Recently, early access out Glitchpunk . The developers promised a dynamic action game that was inspired by the first parts of GTA. Also, gamers should have been attracted by the cyberpunk setting: the scene of the game is a futuristic city flooded with neon lights. Unsurprisingly, the project has garnered a lot of attention - but how did it turn out? I appreciated Glitchpunk and would like to share my impressions!
Old time
Old school games are popular. Unpretentious isometry, hefty pixels, gameplay like the good old ones - sometimes such projects conquer the audience more than the top AAA ones. Take at least a chic Pillars of Eternity , in which 42 thousand gamers were cut at the peak.
Developers are increasingly taking up games with semi-antique style. Crafting Legends recently released a usable Death Trash . Russian Four Quarters tore the Steam charts with itsLoop Hero . Publishing house 3D Realms completely concentrated on retro shooters likeCULTIC .
Dark Lord studio also decided on a similar experiment. Developers were inspiredTop-down GTA 2 added a cyberpunk setting and created Glitchpunk.
What was the game like? Spoiler: while it looks like a raw piece of meat, which is better to bypass. It's embarrassing to release this even into Early Access.
Welcome to Cyberpunk?
Another garbage arrives in the neon-lit city of New Baltic. The sun never shines here, cars fly over the road, and local thugs are ready to devour newcomers with giblets. The territory was divided among themselves by three gangs, and each wants to kill competitors.
The main character is met by an unusual citizen. He pushes inspired speeches, but looks more like a sectarian. After asking a couple of questions, he concludes that you are nobody, and you have no place in the New Baltic. However, respect can still be earned if you buy a barrel and shoot three replicants.
Each group is ready to issue such tasks. For doing it, you will receive the respect of some villains and the censure of others. In a similar confrontation between gangs, cultists and corporations, all the content available in Early Access will pass. But is it interesting to do this?
Glitchpunk is a top-down shooter in the spirit of GTA 2. The camera soars into the skies and closely follows the hero who rushes around the city, firing in all directions and stealing cars. In 1999, doing this was fun, and even today the concept is not outdated. The main thing is that the execution does not fail - and with this the project has problems.
Glitchpunk starts to repulse from the first minutes. It's all about handling, which seems viscous and terribly unresponsive. Running around the city, aiming and shooting is unpleasant. The hero constantly fills in milk, bumps into walls and runs past points of interest.
However, this can still be dealt with, but driving a car is a natural disaster. Cars hover over the road here, which means there is no grip on the asphalt. Because of this, the transport constantly skids and twists in all directions. In addition, the car jerks strangely while driving, as if it has a high ping.
As a result, even getting to the task calmly is not so easy, and even racing against time and chases from the police are becoming very hardcore. Long-suffering Cyberpunk 2077 was criticized for driving, but here it is much worse.
Most likely you will crash into cops or run over civilians, for which you will receive a wanted star. Cops will flock from all over the area and start a shootout, in which they accidentally injure a couple of bandits - as a result, a peaceful trip will turn into a local apocalypse.
The only thing that pleases while moving in a wheelbarrow is the radio. The soundtrack in Glitchpunk is amazing: there are pleasant soothing melodies, and mind-blowing death-metal. During the shootout with the cops, they also turn on cheerful electronics, which shakes well.
It is worth noting that the foundation of the first GTAs was solid, and some of the virtues of Rockstar's brainchild still moved to Glitchpunk. Finding a rocket launcher in the doorway, driving a dozen wheelbarrows on the road and destroying them with one shot is still fun. Buy a cooler machine gun, run into hostile territory and fill everything with lead too.
Alas, it won't be possible to sow chaos for a long time - the process will get bored and force you to run on assignments. The instructions cannot be called original: kill, steal, bring, blow up and all that. Quests are often given modifiers like "don't get the cops' attention" or "get there in two minutes." Accidentally bumped into cops? Start over. Did you miss the turn and was late? Restart.
There were similar tasks in GTA 2, but since then 21 years have passed. The modern gamer craves a variety that Dark Lord does not offer: either run and shoot pointlessly, or complete primitive tasks.
Glitchpunk borrows a lot from GTA 2. Quests are taken from landlines in different areas. The hero knows how to burp and gasp. The map is full of places where you can repaint cars and confuse the cops. I wouldn't be surprised if you can find a tank in the gateway that will turn the hero into a horseman of the Apocalypse.
Of the original ideas, only hacking can be distinguished. Over time, the hero will receive modules that allow you to turn interesting combinations. For example, hack random passers-by and turn them into aggressive madmen. As a result, they will start a fight on the street that will distract attention from you.
The hack idea is good, but against the background of the flaws of the project, it seems like a false honey in a fly in the ointment. Inconvenient controls and uncomfortable driving are still small things compared to the main problems of the game.
The developers promise several cities that will be very different from each other. It is not known what other locations will turn out to be, but the New Baltic looks bad. As much as Knight City was scolded, the city was diverse and atmospheric at times. AuthorsThe Ascent created a cyberpunk masterpiece at all. But in Glitchpunk, the terrain is simply dull.
The New Baltic has no face. Yes, the streets are flooded with neon, and cars have learned to fly, but the rest of the city resembles the sleeping areas of Moscow rather than a futuristic metropolis. The terrain turned out to be dull and gray: there is nothing to explore, and the boring palette makes you want to yawn.
However, the main problem with Glitchpunk is technical execution. Not so long ago, I used the graphical The Ascent on the ultras and did not encounter any drawdowns. But the brainchild of Dark Lord looks so-so, but during the passage it constantly freezes and slows down.
I played it on a PC with a GTX 1070 and 16GB of RAM, but it wasn't enough for a stable FPS. For the sake of curiosity, I watched videos of streamers with RTX 3080 based machines - they faced the same problems. It looks like there are no graphics cards yet that could easily pull Glitchpunk.
At the same time, there is neither a memorable style nor a highlight in the visual. For example, Death Trash was memorable - even the huge pixels did not prevent her from looking curious. Glitchpunk, on the other hand, disappears from your head instantly.
To summarize, playing Glitchpunk is inconvenient, unpleasant, and in general there is no need. The lack of pleasant visuals, intelligible gameplay and normal optimization turns the project into a mediocre walker, which is not worth paying attention to yet.
***
The idea of crossing GTA 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 is intriguing, but Glitchpunk came out too raw to pull off a concept. If the developers improve the picture, fix the controls, bring in optimization and come up with interesting tasks, a good game may turn out. But will Dark Lord cope with the task? Difficult question.
What do you think of Glitchpunk? Write in the comments!
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