A third person view beat ’em up with linear but open levels. Also features a bit of platforming. The world is cyberpunk, an anarchist shithole full of punks, rough police and robots of varying sizes. The levels mostly take place at night. Old and modern architecture. Lots of neon lights.
Levels are full of interactive objects, including melee weapons (knives, pipes, bricks, wood beams, bats, cue sticks). Some of these weapons break and are then automatically tossed. They’re also knocked out of the character’s hand when they’re hit, sometimes out of the level. There are guns, but they have pretty limited ammo, can’t be reloaded and are tossed when emptied. (Revolvers, automatic pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sub-machine guns.) Your main weapons are your fists, followed by your legs.
No upgrades. There are numerous timed combos, but the player can get through the game using the basic attacks and evade. Player characters keep their fists raised, almost like boxers, when facing opponents. The game has a soft lock on system, meaning the game will slightly adjust the player’s orientation towards enemies. But it doesn’t turn you all the way around, like in Batman or Metal Gear Rising; you need to do that yourself. You also need to face an enemy to block.
WASD: Move (Slow run. Character will run fast after a few seconds of running uninterrupted. There is no sprint button, since being able to sprint instantaneously would make combat too easily avoidable.)
Mouse button 1: Punch/shoot
Mouse button 2: Kick (Player can kick even while holding a gun.)
Shift: Evade (Will lean body and take a few quick evasive steps.)
Shift + MB1 + move sideways/backwards: Evasive punch
Shift + MB2 + move sideways/backwards: Evasive kick
Shift + MB1 + move forward: Lunge punch
Shift + MB2 + move forward: Lunge kick
Ctrl: Block (Blocking an attack still hurts you.)
Spacebar: Jump, climb, vault
E: Grab enemy
C: Look back
F: Pick up and drop weapon
Q: Rearward elbow strike (Pressing it twice in a row will make the character also turn around.)
I know the control scheme is simplistic enough to be mapped to a controller, but I just don’t care to. There can be a walk button, but I don’t know if I’d even use it. Assign it to some unimportant button, like Left Alt.
In the top-left corner of the picture is a health bar. For every enemy the player defeats, they gain a little bit of health back. The player characters smile and do mocking animations when the player dominates fights, and appear fearful and pant when they are near defeat, implying that the health meter really represents their determination, audacity and nerve.
You can play with a partner online, paying homage to classic beat ’em ups like Streets of Rage. Enemies are placed randomly and sometimes come in large groups, hopping down from fences and windows, like in Left 4 Dead. The enemies almost double when you’re in multiplayer.
The playable characters are a man and woman, lovers. Both are muscular and tall. There is banter between them as they fight baddies, much like in L4D.
Guy:
-French-English descent
-6 feet 2 inches, early thirties, blue eyes, clean shaven
-Full head of brown hair, medium length and straight
-Fairly muscular, not roided out
-Wears jeans, sneakers, short-sleeved white shirt, black belt.
Girl:
-West African descent
-5 feet 9 inches, mid twenties, gracefully muscular
-Frizzy hair, cut at the neck
-Wears a short leather jacket (red), shiny miniskirt with small slit (black), dark pantyhose (with a few little tears from exertion), calf-high boots (black), elbow-length blouse with pointed u-neck (cream white), weighted-knuckle gloves.
The music is synthwave, possibly featuring Perturbator and Lazerhawk.
Cutscenes are brief and infrequent, possibly hand-drawn.
