Cyberpunk is an enjoyable sub-genre due to the outlandish future that it often depicts. People usually have robot limbs and eyes and possess crazy augmented powers that non-enhanced humans couldn't dream of. The worlds are often dire and dystopian, with corporations controlling the population, hackers messing with society, and street gangs filled with bio-mechanic thugs terrorizing neighborhoods.

Ruiner is an entertaining cyberpunk tale that will scratch the itch you might have for crazy violence mixed with science fiction, just don't expect anything on the level of author Phillip K. Dick.

I Hardly Know Her

Ruiner is a top-down action game that should feel familiar to fans of Hotline Miami or any other hyper-violent third-person titles. It's published by Devolver Digital and it contains all the popular hallmarks of their games. That means it's got a grimy visual style dripping with neon colors, gallons of blood, and a story that's teetering on the razor's edge of insanity. There's also an incredible synth soundtrack that pulsates throughout the game and fills the space between the mayhem with some pretty great music. Chances are if you like Devolver's games, Ruiner will probably be right up your alley.

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The world in Ruiner takes a lot of inspiration from other cyberpunk stories like Blade Runner or Akira, with a dash of Drive thrown in as your character is very reminiscent of Ryan Gosling's nameless killer. You play as a murder machine who only goes by the name Puppy. Your brain has been hacked - because that's just a thing people can do in the future - and as a result, you're a mind-controlled assassin running around wearing a fancy helmet and bashing in or blowing off the heads of any individual who dares to cross your path.

Eventually, a better and potentially friendlier hacker rewires your head and informs you that the bad guys forced you into working for them by kidnapping your little brother. Now, with the help of your suspiciously altruistic new friend known only as Her, you run through the seedy underbelly of a crime-infested city to find the only family you have left. It's a serviceable story, but the twists and turns are pretty easy to see coming.

Hack And Slash

via PC Gamer

The combat in Ruiner is fairly fun and brutally gory. You fight various gang members on an isometric plane and use a combination of melee attacks and firearms to exterminate all the enemies surrounding you. These encounters tend to take place in enclosed areas, so it starts to feel like a series of arena battles until you reach the mini-boss of that level and then eventually face the big boss at the end of the mission. It is fun to slaughter all the bloodthirsty henchmen, and as you move through the game the enemies become more difficult and powerful.

Like any good action game these days, Ruiner has a skill tree where you can unlock new abilities that will make you a better cyber-assassin. You can gain currency known as Karma that can found in chests, awarded for completing missions and side quests, or given for performing a finishing move on stunned foes. The skills aren't ground-breaking, as they're mostly things like getting a shield that will protect you from gunfire or an explosive blast that will damage nearby enemies. Still, there's a fair selection of skills to choose from, and the game graciously lets you reassign skill points if you don't like an ability you've chosen, which is an option I always like to see.

I Thought The Future Would Be Brighter

via Into The Spire

The combat is fun, but unfortunately, it starts to become a little repetitive. Each level started to feel like one long gauntlet after the other, with enemies who mostly looked the same even though they had slightly different and more difficult behavioral patterns. They also tended to have a little too much health, which made the fights drag on for longer than they needed to. The boss battles were often a nice breath of fresh air, although the journey to reach them was occasionally a slog.

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The other disappointing part is the lack of variety in locations. Even though the central hub city gives the impression that we're about to travel to some fun neon-soaked cyberpunk places, you mostly just slash and shoot your way through variations of dark, metal-floored factories. Ruiner almost seems like its world is nothing more than a series of roads that just lead to factories, which doesn't help the encroaching feeling of repetition.

Free Futuristic Fisticuffs

via Polygon

Ruiner has some fun fights, but it's sadly more shallow than it initially appears. The story is a pastiche of other better cyberpunk plots, and it lacks an engaging world and enemy diversity. However, it's not terrible by any means, and if you like other Devolver Digital titles, then you may get some pleasure out of the nearly endless carnage that you can commit. It's currently free on the Epic Games Store until November 14th, so if you like chopping up gangs of goons, then it might be worth downloading Ruiner and seeing what the future may hold.

Ruiner is available for free through November 14th on the Epic Games Store. Ruiner is available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

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