RUINER Review

It’s this cycle that bestows the game the lofty comparisons between Hotline Miami, a similarly repetetive system that didn’t punish you for death but instead asked you to learn from it. Ruiner’s instantaneous retry understands the importance of this gameplay loop and serves it well. Much like Hyper Light Drifter, Ruiner asks that you also consider your limited power and health bars constantly, using and refilling their fast-draining resources at a lightning-fast pace to keep you healthy and well-stocked with evasive and offensive options. It all comes together to strike a good balance, and whilst I rarely dominated encounters first time round in the early hours, I never felt overly frustrated or cheated by the title’s penchant for swiftly murdering me.

Presentation:

At times Ruiner looks fantastic, at others it looks a bit drab and monotone (that tone being red). Cyberpunk often feels a little skewed towards this kind of colour palette, and Ruiner aptly drenches itself in the stuff, but sadly this is often to the detriment of the game’s art style. I liked the functional arenas – though the traps (that do massive damage when you’re exploring) could really do with being a bit easier to spot, but it all feels a bit sterile quite quickly. Luckily, the 2D art style more than makes up for this lack of character.

Audio is similarly monotone, however, with a pounding, repetitive score that doesn’t actually get my blood pumping. I quickly stopped noticing it, which is never good in a videogame, but at least it didn’t outright offend me. I would have loved to see some more voice work in this game though, as some of the cutscenes feel uncomfortably quiet.

Conclusion:

‘Ruiner‘ is going to put some people off with its obnoxious difficulty spike, but its strange mix of masochistic fun and ‘if at first you don’t succeed’ formula really worked for me. It’s a chunky game that offers more interesting options the further you delve into it, and should you have the stones (and the patience) to get to this meaty mid-section it rewards your investment with a very fun and satisfying gameplay loop. If beating your head against a brick wall sounds like a painful exercise in futility, feel free to skip Ruiner.

Should you long for that elation of finally taking the wall down however Ruiner might just be your surprise game of the year.