In the future, agents like you don't even need to leave the house to engage in corporate espionage - you can just upload your consciousness into a Synth, a tooled-up battle droid that does the hard work for you. Your former employer, the eponymous CyberCorp, has found a rat within their ranks, and has engaged the shadowy Operator as the middleman who sets you the task of rooting them out.The aesthetic of CyberCorp is very much as you'd expect - neon-lit back alleys, box-like apartment buildings and glass-filled office blocks reminiscent of Neon Chrome, backed by a pounding electronic soundtrack. And while the rank-and-file enemies are pretty standard, there are some nice designs on the Invader mini-bosses, which you'll have a chance to appreciate repeatedly, as some of them are extremely vexing to defeat.
This being a looter shooter, the distinction that separates this from other top-downers is the sheer scale of upgrades. On any given mission you'll pick up metric tons of new guns, currency and upgrades. The guns you can use straight away, while the other stuff has to wait until the mission is over, successfully or otherwise.
Weapons range from your standard assault rifles, LMGs, pistols and shotguns through to lasers and energy weapons (this being the future after all), all sorted by stats and rarity. Some weapons inflict status effects like Freeze or Burn, which result in the standard slowdown or damage over time mechanics. Rarer weapons enable you to install perk cards that boost their stats even further, meaning that taking some time to refine your loadout can really pay dividends. You can also pick up armour that boosts your Synth for the next run. The Forge function lets you combine identical perk cards to level them up, and you can buy and sell items at the shop to eke out a couple more stat numbers.
When it comes to gameplay you know what you're getting. You drop in with a primary and secondary weapon, a melee attack and one or more cooldown skills. You're separated from death by your shield and health bars, both of which regenerate if you can stay out of the way for a few seconds, while finishing enemies with melee attacks gives you a small health boost.
When it comes to gameplay you know what you're getting. You drop in with a primary and secondary weapon, a melee attack and one or more cooldown skills. You're separated from death by your shield and health bars, both of which regenerate if you can stay out of the way for a few seconds, while finishing enemies with melee attacks gives you a small health boost.
The gunplay is punchy and satisfying, as is judicious use of abilities like spawning a turret or health beacon, but the melee just feels lightweight and bloodless, which is disappointing, even though swords allow a three-hit combo if you time it right. Traversal techniques include a slide, which as well as a dodge function allows you to get into hidden areas, and the short-range Blink teleport that allows you to get closer, or further away, depending on your level of gung-ho-ness.
SUMMARY
With a completion time of about 5 hours (8 hours to 100%), CyberCorp doesn't outstay its welcome. It's the definition of a quick-couple-of-goes blast, and honing your loadout between missions, while complex-seeming at first, is good fun, particularly when you can drop back in and make mincemeat out of a boss that's caused you some pain on previous attempts.
SUMMARY
With a completion time of about 5 hours (8 hours to 100%), CyberCorp doesn't outstay its welcome. It's the definition of a quick-couple-of-goes blast, and honing your loadout between missions, while complex-seeming at first, is good fun, particularly when you can drop back in and make mincemeat out of a boss that's caused you some pain on previous attempts.
At a reasonable price point of around £16, it's a definite one for twin-stick fans, while looter shooter aficionados will get their fix too.
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