Ruiner – Killed In a Flash [REVIEW]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Poland strikes again! It was not enough that they started pumping out epic tales of swords and magic via the Witcher series, now they are claiming ground in Scifi territory with Observer, and this month’s twin-stick shooter called Ruiner.

While the initial trailers for this game seemed to be a Scifi version of Hotline Miami, mixed in with some light RPG elements, in actuality Ruiner is an even faster-paced action game. It aims to be something deep in terms of story and tries to be insanely difficult, but it might just try to juggle too much to be that unique shooter.

How I found my brother

The story of Ruiner is that in 2091 the world has become advanced regarding AI and robotics, but sadly nothing turned out to be great about the future. Crime and corruption are rampant in the city of Rengkok. You as the main character an unnamed killer is forced to kill The Boss of Heaven (the good parts of the dystopian future) as if you do not the unnamed group will kill your brother. Things go out of hand quickly, and you end up in Rengkok South badly damage clinging to your life. From this point on you have to defeat several bosses, and try to get back your brother. With the assistance of a Hacker called Her, will guide the player in exacting revenge and finding the family member. 

Most of the boss names and standard enemy names are filled with Cyberpunk Clichés.

However, in the end, the story is nothing special, even with the Cyberpunk aesthetic (and clichés), most of the plot twists can be figured out in the first hour. The bosses are uninteresting regarding lore and storylines – however, they are fun to play against. Plus there are no side missions, just merely secondary objectives you can complete the missions. It provides a tiny bit more depth to the characters, but for those who just want the usual violence/remix music can just ignore them.

Ruiner is definitely not to be played for the story, (there is no depth to it like in Hotline Miami), but rather for the fast-paced, and violent gameplay.

A Pipe, and a laser gun

While the story is nothing special, the gameplay is quite impressive. At first, before starting the game, there are three difficulties to choose from, easy, normal, and hard. I would caution everyone to start with Hard difficulty, even though the developer’s state it is how it should be played. For newcomers to such a genre, I recommend normal, as hard was unbelievably difficult at times. After deciding on the difficulty (even if it is „hard”), the game starts, and the prologue provides us with some tutorial as to how the mechanics work, and the leveling up system.

In Ruiner there are multiple ways to handle an encounter, there is the pure run n’ gun option trying to take down enemies from afar. The other option is using your Flash like abilities to teleport around the levels, and bashing their heads in with a pipe, or cutting them up. Speed is of the essence in Ruiner, even more so than in Hotline Miami. While it is not a one hit one kill situation, you do get messed up quickly in the game. The encounters are in a closed environment with no escape or hiding place, plus you will have to calculate your next move if you want to survive.

Your character has a quite a long skill tree with different abilities and can determine how you play for most of the game. The most basic skill is the Dash, and the player can chain together dashes for more tactical play. There is also a shield, a kinetic barrier, stun grenades, frag grenades, and a whole slew of skills that provide a unique gameplay for the player. However as mentioned above some of this can be hindered by the abusive difficulty on Hard.

Still, this is probably one of the most varied twin-stick shooters I have seen for a long time, and one that requires a lot of tactics, and skill.

Blood and Shiny graphics?

While this is only a twin-stick shooter, the graphics, and the atmosphere is amazing. It is a top-down twin-stick shooter, with some fantastic visuals and effects. The entire game is covered in despair, and futuristic atmosphere and all of the locations show that. Rengkok South, for instance, is similar to scenes from Blade Runner, but only much in much red rather than bluish tint. Most of the graphics look great on the consoles even compared to the PC. The effects are good, and especially when using the dash ability, it feels like playing as The Flash from DC comics. Most of the enemies are also highly detailed and are kinda varied regarding looks. It never gets boring to look at them, and even the bosses have their own animation, attack style, and sound design. It might not seem like Crysis or even Nex Machina, but it sure is stylish and fun to look at as you zip between enemies to bludgeon them with a hammer.

The sound design is topnotch, and the music complements the gameplay in a lot of instances. It provides the player and the combat rhythm. It is not a rip-off of Hotline Miami in any way but instead takes its own spin.

Blade Dancer

In the end, Ruiner is a fun game, with lots of gameplay possibilities, good graphics, and a superb soundtrack. Sadly though Hard difficulty seems like a chore at times rather than an actual difficult product. Also, the game is a bit short sadly clocking in around four to six hours, so buyer beware if you want quantity over quality. Still what is included in the package is one hell of a ride, filled with corpses and awesome music.

-Dante-

A fun game with exciting visual choices, although there are some difficulty issues

Developer: Reikon Games
Publisher: Developer Digital
Genre: Twin Stick Shooter
Release Date: 26th of September 2017

Pro

Fun gameplay, with interesting mechanics
Super graphics
The soundtrack is really great

Con

Story is not the best
Difficulty spikes are all over the place
Some effects look a bit low quality compared to the rest

Gameplay: 82

Graphics: 84

Story: 64

Music/Audio: 92

Ambiance: 83

Total: 81