#devolver
“Ya vendrá alguien que te robe el corazón, alguien que te devuelva la pasión, alguien que te emparche el corazón. Ya vendrá alguien a tu medida, a tu altura, alguien que disfrute tu locura, alguien que desnude tu ternura”.
— Nicolás Andreoli.
Ruiner, a cyberpunk-themed action game from Polish studio Reikon Games (published by Devolver Digital), was first released back in 2017. I completely missed out on it at the time, but a Nintendo Switch version was released a few weeks back.
As a big fan of the genre - Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies of all time - I thought I should give it a try. Read on for my impressions.
Ruiner opens in the year 2091 in the filthy streets of the city of Rengkok. Our protagonist is an unidentified masked man who has been brainwashed and sent to assassinate the mysterious head of the Heaven mega-corporation by a hacker named Wizard. Before you can throw your life away in the attempt, you are freed by another hacker, “Her”. Together, you and Her will attempt to resuce your brother from Heaven and take down the “Boss”.
Ruiner is advertised as being created “in the spirit of cult cyberpunk anime”. There is a lot of truth to that. The game is a lavish cyberpunk playground. From the neon drenched street of Rengkok to the industrial wastelands where killer robots are assembled, you will explore a bunch of intricately detailed environments ripped straight from Ghost in the ShellorBlade Runner. The characters you meet - hackers, oracles, and killer assassins - come right from the same. However, what Ruiner really reminded me of was old Judge Dredd comics. The tone of the entire game is a little too-edgy-to-take-seriously. It’s over the top, full of flashing signs telling you to murder or that you have NO WAY OUT. The conversations you engage in are so self-serious that you can tell the developers had their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks.
As a result, the game is a delight from the presentation standpoint. The story, while fairly minimal, would make a great 80s comic book. It’s flashy, violent, and over the top, as is the entire art direction. Everything drips in neon and desperation, and in motion it just works. The character designs are memorable and fun too. There is also a surprising amount of lore and backstory behind the setting as well, found largely through ambient conversations and observations made in the world.
That tone - flashy, fast, and violent - is directly fuelled by the core gameplay. Ruiner is an action game, where you take down waves of enemies while pushing forward through the level. You can use melee attacks or shoot, while dashing all around the room to avoid enemy attacks. As you take down enemies, you can collect their weapons. There is a huge variety of both melee and ranged weapons that you can employ. On the melee side, you have everything from short swords - speedy, but with a limited striking range - to devastating heavy maces - hugely damaging, but slow.
Likewise, there is a massive range of different ranged weapons to choose from. You get your standard pistols and shotguns, of course, but can also find things like flamethrowers or laser beams. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. A pistol is fast and has a nice range, but doesn’t do the most damage. The laser guns tend to be very powerful, but need to charge up before you can get a shot off.
You won’t get much of a chance to get bored, however, if you don’t like the weapon you grabbed. Melee weapons have limited endurance, while ranged weapons have limited ammo. Once out, that weapon is gone, and you need to grab another. Fortunately, you never have to wait long, as enemies drop weapons like candy. As a nice bonus, when you clear a big room, you often get the chance to convert the remaining weapons into experience and a new, bigger gun.
As your level increases, you can also put points into special abilities. There is a pretty big range of these, and each can be strengthened by investing additional points - adding new features or more power. The most basic of these is your dash. This is also the one you will use the most. As you put points into the dash, you will be able to move increasingly further before running out of energy. You can also get abilities to do things like create a stationary wall to hide behind, surround yourself in a temporary forcefield, or stun the enemies around you. At any time, you can choose to remove points and respend them, allowing adaptation to the current situation you find yourself in.
The combat in Ruiner is exhilarating. It gives you a lot of tools to employ without overwhelming you all at once. It encourages - even requires - some experimentation to get right without dying. Yet, at the same time, it never gets frustratingly difficult. The combat is not cheap - it just requires some mastery. The entire time, it feels great to control. I loved dashing from enemy to enemy, cutting them down - all while firing shots off to keep the other enemies at bay. In a way, it feels quite a lot like Hotline Miami - another Devolver Digital game - with a bit more of a melee focus.
Ruiner is not a particularly long game. I completed it - having also completed most of the sidequests - in about six hours. While I wouldn’t have minded a few more levels to really dive into what the combat system had to offer, I also appreciate a game that is well-paced and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
As mentioned before, I played the new Nintendo Switch version of Ruiner. I did not run into any issues. It ran smoothly on the Switch. I played through the majority of the game in portable mode, which worked well, as I tended to play one or two levels at a time between other things I was doing. This is a game that would work well on either the tablet itself or a TV, so you can choose based on how you feel at the time. The controls are comfortable on the joy cons, so I didn’t end up having any particular complaints.
Ruiner came as a fun surprise. I missed out on the game when it first came out, and wasn’t even all that interested when a copy of it arrived in my inbox. I’m really glad I gave it a try. It is a kinetic, ultra-violent, tongue-in-cheek take on the cyberpunk genre with a well-polished and really enjoyable combat system. I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
A copy of Ruiner was provided for this review.
