Game thoughts?

[Justin__Harris]

I was curious about getting this game. Any early impressions?

[BG_painter]

Tbh, your post had me checking the game in utube, i had never heard of it before. This type of game is hard for me, because it seems like you need to have some "hand" skills ?, i have to say, it kinda reminded me of hotline miami. I loved HM. I would probably enjoy this one too.....

[Justin__Harris]

9 minutes ago, BG_painter said:

Tbh, your post had me checking the game in utube, i had never heard of it before. This type of game is hard for me, because it seems like you need to have some "hand" skills , i have to say, it kinda reminded me of hotline miami. I loved HM. I would probably enjoy this one too.....

 

Yeah I also hadn't heard of it, but saw a quick 'Before You Buy' about it on Gameranx's YouTube. They also made several comparisons to Hotline Miami. I haven't played that either, but I'm assuming it's another I should check out. But yeah, the style of this game looks amazing and that's what's got me so intrigued by it.

[BG_painter]

Now you kinda got me intrigued by it too LOL ? (wouldn't it be great to have ANOTHER HM btw..? ?)

[aZombieDictator]

This is one of the best twin stick shooters out there. If you like twin stick you're gonna love this game. I bought it because I love what Devolver publishes and i wanna support them and it was a great choice to buy it.

[Justin__Harris]

2 hours ago, aZombieDictator said:

This is one of the best twin stick shooters out there. If you like twin stick you're gonna love this game. I bought it because I love what Devolver publishes and i wanna support them and it was a great choice to buy it.

 

Awesome. I believe I will be getting this in the near future. Thanks!! ?

[aZombieDictator]

Nice! Hopefully you won't be disappointed when you get around to it. But Devolver Digital knows good indie games.

[Munkian]

I have probably put a couple of hours into this game so far, whilst the artwork in this game is really very nice I am finding the gameplay abit dull, the guns literally do nothing and once you start getting further through the game the enemies start teleporting and dashing all over the place and it all becomes a little messy, I just find myself dashing around aimlessly, I doesn't seem either fun or tactical just a mess.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Munkian

[Justin__Harris]

9 hours ago, Munkian said:

I have probably put a couple of hours into this game so far, whilst the artwork in this game is really very nice I am finding the gameplay abit dull, the guns literally do nothing and once you start getting further through the game the enemies start teleporting and dashing all over the place and it all becomes a little messy, I just find myself dashing around aimlessly, I doesn't seem either fun or tactical just a mess.

 

Cool dude. Thank you for your honest opinion. Probably will end up getting it, but I'll be weary of that consideration.

[DragonTattooXX]

I love it cause its old school cyberpunk!

[MiamiNights89]

Recently bought this game! Another cyberpunk vibe to keep me pumped for cyberpunk 2077 ???

[TJ_Solo]

The game makes me wish there was more recreational things to it than the one city and 3 quest givers. The Akira vibes are super strong. I'd rather have a open world, 3rd person, action RPG version of this game instead of Cyberpunk 2077. Don't @me.

[InDebt3Fiddy]

its a hidden gem

 

[Guest]

Love the art!

[OBSTINATIO]

'Ruiner' is a typical 5/10 indie-game and if you are not very big cyberpunk or twin-stick-shooter fan, I'd recommend to pass this game. 

 

The overall (art-)style of the game is really nice and hits home for me. But expecting a nice little cyberpunk game, you will be greatly disappointed with 'Ruiner': Although the game looks and sounds like a good cyberpunk title, an equally important aspect of a good cyberpunk game/film/book is missing – a good story or at least any kind of taking advantage of the setting. The game feels totally empty and everything you do is ultimately meaningless. 

Ok, 'Ruiner' is a twin-stick-shooter, so its probably not so much about the story, characters and such things but about gameplay. Well, like I said, the best thing about the game is its art-style… I played a bunch of twin-stick-shooters on the PS4 and gameplay-wise its clearly below average. The game never feels smooth like for example 'Nex Machina', it never feels like you are in control of things. Like @Munkian said, the game becomes extremely hectic but not in a good way, like many difficult games tend to be, its a total mess leading to trail and error sequences, especially the first time around. 'Ruiner' is not a difficult game but since you don't have full control of anything (weapons are random + some are completely useless; enemies spawn everywhere; everywhere are objects you dash into or get stuck because you can't see them properly). Overall the gameplay feels only "ok". It constantly felt like the devs didn't put a lot of thought into the little gameplay details, which separate a mediocre game from a good one. Unfortunetly for most of the time the gameplay feels not good enough to satisfy any experienced players or people looking for a difficult game to master like Nex Machina, Enter the Gungeon or any other top genre games. The newly added NewGame+ Mode is a good idea since you have more abilities from the start, but since you have to start every difficulty separately it doesn't really help. For a game designed for multiple playthroughs it's clearly not good enough. 
Also the game has a lot technical issues: frame rate, enemies not spawning, glitching under the map etc. I had to restart the game quite a few times within my 10 hours of playing. 

 

'Ruiner' is the perfect example for a "Style over Substance". Greatly disappointed by the title, even for 4,99€ let alone 19,99€. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by OBSTINATIO

[yowzagabowza]

I agree with everything the guy above me said. 

I love twin sticks but this is not fun. It's way too hectic, enemies teleport all over the place and there are always too many of them to have an actual strategy. Some weapons are useless. There are a hundred different abilities and so the game isn't designed around any of them. You can't see shit. 

 

And the worst three things:

1: incessant flashes of images that cover the entire screen. I hate them so much.

2: way too much slow motion. Any time you get three consecutive kills (3,6,9,12...) it goes into slow motion for a few seconds. When a group of enemies appear, slo mo. When you defeat a boss, slo mo. Just stop already.

3: because of #2, there is so little flow to the game. It's supposed to be fast paced, but ends up being so damn annoying because of the constant interruptions in the action.

 

I really regret buying this, and I honestly went off the opinions above and on this site that praised its twin stick formula. Big mistake. 

On 9/27/2017 at 2:22 AM, Justin__Harris said:

 

Yeah I also hadn't heard of it, but saw a quick 'Before You Buy' about it on Gameranx's YouTube. They also made several comparisons to Hotline Miami. I haven't played that either, but I'm assuming it's another I should check out. But yeah, the style of this game looks amazing and that's what's got me so intrigued by it.

Nothing like Hotline Miami at all, not even a little bit.

[Justin__Harris]

On 5/16/2020 at 6:54 PM, yowzagabowza said:

Nothing like Hotline Miami at all, not even a little bit.

 

I mean, they're both top-down shooters, so they're at least a "little bit" like each other technically-speaking. ? Jeez, that post was from years ago. Lol.

[yowzagabowza]

26 minutes ago, Justin__Harris said:

 

I mean, they're both top-down shooters, so they're at least a "little bit" like each other technically-speaking.  Jeez, that post was from years ago. Lol.

Haha, yeah, sorry, probably shouldn't have quoted you. 

But no, they're not alike at all. Hotline is a one hit kill, very precise game. Ruiner plays extremely loose and enemies appear almost randomly. 

[MrTacoNinja]

I never understood why people drool out the mouth and get raging boners over stories in video games. I just don't get it. I guess maybe it's because I never gave two fucks about a meaningless, fictional story with characters that don't even exist in real life. Stories having to do with real people, real events, is what has always piqued my interest. When it comes to games I just care about the gameplay. Keep your stories, keep your lore. Just give me a solid game with fun mechanics. Ruiner clearly doesn't have that by the sound of it so off I go, in hot pursuit of the next platinum........

Edited August 28, 2020 by MrTacoNinja

[cris3f]

I bought this game after reading the comments her and mainly the ratings on Steam. I was expecting something awesome. Frankly it's not.

Where do I start... The art. The concept of what is cyberpunk art is thin. But this is definitely weird cyberpunk. Most of the game will appear in pastel tones and cel-shaded animations, which I don't find appealing. There's excessive darkness in most places which doesn't add anything to the game, quite on the contrary. They seem to have tried to pick ideas from every game on the planet and mix everything. They wasted a ton of time in the hub and intermission sequences which don't add anything to the game. Probably when they designed the game Dark Souls was the rage so they decided to make a really dark cyberpunk. Worse, everything in the game itself looks the same. After 10 mins it gets tiring and doesn't change much to the end. The seizure like flashes can be accepted but once or twice, along the whole game becomes annoying as hell, and unfortunately can't be turned off. Comparing to other cyberpunk themed games I had finished Jydge just before this one, and I liked a lot more the art even thought it's a lot simpler. Simplicity sometimes is the key.

Controls. This game has controls in every single button of the controller. All, even R3 and L3. But it doesn't stop here, it has different functions for most of them depending on the upgrades you choose and they work differently. But it doesn't stop there. In their wise decision they decided to add a tactical attack that you sort of put the game in slow motion and insert 3 points so that the character dashes to them in sequence, in a game that enemies move at blistering speed... What's the point of this I can't figure. The only game that has made a good use of a different dash movement is Time Recoil (even the triple dash of Nex Machina isn't a good, and the teleport of Tesla vs Lovecraft is a different idea). So a really short game has a more complex control structure than a really complex game like Horizon Zero Dawn. Worse the complexity doesn't add anything to the gameplay, only messes it up.

Shooter... This game is not a shooter. Shooting is ridiculously bad in the game, to the point that I that hate melee used it to deal with 95%+ of the enemies, including bosses. I wasted a long time messing up with one of the tougher bosses, a guy that constantly teleports. After 3 mins of shooting I did not even had his health at half, in the run I was more successful. Then you switch to using abilities and waste him in less than 30 secs. This is ridiculous. All bosses are absolute bullet sponges, and they even supposedly lowered that in patches. And they also patched even easier ways to kill bosses using abilities. The only parts where the weapons work is against the mother, one of the bosses, the best parts of the game unfortunately.

The gameplay becomes bad. It's not the blistering speed, that is even fun. It's the absolute mess the game is with the ton of controls and abilities. And the repetitive environment and dark and obscure sets.

Music isn't good, sound effects are.

Story isn't important to me, but if there's one at least it should be good. The interaction with the main helper character is interesting, but the hub world is completely useless. The CAT collectibles are perfectly dumb (granted the Mementos on Dead Nation are pretty stupid too). And what is the point of the motorcycle intermissions or the "light speed" travel in the same area (I really got the impression o light speed by the way ?). Again this game has a TON of disconnected ideas that don't work together.

 

If you want a good cyberpunk shooter play Neon Chrome or Jydge. Both put this game to shame in what matters. Playability and enjoyment. They're not perfect and much simpler but they have focus and it works.

 

Ruiner isn't a overall bad game, but it's not a good one either. A pity and a disappointment. I don't think I'll even finish it, and it's not the difficulty. Dead Nation is a lot harder than this.

 

 

 

[StraightVege]

I wrote my detailed thoughts on the game HERE.

 

I think it's worth experiencing once on the Normal setting, but from the perspective of a completionist, I often didn't enjoy the gameplay, since the combat in NG+ difficulty too easily devolves into an unreadable mess. A blur of me dashing, enemies dashing, instant-death kamikaze explosions, projectiles everywhere, and obnoxious slow motion effects is not much fun. I frequently found myself mindlessly mashing the dash button, holding shoot, and hoping for the best.

 

I was impressed with how adaptable the skill system allows you to be, though. The player can pause the action and reallocate their skill points at any time, and in any combination, so there's always another approach to try if a fight isn't going well. More games should do this, rather than locking you into one build.

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by ScarecrowsFate

[Baker]

26 minutes ago, ScarecrowsFate said:

 

I think it's worth experiencing once on the Normal setting, but from the perspective of a completionist, I often didn't enjoy the gameplay, since the combat in NG+ difficulty too easily devolves into an unreadable mess. A blur of me dashing, enemies dashing, instant-death kamikaze explosions, projectiles everywhere, and obnoxious slow motion effects is not much fun. I frequently found myself mindlessly mashing the dash button, holding shoot, and hoping for the best.

 

 

Way different approach to the game than I did. But that’s a good thing I guess. Because of the skill system you can play in some different styles.
 

But all you need is Ghost Break (fully upgraded), that just breaks the game imo, apart from maybe some Boss fights. NG+ was very easy, and all I did was use GB and run around a bit. 

 

My opinion of the game is that it’s a decent twin stick shooter. Liked the environment, gameplay was decent, music was terrible. 6/10

Edited December 27, 2020 by BB-BakkerJ

[StraightVege]

Yeah, I definitely did a respec into Ghost Break on a few occasions. It's extremely useful for the Arena mode, in particular. Takes a while to get through the game with that playstyle, though, so I opted for a build relying primarily on Overload and Dash.

[zizimonster]

On 12/15/2020 at 11:48 PM, cris3f said:

If you want a good cyberpunk shooter play Neon Chrome or Jydge. Both put this game to shame in what matters. Playability and enjoyment. They're not perfect and much simpler but they have focus and it works.

How hard is Jydge compared to Ruiner?

 

I didn't find Ruiner that easy on NG+. Perhaps because it was my first twin-stick shooter.

[cris3f]

7 hours ago, zizimonster said:

How hard is Jydge compared to Ruiner?

 

I didn't find Ruiner that easy on NG+. Perhaps because it was my first twin-stick shooter.

 

Jydge isn't difficult. I just played Ruiner in normal, some parts of Jydge will be harder than that, but most is quite easy. It's not a mess like Ruiner. Neon Chrome is easier and you can farm abilities in case you're in trouble.

 

Best one will be Dead Nation. But it's quite harder and has a reasonable learning curve.