Ruiner is a top-down action shooter set in the year 2091 in the cyber metropolis Rengkok. A wired sociopath lashes out against a corrupt system to uncover the truth and retrieve his kidnapped brother under the guidance of a secretive hacker friend. With a great sense of tone, a cool look and frenetic shooting action, Ruiner is an awesome indie experience.
Shown at an over-head perspective like GTA2, with extra bells and whistles, it brings you in immediately. If you’re into fast-paced, gun blazing, hack and slash, and nice music, this is the game for you. Nowadays, people want something easy, simple and fun all in one package. This game delivers on all accounts with great visuals, audio cues and music and the environment is something to be amazed by. But of course, this game can’t be all too perfect, can it? Without having the occasional wall splats from dashing too close to a glitched object within the stage, things can get frustrating. Could this be the alternative for people that used to play GTA2? Or will this be a simple play once and never again game? Let’s say it’s somewhere in the middle, but more on the side of solid.
Starting out in the training level, you’re learning in a unique way. You the character you’re playing with makes expressions within the helmet he is wearing and could reflect how he feels or states a point of action during combat. Simple controls to learn from either viewing it from the options menu or going through the game and wait till it shows up on the screen to make an attempt at learning. Either way, the tutorial does its job and even makes it fun to learn the ins and outs of the game. The game may feel a bit weird at first, knowing that you use both analog sticks to be able to control the movement, but fans of dual stick shooters will be right at home.
This game can appear to be something on the difficult side if you’re not used to playing similar titles like GTA2, or any side-scrolling shooter. People also may complain at times with the low health bar you have and only able to gain it back from either stepping on a platform to refill it or stop the enemy and gain it from them. As a result, while it’s easy to play, it’ll take time to actually get good.
Away from combat, the game has a dark feel to it along with rated M for the mature context of killing. Excessive words being used at times for the story and while engaged in combat slow things down, but not enough to limit the fun.
Bottom line: this game plays smooth and fluid- making the combat and dodging much easier. You wouldn’t ever think of a game that’s not a triple AAA game could be so much freaking fun once things are learned and practiced after a few death attempts. Simply put, Ruiner is something people should be on the lookout for if needing something casual but also can be used for speed running and make it a race of time completion type of experience amongst friens.
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