Before the behemoth we’ve come to know and love as Grand Theft Auto V took over the gaming world with its arguably unmatchable open-world quality, it too had to start from humble beginnings: top-down view gameplay. A seemingly lost form of gameplay in today’s modern-day storm of gaming consoles and graphic updates, but the team at Glitchpunk have decided to go the same origins as GTA, utilizing the gameplay to bring it back to the modern-day era, and boy, oh boy, does it work for this style of game!

GAMEPLAY

Glitchpunk takes place over 4 different maps. For this Preview playthrough, we were presented with ‘New Baltia’, a very synthwave-grungy Blade Runner style city, where crime runs uncontested and humanoid androids are now implemented in humankind society. Immediately upon loading up the map, you are blindsided by a questionnaire, aka “Cognition Test”, delivered by a man known as Magnus. His questions can be answered in a variety of multiple choice answers, ultimately landing you with the name Texas, one of the answers to his question. You are a humanoid android, who is tasked with becoming a “Special Debt Collector”, with a shoot-first ask questions later style attitude. In order to collect said special debts, you must first accept Contracts.

Contracts are the driving force of Glitchpunks gameplay. While most successful completions of contracts reward you with in-game cash, some offer you other rewards which may range from vehicles to unique weapons and upgrades. However, once a contract is completed, you cannot repeat it. The game’s storyline will change to reflect your actions and approach to completing your contracts.

The first contract received was to go hunt down 3 unruly androids, who seemingly didn’t want to partake in the earlier mentioned test. Before you start your quest for debt vengeance, you first learn how to use the gun and health kiosks, which provide you with the obvious, for a small fee. After acquiring your go-to items, 3 red GPS-style triangles appear on screen, showing the locations and remaining distances to your previously mentioned targets. As you navigate towards them and their impending doom, you traverse through a very thought-out and well-presented city, which really improves the game’s escapism.

Upon arrival to your victims, simple use of the mouse to aim and left click to shoot will have these androids regretting not doing their tests! Magnus chimes in abruptly once again, stating that one of the victims owned a car nearby. Retrieve it and bring it back to Magnus’ building, Redemption. In-car health, upgrades, and even Glitchpunks own radio stations feature whilst driving. To take the time and effort to produce a variety of radio stations is no small feat, and is quite impressive, especially for an indie game like this!

The driving mechanics for this game are so overly sensitive that driving will definitely take some time and fine-tuning to enjoy. A slight touch of the WASD style movement keys will either have you lining up your once crooked car driving style to be a noble android-citizen of the road or send your car zooming into any building, object or person nearby.

3 factions are gunning for control of New Baltia: a light blue GPS arrow is for Redemption, which is sort of like a police station. A purple GPS arrow for the Reapers biker gang and a light green GPS arrow represents Plague, an Android Liberation Front. Each faction has its own contracts to carry out, rewarding you with various upgrades, but be warned, certain contracts will affect the other faction’s reputation.

Overall, I found the map of New Baltia to be incredibly overwhelming. There were logos flooding the map, with kiosks here and safehouses there, and this person to talk to, and this object is here, and watch out for this item there. Just too much, too much icon placement made me dread going to the map to try and sift my way through the sea of icons to find some sort of location and direction.

GRAPHICS + SOUND

A dirty, grungy, synthwave-era ‘Blade Runner’ inspired art style is what best describes New Baltia. Being a top-down view gameplay-based title, not a huge amount of 3D-based detail goes into the models/buildings/environment, but it makes up for that loss with its incredibly well coloured, drawn, retro-esque look and gameplay feel. Early 90’s gamers will have a dose of nostalgia time and time again due to this creative art choice.

The sound team has done an impeccable job with what they bring to the table. The city ambient noise is so well placed and executed that it is seriously hard to fault their design team at all! From the noises of passing cars to the droning and dull humming of industrial machinery, and even a young baby crying somewhere into the night all adds up to make for an incredibly immersive gaming experience. As mentioned earlier, double points to the team for creating a cavalcade of various in-game radio stations to listen to whilst operating vehicles, truly a unique feature for indie games of this calibre.

The only downside that I found audibly was the background music. There was none. Maybe this was removed or substituted for the in-game radio stations, which I would completely agree with, but, seeing as that’s an unknown answer, the background music still remains empty.

CONCLUSION

Glitchpunk looks to expand fruitfully with its retro gameplay, impressive art style, and immaculate audio. It’s a unique spin on a long-lost style of gameplay, but it’s wonderful that it’s been found again, with a modern-day upgrade.

Written by: Brutaleo