RUINER review
Coated in red
Players are introduced to RUINER with a simple goal repeated to them by an unknown assailant, “Kill the Boss”. This simple phrase sums up most of the player’s experience with RUINER, which features some interesting gameplay mechanics and a gritty art design that calls forth many darker dystopian Cyberpunk stories that have been executed in better ways. There is an arcade-like feel to the game’s bloody combat that makes repeated playthroughs a joy and a challenge, but the story itself is marred with a variety of cliches that gives the players little reason to care for the characters other than “Kill the Boss”.
RUINER is the first title to come out of Reikon Games — an independent studio comprised of developers who’ve worked on such titles as The Witcher, This War of Mine and Shadow Warrior — and although its storyline is quite similar to other titles in its class, the solid twin-stick shooter gameplay makes for an enjoyable and somewhat challenging experience. Players move “Puppy”, an otherwise unnamed protagonist who communicates through images and text displayed on his mask, with the left stick and aim with the right stick. Having the fire button mapped to the right trigger will always be the most comfortable format for a shooter on any gaming system, so there is no concern for any hand cramps when it comes to the fast combat. Players with no prior isometric shooter experience may take some time to get used to the control scheme, but once they’re acclimatised it will begin to feel like second nature as they navigate the variety of bloody, erratic levels on offer.
After the tutorial stage is complete, players are introduced to some mild role-playing elements. Karma is RUINER’s take on experience, awarded to the player after defeating a group of enemies or opening chests littered throughout certain stages and used to level up, which grants a skill point or two that can be used to unlock new abilities. As much as some of the abilities look useful or interesting, only a handful are actually useful in each stage’s repetitive cycle. One ability grants the player a shield for a brief period of time, sapping the character’s Energy meter for each second it is deployed, while another ability allows the player to charge up a physical attack that deals an immense amount of damage. The only ability players will most likely use continuously is dashing to avoid some of the craziest projectiles the game has to offer. Alternating between some of these abilities makes the game a joy to look at, but this comes at the cost of the game’s overall difficulty, with most of the gunfights becoming quite familiar.
RUINER’s art style and soundtrack call to mind films such as Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. The game world is painted in an eerie red tint that works very well for the gritty, brutal world of Rengkok, but can become a little jarring at times. One of the title’s more distinguishing features is the hand-drawn portraits that become the centrepoint when the player is talking to a non-player character; from an oil-covered mechanic to a punk-inspired woman, these characters and their portraits wonderfully depict and enhance the gritty neo-noir world that Reikon Games has created. The soundtrack is essentially what one would expect to hear from any Cyberpunk game or movie, with synthesisers and industrial tones dominating the soundscape throughout the game. It’s not a terrible soundtrack, and I often found myself tapping my foot to the songs even amidst the erratic combat.
Despite Reikon Games’ best attempts to sell it as an important aspect of the overall experience, RUINER’s story is unfortunately quite misguided and bland. There is a greater emphasis on character-driven narrative after the tutorial stage, but by that point it was filled with cliches for the genre. If it weren’t for the fantastic and arcade-like gameplay, RUINER would be difficult to recommend to anyone other than the most hardcore of isometric shooter fans. The story does its job to a small extent, but it would have been great to see the world of Rengkok fleshed out in a unique style rather than relying so heavily on tired cliches.
With combat that is bloody, brutal and damn fun, RUINER is an example of how refined and enjoyable gameplay can make a game a joy to play. The story does its very minimal job to make it somewhat passable, but it is filled with cliches that it can get boring rather quickly — especially when even the dialogue becomes bland and riddled with cliches. During the combat sequences, the desire to gain an S+ rank led to some of the most hectic and enjoyable fights in any independent game on the market. Despite a lot of questionable decisions within the story and even in terms of art direction, RUINER is a great debut game for Reikon Games.
Our verdict:
Reikon Games’ debut title comes with an undeniably flawed narrative, but is an absolute success when it comes to delivering fast-paced, bloody and sometimes challenging gameplay.
RUINER was reviewed using a code provided by its publisher.
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