Cyberpunk Speed Assassin

Genre: First-Person Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Cyberpunk Speed Assassin, released in 2024 on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, is a First-Person Platformer set in a futuristic cyberpunk world where players try to quickly parkour their way through a series of platforms amidst a skyscraper-filled cityscape, occasionally taking down enemies. In many ways this game felt like a more Platforming-focused Ghostrunner except, well, minus a lot of polish.

The presentation is a good example of that. There’s an opening cinematic that’s fairly well-done, even if it drones on for far too long in vague terms about the cutthroat nature of this cyberpunk future. But once you’re out of that, you’re dropped into a world with simple, unimpressive 3D visuals with tons of aliasing and amateurish menus. Even worse, after the intro the game has absolutely no sound whatsoever – no music, no sound effects, nothing but dead silence.

Clearly this game was released long before it was ready, and the gameplay reinforces this – while there was clearly an aspiration to have players running through levels at high speeds performing impressive acrobatic feats, the game lacks any sense of speed, the platforming physics are awkward and unnatural, the game has players doing complex maneuvers well before they’ve demonstrated any ability to do them, the signposting is terrible and leaves players wondering where they’re meant to go, and the game’s blocky-looking but intangible backgrounds blend into the blocky-looking platforms making it even more confusing where you’re meant to go.

To give you an idea of just how far this goes, one early level demands that players display a mastery of the ability to rocket jump, a move popularized by action-focused games like Team Fortress 2 and often seen as an expert maneuver, but here you’re required to use it with precision multiple times in a row while looking at your feet to aim the shot instead of looking at the platform you’re meant to be going to, and that’s if you even think to look up to see it in the first place. The game does occasionally provide text “hints” telling you what to do, but just as often these hints are not present and you will spend a ridiculous amount of time puzzling it out, especially given this game’s theme of speed running your way through levels as quickly as possible.

Cyberpunk Speed Assassin has some good ideas here, and if it was properly developed and polished this could have been an enjoyable take on the First-Person Platforming genre. Unfortunately, this game is so rough and unfinished that it borders on being unplayable at times. If this game’s premise sounds interesting to you, maybe try Ghostrunner instead, or if you want a truly great First-Person Platformer, play Neon White. Cyber Hook is another great one with a similar cyberpunk theme. Cyberpunk Speed Assassin needed far more time in development to be even remotely close to the great gameplay those games offer.

tl;dr – Cyberpunk Speed Assassin is a First-Person Platformer where players try to speed their way through a futuristic cityscape. “Try” is the key word here, as this game is so unpolished from its presentation to its gameplay that players will struggle to make headway through the game’s oddly-silent levels. Skip this game, you have plenty of better options in this genre.

Grade: D

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