Developer: Dark Lord
Platform: Steam Early Access from August 11th
Genre: Action, Early Access
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Glitchpunk is the latest cyberpunk game that I have managed to get some hands-on gameplay time over the last week. The game is a top-down action game in the mould of the classic GTA games. You fight, kill, rob cars and go on missions in this dark and gloomy world filled with gangs and enemies.
If you have played the original GTA games, that will give a good sense of what you will get. The game’s mechanics are 2D top-down action-based mayhem where you guide your player around the dark and dystopian city. You can collect new guns, powerups and missions as you navigate the city. You can hijack cars and do as you please! A decent storyline and good dialogue help to bring some colour to the world.
Glitchpunk allows the player to build relationships with other gangs/factions that can be friendly or adversarial. It means you can be in a hostile world where you are enemy number one, not just with law enforcement.
I have to say I enjoyed the twin-stick shooter elements and walking around the world completing missions. However, it should be noted that it is an early access game, and it has some issues. The driving mechanics in the vehicles are clunky and annoying; to say the least, it needs a bit of tweaking. I encountered various issues with the frame rate with a whole host of different graphical settings that also made the game frustrating. Whilst doing missions, you can get a cop rating of between 1 – 5 that indicates your wanted level, I found that police just randomly being everywhere and that the two stars wanted level; that it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. The save game feature isn’t spelt out. If the developers were to do this, it would have made my first few attempts at the game less annoying. It turned into a rogue-like until I figured out where the safe house was.
The combination of these issues does impact the game. It is a clever concept that has been well thought out but needs some bug fixes to reach its potential; I’m looking forward to the next update where Glitchpunk isn’t as glitchy.
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
