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KIBORG: Arena is a free slice of Arkham-style combat starring a John Protagonist-ass punchy cyborgI typed ‘Killborg’ several dozen times
I typed ‘Killborg’ several dozen times
Image credit:Sobaka Studio
Image credit:Sobaka Studio
KIBORG: Arena - Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
KIBORG: Arena - Launch Trailer
Well, mostly. The first of those aforementioned throwbacks is the rhythm combat from the series of cape-em-ups that started withBatman: Arkham Asylum, with a little bit of charming homework-copierMiddle Earth: Shadow Of Mordormixed in. Uh, just imagine I did the throat thing when I wrote ‘Mordor’. There’s a lot of timed, telegraphed parrying going on, with space for you to weave melee combos in the interim. But I’d say the cohesive vibe of the thing goes back even further than that. The “large bald man leads a prison planet resistance effort” setup immediately reminded me of EscapeFrom Butcher Bay, but there’s mainly just a sense of an unselfconscious 2000’s action game about it all. I’m not sure there’s enough here to award the ur-7/10 of yesteryear, but that’s the general impression.
As far as I can tell, this is Moscow-based Sobaka Studio’s first foray in third-personactionafter a series of top-down shooters, and I think they’ve got a commendable amount right. Enemies don’t seem to attack as frequently as the Arkham games or Shadow Of Mordor, and you don’t have that vault, so punch-ups don’t flow as smoothly. Still, violence is chunky, meaty, and a few other words that can describe either good game combat or premium cat food. There’s a huge upgrade tree and scoring system to keep you invested in the arena, and a slew of brutal weaponry, each with unique movesets. My favourite is dual bats, although “shovel” is a close second.
