Ruiner Game Review – Time to Ruin Some Fools (Cyberpunk Style)

<p>Hey&comma; listen&excl; Did you like <em>Cuphead<&sol;em>&quest; Well prepare for<em> Cuphead<&sol;em> just with ultraviolence&comma; pretty cyberpunk imagery and plenty of shrugging &lpar;it’s in the game&rpar;&period; <em>Ruiner<&sol;em> is the latest action spectacle from Poland&comma; the same country that brought us the <em>Shadow Warrior<&sol;em> reboot and <em>The Witcher<&sol;em>&period; There’s no shortage of intense action&comma; bloodshed and epic music here but while you’re having a tough time deciding what game to buy&comma; I’ll enlighten you if <em>Ruiner<&sol;em> is worth the purchase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130376" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130376" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130376 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;08145737&sol;RuinerimageBagogames1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130376" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ruiner&comma; Reikon Games and Devolver Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Ruiner takes place in the distant future where corporations are evil and people are either power hungry douche bags or murdering psychopaths&period; Well&comma; you play as one of these delightful psychopaths who is out for revenge after being brainwashed into assassinating a figure known as Boss&period; With the help of a hacker named &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Her” &lpar;no <em>Mother&excl;<&sol;em> Jokes please&rpar; we see our protagonist who is regarded as a puppy by the hacker&comma; set off to find those reasonable for his brainwashing and to also rescue his kidnapped brother&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What follows is a tale of revenge as our main lead infiltrates some of the darkest parts of Rengkok City where human trafficking&comma; gangs and mass murder reign supreme&period; Ruiner is divided into essentially three acts with each act taking us into a different main location constructed of several levels&period; There’s a fascinating construct to the lore of Ruiner with the city&comma; its inhabitants and the history being very compelling&period; Not to mention the game looks absolutely stunning&comma; harbouring depth in every fibre of detail&period; The blend of cyberpunk elements and the enriching level of detail in the world are amazing and the depth in creativity for each location&comma; the characters and weaponry is masterful&period; There are plenty of influences from<em> Blade Runner<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Akira<&sol;em> and <em>Ghost in the Shell<&sol;em> in the aesthetics for Ruiner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130377" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130377" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130377 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;08145830&sol;RuinerimageBagogames2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130377" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ruiner&comma; Reikon Games and Devolver Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Color plays a big part in setting up an immersive atmosphere but what really strengths the core gameplay and the presentation is an amazing soundtrack&period; This alone is worth checking out the game for&period; The mixture of Sync-wave&comma; techno and more traditional elements are a perfect blend that enhances the tension to the chaotic gun battles and tranquil moments in the hub world&period; Those who are familiar with <em>Ghost in the Shell<&sol;em>’s awesome soundtrack will sense the same elements used here with the rhythmic chanting playing over the collection of techno beats&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My only complaint for Ruiner on this side of the game is purely down to lack of variation in level appearances&period; While there is a great amount of detail&comma; superb dynamic lighting and design&comma; most locations look pretty much identical&period; The cyberpunk&comma; industrial themes run through 70&percnt; of the game’s level design with only a couple of locations looking different&colon; these being a car park area and the hub world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for Ruiner’s gameplay&comma; its simplicity shouldn’t fool you&period; The gunplay is solid as Ruiner offers a refined experience of intense action and immense challenge at times&period; This is one of the best top-down shooters in a long time and does well to build on the basis of the action genre&period; The pacing is fluent with encounters being spaced out evenly&comma; while never feeling overstretched&period; There are always different elements being worked into most encounters including a vast amount of enemy types and environmental factors which change up the pacing while adding some decent variation to the gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130378" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130378" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130378 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;08150020&sol;RuinerimageBagogames3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130378" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ruiner&comma; Reikon Games and Devolver Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Ruiner is in many respects a trial and error formula of game where its adaption and learning what tactics work best for you&period; Players will always carry a semi-automatic pistol and pipe but can pick up other weapons off the ground&period; Each weapons functions differently and have certain levels of effectiveness on different enemies&period; It’s about going out of your comfort zone to engage the situation in ways you may never do so in other games&period; There are perks you can learn via collecting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Karma” points&comma; leveling up and defeating certain bosses&period; There’s a good mixture of perks from slowing down time&comma; planting grenades and the most useful&comma; dashing&period; These can be leveled up to enhance your power and by the end of the game&comma; you’ll pretty much be a god&period; Ruiner is a game that’ll take time to master as the pacing within any battle is often frantic&comma; giving you mere split seconds to make a choice of what to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; Ruiner is frantic&comma; tension driven and at times rage quitting levels of hard&period; While it may not seem all that fair at certain moments&comma; it’s about adapting and trying out tactics you’re not used too&period; As stated&comma; bosses and other encounters all have variation&comma; which is great for those looking for a sustainable challenge that changes up the formula&period; It’s tough&comma; but immensely rewarding for your efforts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130379" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130379" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130379 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;08150211&sol;RuinerimageBagogames4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130379" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ruiner&comma; Reikon Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There were little touches I really appreciated that were effected by your level of skills and adaptability&period; Most encounters will send in a weapons grinder that’ll take all the left over weapons you didn’t use and turn them into Karma and possibly a super-powered weapon&period; This is a simple&comma; yet very compelling risk and reward concept that really tests players on how well they can restraint themselves on what they use&period; Do you pick up every weapon off the floor to use and make life a little easier&quest; Or do you risk it and hope to reap the rewards at the end of each fight&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Boss battles can be immense with most bosses harboring different tactics and attacks that’ll keep you on your toes&period; I also loved the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Head-Hunt” listed bosses as these felt like a true treat to face against and defeat&period; Level designs also carry variation with different set pieces and elements&comma; changing the pacing to interesting degrees&period; One level can see you face a legion of security forces with a timer breathing down your neck while another can have you face waves of zombie like creatures with multiple flamethrowers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130380" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130380" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130380 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;08145934&sol;RuinerimageBagogames5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130380" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Ruiner&comma; Reikon Games and Devolver Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There were only two factors that did bring down the experience slightly&period; First&comma; the length of the game is fairly short&comma; with most gamers playing on the normal difficulty and properly finishing this in 6 hours&period; Decent length but if you’re like me and enjoy the hell out of this game&comma; you’d wish there was more&period; Maybe this feeling was more due to the rather short climax as after an awesome boss battle&comma; the game ends with a hoard mode style level that’s actually fairly easy&period; Still&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s plenty of replay value as you can continue to level up and become the ultimate badass&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Second&comma; the hub world is disappointingly shallow&period; If again you’re like me&comma; you’ll love exploring and side quests&period; While those elements are present there’s few of them&period; Exploration feels limited with very few secrets to be found and side missions just don’t require effort to complete them&period; You could casually walk around and just stumble on the goal without any real thought or effort&period; There is one neat side quest that requires you to find cats and hack into them &lpar;no cats are harmed by the way&rpar;&period; But all you get is a weapon locker in the next level&comma; which doesn’t really make much difference as weapons are present everywhere&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; these are minor problems in an overall fantastic game&excl; The intense action&comma; eye melting visuals and excellent soundtrack make this a sure recommendation&period; So when you’re done with <em>Cuphead<&sol;em>&comma; go ahead and buy Ruiner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;