In a dark cyberpunk world, a figure glides across the horizon. Clambering across walls, diving behind brooding figures, a dash of crimson kissing the air. If you’re thinking ‘’that’s a bit anime’’ well, you’d be right. Sprawl doesn’t try to hide its inspirations, which doesn’t always bode well.
Sprawl
Developer: MAETH
Price: TBA
Platform: PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
Sprawl is often described as a boomer-shooter, but this is where the first point of discussion starts to burn. Its speedy, slow-mo, wall-running nature leans more into modern styles, leaving the only real old-school principles being the Quake 3 Engine-esque visuals and combat arenas. It’s not exactly a bad thing that Sprawl never fully commits to a style. Instead, there’s an admirable attempt to stitch together various aspects into a singular form, coated with heavy doses of Ghost In A Shell.
The chances are if you are still reading this, you’re still on the fence or curiously looking on. Opening with a gritty vision of a future Cyberpunk world, complete with a child choir echoing throughout, Sprawl’s confidence is laid bare. As expected, there’s a heavy focus on movement based combat. Every level is broken up into various phases – Flip a switch, kill enemies in a locked zone, find a key, open the door. Between combat are agility tests using Sprawl’s wall-running mechanic.
With a simple jump, you’re latched onto the surface for a few seconds. A second jump will refresh the attachment, but will require a cooldown before the next. While not as robust as the peers that have inspired its inclusion, it does a good enough job of providing a sense of speed and momentum. Its application fails to reach anything too ambitious, with the mechanic being limited traversing rather than playing a role in the combat. Frustratingly, it’s hard to shake off the notion that more could have been done with wall-running, especially in later stages of the game.
Of course, every first-person shooter lives and dies depending on its combat. Sprawl’s approach to the gunfire ballet is a frankenstein of early 2000’s FPS with more recent titles based around glory kills. Enemies have weak points, killing via hitting said weak points produces resources such as ammo and adrenaline. The latter resource fuels the slow-motion ability that brings time to a standstill, highlighting weak points in bright orange. It’s a fair economy that works, but not without fault.
Given Sprawl’s pace, the weak point mechanic can often feel like a limitation of creativity for the player. Suddenly diving between foes, sliding under their fire and bouncing off walls becomes less effective when you need to hit a flaming hot orange point more often than not. It halts the speed and sense of momentum, feeling counter-productive to the pace Sprawl seemingly wants to be played at.
It’s not that Sprawl’s combat is bad, it’s in fact decent, but it never quite flows. Engaging in firefights, weaving around enemies, fails to hit the heights it should. Quicking-swapping between weapons helps control the crowds, further supplemented by a handy melee attack. A lack of feedback from the weapons is a constant annoyance paired with an oddly tame approach to death animations. Brief flashes of potential fulfilled are quickly engulfed by the returning sense that Sprawl just isn’t quite it. The victim of its gameplay inspirations, it knows what it wants to be, but seemingly lost its way in trying to find a balance.
One aspect where Sprawl does shine is its production. The faux-Retro visual style is a good match for the version of Cyberpunk portrayed. Clearly using Ghost In A Shell as its platform, there’s a great effort in creating an undeniable tone throughout the game. The use of oppressive colors with a dash of life gives the world a context. Audio wise, everything sounds okay, if not a little bit tame, bar the soundtrack. A collection of grim-techno tracks ensure the ears are constantly clued into the world that Sprawl is building, filling in much of the holes left by the malnourished narrative.
It may sound harsh to call Sprawl decent, but it’s not without merit. There’s bursts of magic confined by too many elements feeling undercooked. The reality is, Sprawl finds itself in a subgenre filled with absolute killers that have refined the craft. This year alone has seen quality titles cut through the boomer-shooter zeitgeist like a Doom 3 shotgun hot take.
Although the production is good, the meat of Sprawl is still rather raw. The concepts it tries to muster aren’t developed enough to propel a 7ish hour experience. Repetitive enemy types, lackluster weaponry and flow at odds with itself leaves Sprawl in a dark place. What Sprawl does have is character. It holds the Ghost In The Shell influences with admiration, and it shows. The soundtrack bursts with powerful choirs only to entwine itself into techno that fan the flames of combat.
The Final Word
Purists of boomer-shooters will find things to enjoy, but it may prove to be the discussion over whether Sprawl is a boomer-shooter or not is the most interesting thing about the game. Sprawl will certainly find itself a healthy audience, but suffers from doing too much without nailing a singular element that can carry the rest. An admirable effort that often jabs, but never lands a powerful shot.
– MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
