Ruiner Hands-on – the love child of Hotline Miami and Ghost in the Shell

Ruiner – the debut work from the Polish studio Reikon Games – swept me off my feet this April with its sensational, climatic trailer; the game itself seemed like a much better-looking Hotline Miami, and drowning in Blade Runner gravy. However, the gameplay footage shown at PAX East had a significantly weaker impact, and to be honest I was a little afraid that my visit in the dev's HQ in Warsaw will end in disappointment. Turns out I was wrong, big time. After the first few minutes of shooting, cutting, and head smashing Ruiner advanced from being a noteworthy curiosity to one of this year's most anticipated Polish titles.

There's one thing I have to make clear – this text will contain comparisons to Hotline Miami, a game that I'm personally very fond of. The developers themselves do not hide the fact that the (in)famous work from Dennaton Games was one of their main inspirations. One difference lies in the graphics: where the Swedes chose extreme simplicity, Reikon Games decided to at least make it look good. When it comes to visuals Ruiner has some pretty nice things to show, but it is thanks to the great aesthetics of the setting rather than the quality of the Unreal Engine 4-powered graphics. In the comments section under the aforementioned trailer someone wrote that the game looks like Drive, Old Boy and Blade Runner mixed in equal proportions. Except that I would replace Drive with anime, which the creators themselves mention as another major source of inspiration; other than that the description fits Ruiner like a glove. Dirty, rain-drenched streets full of shady characters, overflowing with neon lights illuminating the entrances to stores and (much more often) shady barrelhouses – the setting is brimming with tokens of a futuristic, cyberpunk dystopia.

The setting wouldn't be complete without a cyberpunk plot though, concerning which the developers chose to remain silent, at least for the most part. So far, we know only that the action is to take place in year 2091 in Rengkok, a futuristic metropolis, and home to the HQ of the Heaven corporation. We'll take on the role of a lower-class citizen who, with the help of a mysterious girls, embarks on a mission to save his kidnapped brother. The plot of Ruiner isn't exactly Nobel Prize material, but given how addictive the gameplay is, holding its plot against it isn't really worth it.

Although the main dish served by the work of Reikon Games will be shooting, cutting, smashing with a steel pipe, and blowing up all kinds of adversaries, the developers felt it would be interesting to add a small, completely open location. Not for combat, mind you – it's the place where we can visit a mechanic, drop into the bar and talk to some NPCs. It's a small portion of the game, more like a prelude to the actual gameplay, but it definitely has that something. Firstly, because walking the streets of Rengkok is a mighty climatic experience, and secondly, because, in contrast to the aforementioned Hotline Miami, it provides us with the opportunity to obtain detailed intel on the mission we plan to do, and thoroughly prepare.

There are some rare moments when bloodbath turns into a festival of explosions and fire.

And believe me, you won't regret making preparations, because from the very moment we grab our first steel pipe and begin making dents in the skulls of various gang members, Ruiner has no intention of holding its punches against us, the players, not even for a moment. The game can be really challenging – though I have to give it to the developers that it never crosses the fine line between causing healthy frustration through several death in a row and going Nintendo hard on us. Still, during my short session I died enough times to severely strain the R key on the keyboard – but since respawn after each failure is almost instant, and we rarely have to redo more than a minute of progress, I was able to immediately throw myself back into the heart of action.

Reikon Games announced that the production will be released later this year – the game has been in development for more than a year when the announcement trailer was shown. At the moment, Ruiner is to be a PC exclusive, but as the authors stated in an interview, they remain open to other platforms as well. I have some personal doubts whether a gaming pad can be used in this game, as the gameplay requires almost pinpoint precision while retaining very high pace. Still, seeing as both installments of Hotline Miami took off pretty good on PlayStation 3 and 4, I wouldn't be surprised if Ruiner, assuming it becomes successful, gets ported as well.

Combat in Ruiner can be as addictive – and at the same time much more varied – as in Hotline Miami. The game rewards offensive approach, and although we can hide behind various elements of the environment or a shield, we get the most fun by eliminating enemies clustered in large groups, and non-stop movement. It's all the more enjoyable thanks to the skills that allow our character to instantly close in on an opponent, suddenly appear behind his back, or stun the guy standing in our way. This ability turns out to be particularly lethal when combined with a cybernetic shield – when we turn it on and then tackle some poor wretch, they'll be dead before they know what hit them. And that’s just the beginning. Although the devs didn't show a working character progression system, they did reveal that it will feature classic skills, active and passive alike – including things like the ability to put up a static wall that will reflect projectiles. The downside is that any such action depletes our power supply, which has to be refilled either in the traditional way – by using special points scattered throughout the map - or simply by killing enemies.

The list of protagonist's skills can give a false impression that Ruiner gives the player too much advantage over the opponents – that's what I thought as well, having watched the initial gameplay footage. The thing is, as it soon becomes clear, the enemies also can (and will) use similar skills, which, given their bigger numbers, sometimes turn the game into a highly tactical high-risk venture. Constant movement is the key – often before I finally launched an attack, I executed around a dozen of dashes around the enemies in order to work out a good attack position. As I mentioned earlier, this game rewards you for aggressive approach – but only if it's properly planned and devoid of even a trace of recklessness. Our hit points are few, and the places where we can heal only slightly more so. This in turn transforms even minor battles into adrenaline-pumping encounters – not to mention boss fights!

From time to time we will be able to take a breather from the violence and explore the game's dark, futuristic metropolis.

I had the opportunity to face off againt one of them – the gang ringleader known as Nerve. In addition to a health bar that extended across the entire length of the screen he could use the same skills as I could, and he had a nasty occasional habit of vanishing to make a barrage of Molotov cocktails rain down on my head or send in his lackeys to keep me busy. This battle definitely proved to be the most difficult sequence in the whole stage – it took me about twenty attempts to finally put Nerve down – but it was also the most satisfying one. I just hope that Reikon Games won't take the path of least resistance and subsequent bosses will require us to find some specific ways to defeat them – dashing around while nabbing at their health bar is fun, but only for a time.

Ruiner does a lot of things better than Hotline Miami, but there is one aspect in which it has no chance of catching up to the work by Dennaton Games – audio. Which shouldn't come off as a surprise, as the OST to both parts of the said title are a set of phenomenal tracks, and it would require a genius to jump over a bar set this high. The section I played was "merely" very good in that aspect. The developers chose similar audio climates: dark, rhythmic electronics with sudden eruptions of loud, high-energy elements. Perfect!

I left the studio walking on air. The section of Ruiner that I had the opportunity to test appears as a must have for anyone who, like me, fell in love with the hard-hitting, dynamic action in Hotline Miami. I assure you: this Polish production has a good chance not only to become HM's equal, but to go as far as to actually top it. The combat is bloody, fast-paced, and requires a bit of a tactical approach, and although the familiar formula was supplemented with a variety of skills, it doesn't complicate the game in the least. The controls are intuitive, and it took me moments before I used dashes, shields, and grenades like I grew up playing with them. Will Ruiner become yet another small publishing hit from Devolver Digital? I'd say it definitely has the potential. And I would happily move to Rengkok for a bit longer.