So David Jaffe made me wishlist this game, looks crazy.
I was wondering why people were giving Jaffe the time of day re: his opinions on Cruelty Squad. Then I saw that he apparently hated it, lmao. What an endorsement.
I've been playing a ton of this lately and it's brilliant. One of the most unique shooters I've ever played.
The story and setting are probably the most unpleasant, vile, and nihilistic take on cyberpunk I've ever seen. It's basically, "What if we did capitalism so hard that literal demons decided they wanted in on the action?" The central premise is that corps found a way to monetize the kind of people who go on shooting sprees. It's so fucked up.
Aesthetically it's awful and overwhelming. The soundtrack is unpleasant, sometimes overwhelmingly so, and then there's the level that just has squelching noises for its soundtrack. Visually it's a hideous mess of clashing colors and mismatched textures. And then the game goes and gives you ways to make it look even worse.
Can you even comprehend what's going on in this screenshot? Truly it's God's resolution.
But mechanically, it's amazing. The campaign took me ~5 hours to beat, and I'm now approaching 20 hours. The missions are highly replayable thanks to multiple modes and time-attack stuff. There are a crazy number of secrets (and it seems like the EA period is largely dedicated to adding more of them). I just finished up getting clears on each level on
cursed mode, and now I'm planning to aim for S-ranks on them.
It's a legit banger. One of the best games I've played so far this year. I can't wait to see what other secrets get added during the EA period.