Review
Played on: Xbox Series XReleased: 2017
There's been a lot of great twin stick shooters through the years, a control scheme perfected with Geometry Wars and used for a variety of titles since. Often synonymous with indie styled shooters and smaller releases. In combination with a top down view, it gives a clear view of you're surroundings when enemies attack from all angles. While moving your character, you can fire in another direction entirely.
I've played many great titles with this setup, ranging from highlights such as Geometry Wars 3, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Alienation. Recently, I had the pleasure of discovering a great indie title in this genre. Ruiner.
How it pulled me in, initially, was it's neon lit, dark, red coloured cyberpunk aesthetics. Taking place in a violent 80's and 90's styled future, with lots of nods to other dystopian, futuristic sci-fi settings from popular media.
What sets Ruiner apart, outside of the flashy moves and fight style, is the visual art direction. While it not varied tremendously in colour and industrial looking areas, it sure has this charm that reminds me of movies like Akira, Judge Dredd, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. I found the art design hit a sweet spot and combined with the tons of violent aftermaths of battles, blood and remains of dead enemies everywhere, it has a strong dystopian 80s and 90s reminiscent style. Accompanied with a modern, yet retro, sounding synthwave music.
On the downside, I would've enjoyed more substance and less repetition. A coop mode is deeply missed too. It's strictly a singleplayer experience, perhaps suited so, considering the dark and lonely feeling of the areas you roam. Lifespan, we’re talking five to six hours here, a nice length as the intensity and speed of battles wear you out over time. I can't imagine how many times you need to retry on normal or hard difficulties. Again, some variation and detail put into environments and gameplay wouldn't have gone amiss.
If you're on the lookout for a new twin stick controlled shooter, with a strong art style and dark futuristic aesthetic reminiscent of 80s and 90s movies and anime, you can't go wrong with Ruiner. Just don't expect a deep story, or a lot of variation. However, the gameplay is something you can get real clever and imaginative with.
Ruiner is an extremely fast paced game, something it teaches you in the opening tutorial level. Here you need to pay attention, learning it's tricks to stay alive. Doing super-fast melee moves, will set the gameplay into slow motion sequences, allowing you to get in critical hits before opening gun fire. You can rapidly lose health and die if you don't keep yourself moving, this is no ordinary shooter.
Power ups and exchangeable weapons lay scattered on the ground after fights, picking up them up and choosing the right ones suited for enemy types becomes second nature. The power ups will give you temporary boosts, like increased damage. Calling in a cleaning machine at the end of large battles allows for all the remaining weapons to be destroyed, adding crucially needed points to your inventory. These, in turn, can be cashed in for levelling up various abilities.
I enjoyed trying out a lot of weapons on the fly in battles, they're varied and offer differences in firepower, firing speed and bullet trajectory. Melee though, is just as important. Finding a cool sword, or bat, to instantly kill people with, feels just as satisfying as it sounds brutal.
Power ups and exchangeable weapons lay scattered on the ground after fights, picking up them up and choosing the right ones suited for enemy types becomes second nature. The power ups will give you temporary boosts, like increased damage. Calling in a cleaning machine at the end of large battles allows for all the remaining weapons to be destroyed, adding crucially needed points to your inventory. These, in turn, can be cashed in for levelling up various abilities.
I enjoyed trying out a lot of weapons on the fly in battles, they're varied and offer differences in firepower, firing speed and bullet trajectory. Melee though, is just as important. Finding a cool sword, or bat, to instantly kill people with, feels just as satisfying as it sounds brutal.
A cool feature following the opening level is how the story settles into a futuristic night life in a city after the first tutorial. Here you can walk about and talk to various people and start new missions. A hacker girl keeps you up to pace with who you should take down in the crime syndicate you're battling against.
The dialogue is presented by anime styled drawings and text, with the main character replying little other than one word replies, giving vibes from the Dredd movie from 2012. I liked the way the story was presented, despite it's rather bare bones presentation.
Entering a new mission area usually results in a linear progression through an environment that leads to a boss fight after tons of battling. There are insane amounts of enemies and Ruiner shows no mercy, throwing everything at you in high speed. You'll be soon rather than later considering notching it down to easy on the difficulty. At least I did!
Entering a new mission area usually results in a linear progression through an environment that leads to a boss fight after tons of battling. There are insane amounts of enemies and Ruiner shows no mercy, throwing everything at you in high speed. You'll be soon rather than later considering notching it down to easy on the difficulty. At least I did!
What sets Ruiner apart, outside of the flashy moves and fight style, is the visual art direction. While it not varied tremendously in colour and industrial looking areas, it sure has this charm that reminds me of movies like Akira, Judge Dredd, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. I found the art design hit a sweet spot and combined with the tons of violent aftermaths of battles, blood and remains of dead enemies everywhere, it has a strong dystopian 80s and 90s reminiscent style. Accompanied with a modern, yet retro, sounding synthwave music.
On the downside, I would've enjoyed more substance and less repetition. A coop mode is deeply missed too. It's strictly a singleplayer experience, perhaps suited so, considering the dark and lonely feeling of the areas you roam. Lifespan, we’re talking five to six hours here, a nice length as the intensity and speed of battles wear you out over time. I can't imagine how many times you need to retry on normal or hard difficulties. Again, some variation and detail put into environments and gameplay wouldn't have gone amiss.
If you're on the lookout for a new twin stick controlled shooter, with a strong art style and dark futuristic aesthetic reminiscent of 80s and 90s movies and anime, you can't go wrong with Ruiner. Just don't expect a deep story, or a lot of variation. However, the gameplay is something you can get real clever and imaginative with.
