Ruiner Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

Between crimson streaks and blue lights, sickeningly stylish twin-stick shootouts and stank face-worthy beats, a game like Ruiner finds its marker on the field, not as an unsung member of the cyberpunk alumni, but as a rogue anti-hero that knows how to instill all of the same basic principles without ever needing to emerge from the shadows. It isn’t a game that likes to claim eternal glory and celebrate its own virtues for the sake of being able to inflate its own ego. Rather, it’s a game that, like many unkept secrets of its kind, wishes to hold you by the scruff of your neck, spin you a brief tale, and give you the means to embark on a three-hour quest in which you can perform to a cyber-fueled quartet of dark beats, slick combat sequences, bloody executions, and lofty skill trees.

Ruiner is a game that clearly has its priorities in the right place. Unlike your average twin-stick shooter that wants a little slice of everything, Ruiner knows exactly what it wants and how to fulfill its promise of delivering a brief, entertaining, and memorable cyber-inspired experience to its audience. It doesn’t beat around the bush and pad out its roots with jargon or cookie cutter scripture, but instead opts to drop you in the thick of the action with a clear objective: to rescue your brother from a dystopian metropolis—a towering city of gears and drones, automated assembly lines and morally bankrupt factions. There is no dialogue, and there are no ground-breaking cutscenes. It’s just you, a bunch of bad guys, and a whole host of bruised knuckles.

Of course, there is a story behind all of this, but for the most part, it seems irrelevant. The plot is a side hustle that quickly falls behind the veil, whereas the battles, the abilities, and the brutal twin-stick combat are what drive the whole experience forward. Somewhere, your brother waits in the dark for your arrival, either in the dank corridors of an old automated factory, or above the futuristic skyscrapers in Heaven—a place ruled by corrupt faction leaders and dubious officials. As the mask-sporting anti-hero, you don’t need to be the one to ask questions. The objective is crystal clear, and the only thing that you need to think about is how you’ll creatively execute each individual who stands in your way. That, in short, is all Ruiner is: an oh-so-stylish twin-stick shooter that prioritizes fast-paced combat, light plot elements, and heart-throbbing beats.

Behind every bare-knuckle encounter with one of Ruiner’s loyal antagonists is a bullet hell that leans on the traditional facets of a twin-stick shooter. Equipped with a variety of abilities—dash, shield, and armor, for example—and a belt of weapons that vary widely from melee to ranged, you take to each bout with a brutalist mindset. The beat thuds, and the armies swarm from all directions. As the masked hero without a name or a story, you enter the world, utilize your abilities, and eliminate foes in tactical shootouts, using one stick to control your movements and the flow of your body, and another to target your enemies and perform various attacks, abilities and executions.

While there are plenty of stressful battles to power through in Ruiner, the game does provide you with a lot of opportunities to build on your strengths to make certain conflicts a little easier to handle. Karma, for example, is an in-game currency that acts as both your source of funds and your reputation. As you slaughter enemies, complete side missions, and unlock areas in the world, you earn more Karma, which in turn allows you to purchase, upgrade, and flesh out your abilities, as well as explore hidden areas around the map. It’s a simple feature that, while not as unique or as in-depth as it could be, adds a little extra diversity to the overall experience.

Given its cyberpunk heritage and futuristic design, style is an absolute necessity for Ruiner. Even as a game that spends most of its time above the clouds, it pours a lot into its atmosphere and world-building techniques. While mostly drenched in crimson and charcoal, it adds a lot of detail to each borough, with numerous NPCs, cyber-coated buildings, secret areas, and vast dystopian landmarks. To that end, Ruiner is an on-brand game that looks just as good as it plays. Its absence of dialogue is a missed opportunity I’ll admit, but for when it does occur—a brief catchphrase that is—it sets the tone for the next wave and puts you in the right mood. “Go get ‘em, Puppy.” Happily.

As thin and as predictable as its plot might seem, the game itself is an absolute delight to sit through for three or four hours, give or take. With some satisfying combat sequences, tactical boss battles, wave-based shootouts, and light progression tropes to keep you in the loop, Ruiner provides a meticulously crafted love letter to the twin-stick cyberpunk scene that will most definitely appeal to the target demographic. It’s slick, smooth, and above all, incredibly satisfying to watch unfold from atop an ivory tower of dystopian fantasy. What more could you want from a twin-stick shooter?

Verdict

Ruiner blends riveting twin-stick combat with an energized cyberpunk vibe to create a well-oiled elixir that bears all of the right elements of a well-rounded, undeniably good-looking game. With stylish combat, light character-building features, and a digestible plot that hits all of the usual sweet spots, it establishes its own unique identity as a perfectly memorable denizen in the dystopian world.

While futuristic twin-stick shooters are a dime-a-dozen thing in this day and age, Ruiner does make for one of the better iterations of its kind. While still short and lacking in post-game content, it offers a gripping voyage into the dystopian era where flavorful combat and guilty pleasures clash in the most spectacular ways possible. If that’s something that you can quite easily get behind, then you shouldn’t struggle to rinse this world for all it’s worth.