game or RPG, ANYTHING with this mamoru oshii level of detail. more cyberpunk games need the blue-gray gloom of ghost in the shell or patlabor 2 rather than vaporwave exuberance. the visuals and banging soundtrack were the biggest reasons for me to complete the game, but the gameplay was still pretty commendable. the beginning of the game is slow, boringly slow. you have dual revolvers and smgs, killing enemies that make DOOM riflemen look like einstein. but once you get the shotgun, the game begins to elevate. the extra movement from the shotgun blast, gaining extra height or boosting yourself backwards, makes the arena fights so much more engaging. it's another weapon-swap doom eternal retro fps, but its movement is restrained. there are no jump pads, monkey bars, dashing, or even bhopping. you have to slide and wallrun to dodge hellfire. it's the constant movement and arena encounters where you'll find the retro part of the game, the movement itself is unique to itself. gamers will see a wall run and call it titanfall. sprawl's wall run isn't infinite. you lose height over time and can only jump off a wall two times. combine that with the somewhat pitiful slide that cant be abused for movement, and youve got a game that plays like a trudge through mud when compared to the impossible speeds of titanfall 2 making the comparison unfair since theyre wholly different experiences. oddly enough, as the game expanded with its arsenal and enemy roster, the game got better (although the bossfights are a bit lackluster, not terrible just a bit eh). i say this is odd because FPSs tend to fall off in the end third or quarter of their playtime, but this game is so concise in what it aims to do that it has no bloat and doesnt lose steam. the limited movement and heavy weaponry come together to make decent to amazingly satisfying combat when the arena allows for fluidity. there are moments of bland, too-open arena fights or claustrophobic halls that can be too frustrating depending on the enemy, but the feeling of struggling to stay above enemies to headshot them in slow-mo while weapon swapping is phenomenal.

somehow the combat is both frantic and methodical. slowly paced with constrained movement and max payne bullet time while having hordes of enemies and bullets to dodge. but those instances of bliss with the gunfights are only occasional, momentarily beautiful violence. more often than not, the enemies are too simple to keep the gameplay loop interesting where so many enemies are the same thing but with variations in their health pool. the potential was impeccable, but the delivery was competent.