Deadlink - Early Access Review
The following review is based on an early-access build of the game. The final experience may change from the time this review goes out.
Deadlink
Release Date: Oct. 18, 2022 (Early Access release)
Developer: Gruby Entertainment
Publisher: SuperGG
Platform: PC
MSRP: 19.99
There’s a key to difficulty in games, and it’s often hard to work out. It’s a fine line to walk between frustration and satisfaction, between the relief of pulling off a difficult fight (and the knowledge of actual consequence), and making that difficult fight still easy enough that the player wants to keep fighting, rather than logging off to play something more relaxing. It’s a balance not every game can strike, as seen from the number of people who give up on Fromsoft titles. Deadlink, on the other hand, manages it pretty easily. The fights are difficult and the arena setting can turn into an absolute meatgrinder, but every time you squeak out a win, every time you pull that luck and skill together, you feel like a cybernetic neon god. It’s the best feeling in the world, and I can’t wait to see how they expand upon it from here.
Deadlink’s plot is revealed mostly through its in-game encyclopedia, but here are the broad strokes: You are an agent of the Corporate Security Agency sometime in the far future, tasked with policing various megacorporations. In your capacity as an agent, you are uploaded into a cyborg body via an interface known as a “Deadlink,” ready to dole out justice. But before the Deadlink can be put into wide use, it needs to go through exhaustive simulation. That’s where you come in. Over the course of three campaigns, one for each megacorporation the CSA is supposed to take down, you will shoot, explode, and generally reduce to rubble everything in your path. And maybe, if you’re good enough at the simulation, you can do it for real.
The core loop Deadlink sets up throws you into a first-person arena shooter with roguelite elements. Every run, you upload into the simulation and throw yourself against the armies of the three megacorps, all with their own unique units and theme. In between missions, you talk with the two scientists who serve as your handlers, one of whom offers advice and the other offering insulting but helpful tips about how to take down your enemies on the next run. Each run, you earn experience points and unlock rewards, everything from stat upgrades to new loadouts for your existing shells, descending again and again into the underbelly of the city to do battle once more.
The roguelite elements do a great job of maintaining this loop, too. You’re never too far from a restart point, you can very easily get back into the action once you’ve ended a run, and the upgrades can be genuinely helpful, especially the shield, health, and ammo capacity upgrades. The game also pushes you to use abilities other than just basic shooting, as each (temporary) upgrade you get in the combat sections is tied to a specific action— weapon-switching, one of the two “skill” powers, or breaking the “c-balls” full of ammo around the arena. Using these abilities and your grenades also mark enemies, which causes them to explode into showers of shield recharge energy when killed. You can get into a good rhythm of moving around the arena, taking out opponents with a variety of tools at your disposal, and all of it feels deeply satisfying, like you’re the video-game equivalent of John Wick. Few shooters manage their gunplay/skill interactions this well (looking at you, Doom Eternal), but Deadlink allows you to pick up the basics and settle into a rhythm that works.
The game’s setting is similarly brilliant and allows you to sink into it. Even without the codex, the game has a mood and feel that infiltrates every corner of its world, from the Blade Runner-inspired alleys and sleaze, to the bright colors of your weaponry, to even the threatening-looking robotic skeleton that serves as your player character. As you level up your exoskeleton and weapons, the mods even appear as cosmetics, further driving home the idea that you’re upgrading yourself. It even strikes a nice balance with the graphics, hearkening back to cyberpunk shooters like System Shock (dig the red and blue color palette and the way the game even starts you off in a backalley doctor’s office), Cyberpunk (the thumping, undulating dynamic bass soundtrack that kicks in and grows more intense as the battles do), and an intense feel to the gunplay that fits right alongside the modern “boomer shooter” revival currently taking the FPS-playing world by storm.
But it goes without saying that the game could use a bunch of polish. There’s some definite balance issues between the two loadouts, with the “Soldier” shell favoring up close and personal interactions but being outfitted with an AOE that tends to hit maybe one enemy at best and a clunky shotgun among others, and the “Hunter” allowing for a lot more range of movement, a higher rate of fire, and not really much of a downside. The game presents itself as fast-paced and movement based, so having the beginner loadout be a slower, clunkier one doesn’t make as much sense. Especially because it feels like the Soldier loadout is basically just something to push through so you can get to the Hunter loadout.
The game is also pretty stingy on health, something that’s a definite issue in the later levels when you get swarmed by enemies, leading to a situation where, if you get the wrong set of rooms, you can pretty much die just from being trapped and getting shredded without a clear exit in sight. It could also use a little more indication of progress, as there’s no way to tell how close or far away you are from the boss room, which kind of makes the game feel a bit grindy at times. There were also moments where I clipped into the scenery, clipped into enemies, and clipped through the stage, leaving me looking up at where I was supposed to go through a skybox.
These are all kinks to be expected, however, in an early access title. These shouldn’t by any means deter you from playing one of the most exciting cyberpunk shooters of the 2020s (okay, not a huge category, but this and 2077 do kind of stand out above much blander titles like The Ascent), and one with style, mood, and kinetic action in spades. It’s definitely going to be interesting seeing where Deadlink goes as it continues its early-access journey, and well worth getting in on the ground floor.
The Good:
- Fast, kinetic action with easy skill use and a good rhythm
- Excellent mood, atmosphere, and world design
- Gorgeous graphics
- An adrenaline rush of roguelite FPS action
The Bad:
- In the very early stages of its early access journey, so be prepared for some bugs
- Balance issues in the loadouts
Final Score:
A game with a few flaws, but I haven’t been able to stop playing it for four days straight.