This review has some spoiler-ish stuff, but you shouldn't buy this game anyway so read ahead.

This game is bad, and even the things people seem to like about it are bad.

Everyone is praising the worldbuilding, but this game has none. All it has done is cribbed elements from every single major science fiction work released in the last 60 years, without understanding a single one of their themes. Blade runner, 2001, Dune, Neuromancer, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Half-Life - they are all here aesthetically, but not spiritually. The Corporate cops vs. the anarchist street fighters, the robots question of humanity, the sick and depressed population, its all just set dressing for you to wander through sewer after sewer, vent after vent, shooting the same 6 enemies over and over with a story that says nothing at all.

I could forgive this, though, if the game actually *did* take gameplay tips from Half-Life or feel like a spiritual successor. Half-Life is full of interesting challenges, freedom of movement, and generally quite bad gunplay disguised by creative solutions to just about every encounter. None of that is here. Crowded levels mean you are constantly catching on miniscule lips and edges while getting shot at, platforming sections are constant and overwhelmingly finnicky, level layouts are confusing at best and infuriating at worst.

The source engine is showing its age quite badly, and every level being packed to the gills with unoriginal cyberpunk refuse means that load zones are more frequent than ever. The "puzzles" are almost exclusively shooting the right explosive barrel/miscellaneous electric box, or picking up an item in one place and putting it down somewhere else. None of the cyclical half life level design, none of the choice in progression within an area, none of the exciting chase sequences or unique enemies. just shoot city cops and their flying balls, then crawl into the next vent. The unique gameplay elements here are either poor copies of half life or just gimmickry. Why do I you have pyrokinetic abilities? so that once every 3 hours the game can provide you with a "puzzle" wherein they put a prompt on screen reminding you of the ability that you haven't used in 2 chapters, because if they didn't there is no way you'd remember it existed?

I would recommend this game only if you are such a fan of cyberpunk settings that you want to experience the dullness and frustration of what living in one would be like firsthand.

This review has some spoiler-ish stuff, but you shouldn't buy this game anyway so read ahead. This game is bad, and even the things people seem to like about it are bad. Everyone is praising the worldbuilding, but this game has none. All it has done is cribbed elements from every single major science fiction work released in the last 60 years, without understanding a single one of their themes. Blade runner, 2001, Dune, Neuromancer, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Half-Life - they are all here aesthetically, but not spiritually. The Corporate cops vs. the anarchist street fighters, the robots question of humanity, the sick and depressed population, its all just set dressing for you to wander through sewer after sewer, vent after vent, shooting the same 6 enemies over and over with a story that says nothing at all. I could forgive this, though, if the game actually *did* take gameplay tips from Half-Life or feel like a spiritual successor. Half-Life is full of interesting challenges, freedom of movement, and generally quite bad gunplay disguised by creative solutions to just about every encounter. None of that is here. Crowded levels mean you are constantly catching on miniscule lips and edges while getting shot at, platforming sections are constant and overwhelmingly finnicky, level layouts are confusing at best and infuriating at worst. The source engine is showing its age quite badly, and every level being packed to the gills with unoriginal cyberpunk refuse means that load zones are more frequent than ever. The "puzzles" are almost exclusively shooting the right explosive barrel/miscellaneous electric box, or picking up an item in one place and putting it down somewhere else. None of the cyclical half life level design, none of the choice in progression within an area, none of the exciting chase sequences or unique enemies. just shoot city cops and their flying balls, then crawl into the next vent. The unique gameplay elements here are either poor copies of half life or just gimmickry. Why do I you have pyrokinetic abilities? so that once every 3 hours the game can provide you with a "puzzle" wherein they put a prompt on screen reminding you of the ability that you haven't used in 2 chapters, because if they didn't there is no way you'd remember it existed? I would recommend this game only if you are such a fan of cyberpunk settings that you want to experience the dullness and frustration of what living in one would be like firsthand.