Ever since I immersed myself in the world of roguelikes, what has always stood out to me are games that push boundaries and boldly experiment with different genres and exciting new ideas.
Kiborg, from Russian developer Sobaka Studio, is exactly one of these titles, as it fuses the blistering, combo-heavy action from classic old-school beat ‘em ups with an addictive, highly replayable roguelite loop.
As a huge Stephen King nerd, the game scores some extra points for me too, as its premise is very reminiscent of his classic dystopian sci-fi novel, The Running Man, which fittingly is also set in the year 2025.
What is Kiborg, then?
As I teased above, Kiborg is an intense and bloody roguelite beat ‘em up hybrid set within a dreary dystopian world. You play as Morgan Lee, an innocent prisoner who has been sent to one of the galaxy’s toughest prisons for crimes he didn’t commit. To terminate your ungodly 1,300-year sentence, you sign up for a twisted reality TV show, where inmates brutally beat each other to death for the entertainment of its desensitised viewers.
Your end goal is to reach a shuttle to freedom on the prison roof, but standing in your way are waves of other inmates and several fearsome bosses who are desperate to tear you apart. These encounters are fast-paced and unpredictable, and you’ll need to use a mix of firearms, melee weapons, and your bare fists to survive. Ammo is scarce and melee weapons break after several blows, which pushes you to adapt on the fly and think on your feet.
The melee combat I found to be very tight, with you having a spinning attack, a light attack, and a heavy attack that you can chain together to pull off combos.
If you feel brave and can nail the timing, parrying can also be a powerful move, as you can stun your enemies and inflict extra damage.
The gunplay I was less impressed with, as without visiting the upgrade tree (more on that later), my aim felt imprecise and my bullets sprayed everywhere.
Upgrade or Die
Where Kiborg really knocks it out of the park is with the absolutely insane amount of build variety that it offers. Players can equip cybernetic implants that grant powerful abilities such as being able to gain a second wind after dying or summoning a blazing path of fire when dodging attacks.
Each implant belongs to its own individual class and by selecting synergising ones, you can earn additional buffs. This forced me to really reflect on each upgrade and not rush to pick the one that sounded best on its own.
What is really cool is that these implants change the appearance of your character. Each run, my character looked significantly different, and it was fun watching them slowly morph into a cyborg with each upgrade.
Implants are just one way that you can modify yourself. You can also equip modifications that present a challenging ultimatum of sacrificing one of your core stats to enhance another. For example, one augmentation that I equipped increased my total HP bar but slashed my current HP, which temporarily left me vulnerable until I could heal up.
It doesn’t end there, as you can unlock even more secondary factors to consider after tinkering with the skill tree. This includes summonable allies that will fight alongside you, additional perks from implants and augmentations, and a rarity system that allows you to unlock more potent upgrades.
With all of this at play, each run felt significantly different, and it was fun to experiment with different builds to see what worked best.
Levelling Up Through the Pain
The roguelite progress in Kiborg takes place in the form of a giant branching skill tree that can be found back at your hub area. During each run you’ll acquire tokens and these can be spent on upgrading your skills and making each future attempt a little less painful. The range of unlocks is huge, and your tokens can earn you a range of buffs including additional starting HP and reducing the overall recoil from firearms.
The main problem I had with this progression system was how grindy it felt getting my first foot on the ladder and toppling the first boss. I understand that the very nature of roguelites is that something that first seemed impossible is more manageable each run through unlocks, but it took me several hours to even beat the first boss. Once I was over this first major hurdle, the flow felt much better, but it was a real drag in those first few hours to watch my health continually torn apart like toilet paper.
All Substance, No Style
Another area where Kiborg stumbles is in the visuals department (although I will concede that the screenshots look pretty ace). Whilst I can cut the game some slack for being a smaller indie title, the character models and environments are noticeably dated and feel right out of the PS3/Xbox 360 era.
The visuals also fall short when it comes to environmental variety. The tedium of replaying the path to the first boss was only enhanced by fighting through the same prison courtyards and abandoned train stations.
The Verdict
It might have a couple of rough edges, but I found Kiborg to be a deeply engaging roguelike hybrid that I can see myself returning to in the future. Its visuals aren’t the easiest on the eyes and its early game can be a drag, but once you hit your stride, the build variety and satisfying combat will make it hard for you to put down.
If you’re a fan of punishing roguelites with a beat ’em up twist, I’d recommend giving Kiborg a shot.
Finally, a big thank you to Sobaka Studio for providing us access to Kiborg, which we played on PS5. The game is out on April 30th on PC (Mac, Win), PS5, and Xbox Series.
