Ruiner

 

Ruiner by Reikon Games and published by Devolver Digital was on my Wishlist for all of five minutes when Devolver Digital had a sale on Steam, yay! The game caught my attention due to the gritty environment and cyberpunk setting. So I excitedly went to make the purchase, PayPal decided to delay it by by being a pain in the back side, but I eventually got it.

Boojum! A Mexican chain restaurant that is massively popular due to it pricing, selection and student discounts and merchandise. Every now and again I get a burrito or a burrito bowl, if I am feeling too lazy to pick my food up. There are some options and toppings it is not worth going into. That all being said depending on who makes it, the time of day, etc. the food can taste better or worse even if it looks good. Playing Ruiner I found myself asking was did this look and taste the part?

Story

The tutorial and prologue are one and the same which I love as sometimes tutorials can feel a little mundane. The character you take control is a man wearing a mask that looks a TV screen wrapped around it. Someone is talking to you, commanding you to kill the boss and seems has little control of the matter. Before the finale you are hacked by someone else and things go black. The story has you investigating who did this to you, who you are and who is the mysterious girl helping you, who refers to you as 'Puppy'.

Overall the story is amazing and gets progressively darker as you move through it. The negative reviews seems to come from people feeling there are plot holes or more lack of questions being answered. I don't think Reikon Games did this accidentally, they wanted to leave players questioning and wanting more. Part of me hopes they do a sequel and DLC and the other part of me hopes they don't.

Visuals

The visuals highlight the gritty town of the Ruiner, busy dirty streets, crazed people, those with more machine parts than the human. Smoke billowing out of building and over all sense of despair. The world is displayed from a top down view, and as grim as it is there is much darker places. One of those is the garage, little light and enemies everywhere. As the story proceeds it only get worse, the enemies more from being somewhat human to something more ghastly.

Overall the visuals are amazing and create a very grim world that pulls you down into. The game is worth playing for this element alone.

Music

The music has gritty dark electronic feel, why really helps in creating a dark atmosphere. The creators of the soundtrack are;  Natalia Zamilska, Polish composer, DJ, and Sidewalks and Skeletons, a UK Solo Project by Jake Lee.

The soundtracks is ninety minutes and features more than twenty tracks, my favorites being:

Memory

Rise

Duel 35

Flag

Sleep Paralysis

Underwater Sun

XXX

Overall a pretty solid soundtrack that works really well with the game.

Gameplay

Ruiner offers some really interesting gameplay from the point of view that no matter the situation or your playstyle there is something to suit all. There are number of abilities you can acquire in the game and each can be upgraded. The upgrading system is based on you attaining karma by knocking the hell out of enemies, and opening up chests. My go-to abilities were; dash allowing some fast evasion, shield that can take a ton damage and combined with dash can cause a lot hurt, electro shocker great for stunning almost every type of enemy, power exchange which allows you to use to fill up your health, handy if you are in a tight spot.

The enemies are aggressive in the game and speed is everything. Boss fights are more aggressive when attacking but on the plus side they are generally not as fast as standard enemies. Learning the attack pattern of boss is a good way to take them out quickly. The game allows you to have a melee weapons and a firearm. Don't get attached to either, if they break or run out of ammo grab another gun there will be plenty around. 

Something pretty unique to the game is a clean up bot, when you clear an enemy it appears, sucks out the karma and leaves you with a snazzy gun. Later on you have enemy version which suck you dry of power and health, not fun.

There are small number of side missions, nothing to in depth and all located in the areas you are visiting. 

Once the game is over a plus game unlocks for anyone who wants to upgrade everything and finish any missions they may have missed. There is also an arena mode and even a hidden level in the game. Overall the gameplay is fun and was definitely the game I needed.

Final Thoughts 

So, after ten hours how did I feel?  Happy and wanting more! While I hope the dark future never comes to pass it is really great story. The visuals are dark and gritty, the soundtrack works really well with the game. The gameplay is pretty much flawless and was so much fun! This one gets a solid 4 out 5