[CIVVIE]
I've been trying to catch
this fish for an hour now. I think I got it earlier
but it just… disappeared on me. The wheel, yeah you see it,
I'm not crazy, right? *Martyrdom from Cruelty Squad* About six months ago
I was on Twitter and people kept telling me
to make a video on some new Early Access game
called "Cruelty Squad" and I responded,
like a gentleman, by grabbing a copy on Steam
and playing it for about 20 minutes before refunding the game and
trying to never think about it again because as first impressions go, Cruelty Squad is like
going on a blind date with an exceptionally ugly person, like the kind of hideousness
that makes you cut off the friend who set this whole thing up,
who told you that this was a good idea, which is why I promptly blocked
half of my Twitter follows and the entirety of New Blood, who will usually use their Twitter
to champion good games and shitpost with the force of a thousand rectums. And that's what I thought the game was… an extremely elaborate shitpost… I mean look at it. No sane designer would use
these textures, these sounds, listen to this mission briefing. *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* Even the menus seemed to be
designed to confuse the player, blocking out your choices
with some pixelated intestines or nightmare faces. Normally when you're not blessed with
the kind of budget you need to hire voice actors, or the dog food I paid Gianni with, text is fine, this though… This is like hearing a Banjo Kazooie character
while you're going under anesthesia… Not to mention that the game
limits you to a load-out, two weapons, and I don't have to tell you
how I feel about that. With one of the weapons you can select
at the start being a joke weapon that only temporarily
knocks out guards. Going for a Pacifist run? Look at the title,
this is Cruelty Squad, not "Leave 'em alive
and play the dashing rogue" squad. I am, however, always grateful to a game
that respects the efficacy of head-shots. Too many games decide that you need
two or three shots to the head with a high-caliber bullet to take
someone down in the name of "balance". Well, Cruelty Squad balances that by having
you die over and over again in every mission, without mid-level checkpoints, and all of this, at first glance, points
to the kind of weird trash you find all over Steam. So I refunded the game, and people kept asking for it,
forever, endlessly, and so I said that this game
was too weird for my channel which is a blatant lie. At the time I didn't want to cave into
demands to play some shitty meme game. Once you cave to your audience, you end up making boring videos
about TNT Evilution and losing all self-respect, but then something strange happened. I felt like my off-the-cuff tweet about
the game being too weird was kind of harsh, and I don't like to be
too mean to independent games, but then David *****- *beep*
but then David *****- Honestly, when I said
it was too weird for my channel, I thought that would, among the more contrarian
segment of my fan-base, encourage them to play it, what could be
too weird for this channel? Still, it took me
a while to come around, a lot of the buzz around Cruelty Squad
was that it wasn't just a good game, but a great game, deliberately wearing
the skin of a shitpost game, and as someone
who made a YouTube show that intended to wear the skin of
the hackiest kind of Internet review show, only to confuse people
and catch them off guard, I felt like a fucking idiot
for not seeing it sooner and not giving the game
a proper chance. So I bought it again. This was when
it was in Early Access. And I went through most of it,
and about half of the secret levels, and then when it came out
of Early Access, I realized I didn't have
any of my saves backed up. That's fine, I wanted a clean
playthrough for the video. Not a whole lot had changed,
I don't think, it's hard to know because
in Cruelty Squad, so much extra content
is lurking in the shadows waiting for you to discover it
and experience the pain. You know, once you get into it and disregard
how it's intentionally assaulting your senses. I've been trying for the longest time to think
of a way to approach writing a script for this game because it's… you know,
completely insane. Let's try this: The game's intro has
your employer calling you, telling you you're a fucked-up loser, and offering you steady
employment through an app, sort of like being an Uber driver
that murders people. And yes, that blob of polygonal meat
wearing a visor is you. Once you actually see the boss,
who is… absolutely horrifying. Your first weapons will be
a silenced pistol and an SMG, and the SMG you shouldn't use
under any circumstances and you'll want to
replace immediately. *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* Once you get into the first mission, you'll understand that
you're playing a waking nightmare, a horrifying misbegotten thing
you'd find in a hospital dumpster, when was the last time you saw a game
with a giant border around the screen that, at first glance,
serves no purpose? A life… blob, that takes up entirely
too much space on the screen, some kind of ammo readout
with a nightmare face attached to it, and the textures,
my god, the textures. It's amazing what
you can get used to. Combat is gonna throw you off. Your weapons thankfully
are effective enough, but one of the first enemies
you run into are these vicious dogs with faces
that open up into… something. Your aim-down-sights key is Shift,
not Right Mouse Button, because you reload
with the Right Mouse Button by dragging it down, and then up, and this is something
you're gonna have to get used to because sometimes,
it just doesn't seem to work, you haven't gone down far enough. Now, I didn't get far
in this mission my first time, I was almost immediately turned off by the game
for all the obvious reasons I've already told you about, but the second time?! Well, the level design, in the tradition
of immersive sims, is fairly open-ended. You have targets that
you can see all over the screen and as I'd learned to do before, I avoided the front door
and took the vent into the building, which took me pretty close
to one of the targets. I head-shot a guard, and I'm in, no need to steal his organs, though,
they're not worth that much. The AI isn't too good in this game, but that doesn't really matter
when they can kill you by sneezing. One silent head-shot after another,
creeping around, this game can't be beaten, at least
not by me, with a guns blazing approach. It requires surgical precision
in a lot of cases. Your target is right here,
he's unarmed, but he does have a shotgun on his desk,
which you'll want to pick up. Something that will
confuse you early-game is the fact that the F key kicks
and the R key interacts since Right Mouse is your reload,
R can be used for something else, but sometimes you're gonna end up
kicking something you want to interact with, E is leaning, along with Q, which is a function I barely use because
it makes your aim completely unreliable. There's a special door here that you can go
through now, which has a useful bazooka behind it. To unlock weapons in Cruelty Squad, you have to have them equipped
in one of your two slots, and you have to finish
the mission and exit with them. So I want to take the bazooka, unfortunately,
when I go to a vending machine to pick up some health I get blindsided and
killed very, very quickly. That door I went through, I'm not gonna
be able to go through it again for a while, because my divine light
has been severed. "I am a flesh automaton
animated by neurotransmitters." No one told me. It costs $500 to bring you back. Hell, I've seen more expensive
monthly student loan payments. Death, while it is relatively cheap,
must cause serious property damage. *surprise* That's okay. Even though I'm careful, I still shoot
a couple of civilians who get in the way. This doesn't give you
a game over or anything. It lowers your end-of-level rating,
I think. Missions in Cruelty Squad
can be replayed endlessly, since death is cheap, and everyone in this world exists
in a permanent state of un-death, even the player. The second time,
I make it through, barely. Cruelty Squad
has a steep learning curve and also not having any of the equipment
and nightmarish cybernetic augmentations makes things more difficult. The second mission isn't any easier. *entering-a-level sound* *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* *countdown to death* *player character goes boom* In Paradise, I have even more targets. At least some of these enemies
drop ammo for the silenced pistol. None of the enemies you're encountering
require heavier firepower. There's a car you can drive around,
but the sound of it makes my ears bleed. The car itself might bleed I mean…
look, it's made of like flesh, I… Eww… *ear-splitting car noise* Here you'll see some of
the more hideous creatures, this one explodes into a cloud
of toxic gas on death, this target has a room
full of Funko Pop vinyls, which hits a little
too close to home for me. I kill everyone, not before heading
into one of the basements and trying to wrap my head around how
this game handles them, dark areas I mean, where the light seems to disappear
in the most unnatural way, this is one of the strange things in this game
that requires a very particular design, normally you would just not put
light entities in an area to keep it dark, but here? Uh… I don't know…
I just… I don't know… I have some money for upgrades, and in a previous playthrough, I found the helmet
to be useful since it has a chance to negate a hit, and one hit matters a lot in this game. Someone else needs to be assassinated
by the docks in this pyramid and with the gift
of having played this before I know that I need two weapons
from this level before I leave. The first is inside of a shipping
container, this silenced SMG, which is one of my favorite weapons in the game
and a life-saver in your early playthrough. Effective, silent,
plows through enemies quickly. I get up to the office,
kill the target, slide down to avoid
falling damage, and start swimming
to the island across the way. Here, you need to pick up
the fishing rod, which counts as a weapon, but is more of a money-making tool. Even more effective than
playing the stock market. You can trade them in the same menu, along with
human organs you might pick up along the way. Intestines seem to be worth a lot. Before I go to the next mission
at the police station, I want to go back to Paradise
and grab the bazooka in the church. It's gonna be extremely important
for a later level that, on my first playthrough,
was like hitting a brick wall. In the police station,
I like to grab the magnum too. I don't know why,
I don't use it very much, but I like to have it. It does this to my first target. *big bang* The second target is a little more- DEAR GOD
WHAT IS THAT FUCKING NOISE?! Jesus Christ, what is that!? Apparently some narcotics
did that to him. I'll stick with maiming myself with
cybernetic augmentations, thank you very much. At least I look somewhat human,
or as human as anything in this game looks. The brick wall I was talking
about before was this map, the mall, patrolled by giant
nigh-indestructible mech-cops, where you're supposed
to assassinate the governor, and if you go through some secrets,
you can find a fine vantage point, but I have a quicker
and more direct solution. This though,
what I'm doing right here, is wrong, do not go into these backrooms,
they're a trap. These tiny, hard-to-hit, leech-like things
are all over the place in here, they poison you, and your exit is back through the mall. These things will knock
your health down quick, and avoiding this route
will also avoid the weird, unsettling sewer-crypt
with these unkillable happy-faced zombies. I didn't remember where the exit
in this level was at first since my previous playthrough had me
avoiding this level because of how many times I'd failed it previously. And, also, the toilets
are biological weapons. [H4MM3R reading] [CIVVIE]
They've found me, I don't know how
but they've found me, and they're storming my apartment. I have to kill my landlord
and then find a way out, there's an easy exit, here,
if you can avoid the toxic suckers. There are easy ways out
of most levels in Cruelty Squad, but the levels themselves hide larger treasures
you won't find without fully exploring. That's not to say
that Cruelty Squad is easy. It's only easy right now.
Later it gets… well, cruel. Turns out it was an honest mistake
and they didn't mean to try to kill me but you know how that goes,
all is forgiven, somebody put "Tuttle"
instead of "Buttle" on a form and so I had to kill like six people. Honestly, I need a vacation,
I'm gonna do some fishing. [HANNIBAL]
Close your eyes. Wade into the quiet of the stream. [CIVVIE]
This nets me enough money
to buy the stealth suit, which is one of the most useful tools
I can think of. As you'd expect,
it makes you much harder to see. Though I have no idea what
"20 universal length units" are. I remember this cruise ship mission
is where I found myself becoming really invested in this game, really motivated to complete it, where I started finding good routes
to take through the levels, actually enjoying things instead of being
concerned the textures were loading in weirdly or that strange faces were
plastered all over everything. Or the meat engines…
the meat engines… For some reason, you have to take a helicopter
to escape this mission instead of maybe using a boat. Bog Business was the second wall
I hit during my first playthrough because all of the water is toxic. You can eat berries to counteract the toxins,
but you're gonna be getting hit by it regardless. I want to spend as little time
in this mission as possible, so I make my way past the guards
towards where my marker is pointing, which is an open clearing
that's basically a shooting gallery. No, I don't think so,
I have a more hands-off solution. There are better ways through this level
when you have more upgrades. I still make it out,
but at the very last second. Next I head to the casino
for business, not pleasure, the pleasure stuff comes later. I have a job to do
and they won't ban me just because I carried out
a professional hit on their property. These people understand the necessity
of private business ventures. My target is some kind of grotesque
macrocephalitic psychic soldier. When did John Carmack open a casino? What these things do is warp your vision
and cause you to fire your weapon uncontrollably, which can screw them over,
as it does here. This is one of those cases
where remaining unseen saves your life. I survive the encounter,
but die from fall damage soon afterwards. So I do it again. This time I succeed, take the ladder down,
and snipe the police, since they've finally decided this is
a problem now that I've hit a casino. I sure hope this game
doesn't get all political on me. After doing this, I restart the mission
and fish for a while. *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* I give up on getting the big million-dollar prize
and start fishing on the cruise ship, much more valuable stuff here, including a rare tropical fish
with many uses in the bio-tech industry. And what this game calls a dolphin. I use some of the money to buy gunkboosters
in preparation for Idiot Party, my favorite level and the first one
I truly made my bitch. *Runway from GoldenEye 64* This level is where I grab
this nice sniper rifle and extremely useful light machine-gun. In my quest to record an even better
total-owning of this mission after this, I was able to also record how many times
I completely fucked it up and you get to see that too. Roll it, Katie! *Austin Powers Theme MIDI version* Now that I've gotten the money for
gunkboosters and the fabled grappendix, that disgusting piece of technology that… yeah… ew… Very useful though. Not for the next mission
in the office tower. That one's fairly straightforward, even if it gets a bit difficult
with the armored enemies, yeah this… collection of balls
is a toughly-armored enemy and I shoot him
with this many bullets. I don't like to be in a confined space
with explosive weapons otherwise I'd use the rocket launcher. This is the penultimate "regular" level,
it's the last "normal" level… things get strange from here on in. I'll put up the spoilers tag now
because believe it or not, we're maybe halfway
through this whole experience. Be warned. Before I put up that spoiler tag,
I wanna explain. I love this game. It is so goddamn fun. Using different combinations of equipment
and weapons to complete levels quickly. The weapons themselves are punchy
and useful for the most part. They feel good to use. As strange as some of them are. This game is an immersive sim
that is inviting you to break it and its systems in order to progress
or even just to fuck around. Because after a certain point,
it doesn't cost anything. It is a game so funny
and weird and interesting and so confident in its delivery
that it purposefully looks like this. It is for sure a niche game
that not everyone will like. But I have some 25 hours into it now. And every time I go back,
I find some new wrinkle in a mission that I thought I had fully explored and usually, that wrinkle ends up killing me
and I have to restart. But I want to restart, and I want to uncover
whatever this game is hiding from me. Now, onto the spoiler section
and where this game gets really weird… *Time to Spare by An Jone* My first playthrough
of the last level, Archon Grid, where I'm tasked
with shutting the grid down… it took me a long time
to find a path through that wasn't a waste of time
or a dead end, you might notice the room close to the start
where you can get your divine light back, get ready to visit that a lot! Most of this level,
at least the first time through, you'll be looking for a way
to the target, which is… oh who even… uhh… giant invincible crabs
and janky blocks you have to push around… I… I… I take this route through it, I use the rocket launcher to take care
of these horrible psychic things, move the blocks to get to the end,
and I'm able to beat this boss first try. Remember, this is after my first,
unrecorded playthrough which took hours. There's so many different ways
to get lost or stuck or unable to progress because
of these things which are called Gorbinos which might have something
to do with Gorbino's quest which is an in-universe game… Listen, I'm only scratching
the surface in this video, that's how deep this game, this game that appears,
on the surface, to be a shitpost, goes. The final boss, of this level, can be easily machine-gunned
into non-existence. I'm not sure of
the in-universe consequences. Then… the ending… I think maybe if I wait
long enough something will change. This is… wrong. It kicks me back into the menu. Guess I'll go after the secret levels. One of them, I guess not really a secret, is
the unlockable House level that costs a million dollars, which is only slightly exaggerated
when talking about the housing market. Some of these secret levels
are easy to unlock. You'll find these paintings
you can jump into like it's Mario 64, one in the cruise ship level
behind a fake wall here, another behind a door
in Idiot Party that you need divine light to get to. But if you die once,
Divine Light is severed, so that's fun
and not frustrating at all. FUCK!
*Austin Powers Theme MIDI version* *Austin Powers Theme MIDI version* NO! GOD DAMN IT!
*Austin Powers Theme MIDI version* *Austin Powers Theme MIDI version* Some are not easy to get to. We gotta talk about The Dark World. In Paradise, there's a basement, and you remember how you went into
the basement there and everything got dark? Yeah.
You need a flashlight. You can get night vision goggles,
but they're in the Dark World. Don't buy the nightmare vision goggles
from the menu, that's a trick. So how do you get the flashlight? From one guy walking around
in the police station so you have to complete that mission
to pick up the flashlight before you leave, and even then, going into the Paradise
catacombs is a horror show. It's full of these zombies,
and soldiers that will kill you in a second. You have to look for the red
on their goggles because you can't have a gun
and a flashlight out at the same time. Insert your own Doom 3 joke here. Somewhere in this mess of catacombs
is the painting you need to go into but also a cursed torch, which if you equip it will enable
an extra Hard mode on you on each map which makes the enemies harder
and gives you an extra target, and also removes all hope. The Dark World,
as you'd expect, is dark, and the mission briefing says that the guy you have
to kill hired you to break into his mansion and kill him, you know for shits and giggles,
poops and laughs, turds and tittles, bring the flashlight
and the grappendix and also bring your psychic hat to find out
that there's a tiny manhole where the exit is that took me forever to find, and also being the gunk shoes to prevent
falling damage that you otherwise have to take, stay stealthy you know. The ski lodge is way easier
even if the enemies are tougher. A bunch of doors that need
to be destroyed with rockets or possibly the powered-up kick, I just blew them up, and I was able to find
a secret flamethrower because there are a shitload
of hidden weapons as well as hidden upgrades, speaking of hidden upgrades,
there's a toxin suit thing, that may or
may not work I don't know, in the upgrades menu
that costs 100k, and I'm not paying that, but if you're looking for it,
and by that, I mean dying over and over looking
around Bog Business for a secret area, you can find the toxin suit
which is most useful in Bog Business but also keeps you protected
from those goddamn toxic bugs, which you need for Miner's Miracle, the secret level accessible from a painting
you can find in Bog Business in this barely-hidden tunnel system. You go into this… meat…
oh god I'm… it's so… *throws up* That's nothing compared to the auditory punishment
of the secret level you get to from Idiot Party… *horrible night-club techno music* I feel like the Terminator, except I succeed and
this is killing my soul. I do get this cool-ass gun
that I really like. It's a nailer. Sort of like an upgrade
to my silenced SMG. It seems to be able to head-shot
anything that isn't in rock-solid armor. I'm getting the fish this time,
the wheel, the wheel of fish… [KUNI from UHF]
A red snapper… [CIVVIE]
But… I'm never getting
a million dollars I'm just doing the same shit
over and over again, grinding against the… wait… what is this? *horrible night-club techno music
goes seizure-inducing* [KUNI from UHF]
NOTHING… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…
STUPID… YOU'RE SO STUPID!!! *horrible night-club techno music
goes seizure-inducing* *Katie signs in*
*horrible night-club techno music
goes seizure-inducing* *horrible night-club techno music
goes seizure-inducing* [CIVVIE]
Cruelty Squad HQ… I've been there before but there's nothing interesting
besides a tank with all the fish I've caught but there's a door I know I can get in now
that I have that thing that curses me… Is the fish all staring
at me part of the curse? I go through that door
and it explodes into meat and then I'm dead, I'm not fast enough
to get through there… I had to look
at a walkthrough, I'm sorry, how the fuck would I possibly find out
about the secret door where I get the DEATH surgery? DEATH.
I'm dead now. It lets me wall jump. It's permanent. There's a target in Cruelty Squad HQ… and I… cannot… kill the bastard. Hard as I try. He bleeds but he doesn't die and if he shoots you too many times,
your body starts to feel weird… he's like re-splicing your DNA. NOW?
NOW your body starts to feel weird?! So I say what if I can knock him out? And you can! Remember that dumb weapon
from before that knocks people out! I used it, and then I shot him
with a high powered sniper rifle… it's great when you have the ammunition gland
and it never runs dry, I kept knocking him out and I shot him in the ass
and then the head like 258 times. That didn't do it. I read about a powerful
weapon hidden in this level that I have to get, and I get the weapon
and I have to go back and I still can't kill the bastard. The powerful weapon hidden in this level,
it's only powerful if you're a stock market god with a lot of financial holdings, and getting it requires finding
a secret door at the top of this nightmarish house
of worship of capitalism, getting past a golem that,
no shit, will explode into
a million flechettes upon death so you can't be
in the same room with him, and it's not like you can leave
the level with the weapon, no, you'd have to kill
the target to do that. And unless you've already accumulated the wealth
you'd need to do that, it's not gonna happen. BUT! There's no way
for you to know that because you can't read the weapon's description
until you leave the level with it! So what you have to do now, since I got my divine light back
after being cursed, is to go back to Cruelty Squad HQ, turn my graphics down to 640x480
so I can see the curse orb, and then use that to get
through the door again, yeah I know there's an item for it,
it's the Holy Scope, which you need to equip on the head but only after you use echolocation to get the spike breakers
and the gold and the silver ring. No, I'm kidding, you just have to go back to Archon Grid
which is way worse. I'm reading there's another weapon
hidden in the Office level that will kill him, and every time I try to capture footage of me
getting this weapon, the game seizes up. I don't know
if it's ShadowPlay or what, but Cruelty Squad isn't playing
by any normal rules anymore, there are no rules, it's just him and me, and all of this radiation but I've had
my DEATH surgery so I'm immune to it now. *microwave oven beeps* *Bolt ACR's ear-splitting sound effect* *Super Mario Bros. 3
Sky Land Theme* *Bolt ACR's ear-splitting sound effect* *microwave oven beeps* *indescribable music* OH GOD, WHAT? WHAT?! It's not over. I need to buy a house, y'know achieve
the American Dream of owning property and… To do it, I have to either play
the stock market or… *woohoo!* [ROD from Birdemic]
Caught the big fish.
One million dollars. [CIVVIE]
The house is… mostly empty. Some boxes for a game I'll never play. A toxic river with no fish in it. Some targets I can't
quite see from the property. Oh, there they are… WHAT THE FUCK?! Now I go home and sleep it off… and then the nightmare really starts. Trauma Loop is the best name
this level could have gotten. I have played it over…
and over… and over… and I get to this part where
there's some kind of psychic thing that screws up my vision and shoots me
while I'm trying to platform which I wouldn't be doing if the level didn't take your cybernetic
enhancements away at the start. I can't see where this thing is
no matter how much I turn the view distance up. I found this secret book
in the library near the start and it takes me to a less awful path
to what I assume is "the end" where I have to crouch under these things,
otherwise they murder you and I can't destroy them, and then play around with the way
I fall to avoid falling damage. The "DEATH" surgery I got
allows me to wall jump which is 100% needed
for this level, and every room in this mission
is like hitting a wall, and I know there's a way to get my augments back
by gonna this guy and killing him but I have yet to survive
long enough to get to him because I'm being chased
by unstoppable, invincible PIG THINGS… And half of every enemy
in this level poisons you. Invincible monsters are generally something you put in a game
to discourage players from continuing. There's NOTHING.
NOTHING I CAN DO. And the other path has some trap
that seems designed to be as irritating as possible, see there's a pit here,
you can't see it, but if you fall into it,
you might as well restart. And every time I think
I can get over it, I don't. I almost,
almost get to the end, I can see it,
it's right there but I get shredded and die, I killed this guy here,
whatever that means. Maybe I didn't unlock every
single piece of equipment or every weapon, but I do want to go back
at some point and do that. I didn't think I was going
to beat this one until someone on Twitter told me to drop my weapons
and b-hop instead of the thing I was doing, which was not dropping my weapons
and b-hopping. Going without weapons
didn't even occur to me but I can't kill the enemies so
there's not really any point to keeping them. And here we are. The world is over. If you couldn't tell
what this game was about before now… I don't know if I can help you
but you can read all of this. I am broken. My hope is eradicated. I am dead, and I am death. I have ascended to wealth and status,
beyond those that would employ me, I am the lifeblood of society, I am a flesh automaton
animated by neurotransmitters… *nightmarishly bit-crushed voice lines* *How'd I Do?*
I love Civviev 11 so much, probably my favorite casual/humorous game reviewer on YouTube right now. The first night I found him in my recommendations cost me a couple of hours so I could watch all of his best videos.
The only downside is that for newer viewers a lot of his inside jokes can fly right over your head at first, or be downright confusing for all audiences unless you've got proper knowledge on old boomer shooters and their developers. I definitely wouldn't recommend him to anybody under the age of 15 unless they've got a lot of time on their hands lol.
Just wanna add that if anyone that's enjoying the game but finds the idea of gaining money to play with all the augments too off-putting. It's actually super easy to game the stock market. After clearing the mall mission the stocks for basically everything go up constantly until you clear the next apartment mission.
Knowing this you can buy stock in GAGA and/or fish and just leave your PC on overnight. If you buy the eye of Corp insight it'll increase the tick rate of the stock market even further.
I left my pc on for like 8 hours and had enough money to buy literally everything in the game without having to fish, farm missions or mess with stocks.
Edit: if you've already cleared the apartment mission this method no longer works. The stock market goes back to "normal" after but GAGA will drop forever.
Just in case folks wanted an alternative viewpoint (and let me stress this is an alternative, I don't think anyone is right or anything, these are opinions):
Oh boy I could not like this game, no matter how hard I tried.
The gunplay is fine, but tired. If I wanted classic gunplay, I could go back to classic games that did it better.
I'm sure the art style works, given the context, but for me it was just a confusing, edgy mess. It actively pulled me out of the game with every new texture.
The level design (to the extent that I saw in the first couple hours before I returned it) is boring. Die going in the front door? I bet there's a window I can hop into, and yep, there it is. Then the next level is just a giant open neighborhood with huge open spaces between confusing buildings that have... disappearing walls when you enter them? Because of the art style, I could never tell if it was a graphical glitch or intentional. It's likely it was intentional, given the rest of the game, but if so, it was just... frustrating.
And all the little interactions in the game served to just frustrate me further. The NPCs and enemies look confusingly similar, to the point where I was frequently missing enemies and letting them get some serious damage done on me before I noticed they weren't just another NPC running through. (This is probably intentional, so that you get frustrated and just start gunning down NPCs, which would fit the theme, but it still left me feeling discordant, not engaged.) You run around everywhere with your gun out, so there are places like a pizza parlour that might have some interesting interaction, but then someone sees a gun, and it turns into another shooting gallery. (Again, probably intentional, but to me, it just made me less interested in exploring the world, if it's always going to end up in a gunfight.)
Look, the last year has been pretty hard, and I admit, my emotional and intellectual reserves aren't so great these days. I think this game asks a lot of you, and if you're in a similar space as me, you might have a similar experience. I ended up hating it, and given how many people are so effusive about it, I know that's probably a me thing and not a game thing (or at least it's a me and the game thing, but anyway). But if you're in a similar space, if you're kinda generally burnt out and find that it takes longer to get work done, to pick up new things, that social interactions are especially draining, maybe give this game a miss for a bit, until you've got more in the tank.
As frustrating as I find the game, I find it more frustrating that if I'd maybe been in a better headspace when I tried, I'd have been able to enjoy it as much as everyone else.
Cruelty Squad is the real Cyberpunk 2077
Looks like ass honestly. Like, I get that's probably the intent, but knowing that doesn't make me want to play it any more than I would normally.
That and the core gameplay just doesn't look that fun.
This game just….. does not look fun. Not even the graphics, the game itself. It looks very average to play.
There seems to be a lot of designs to purposefully annoy the player. I know that sort of artificial difficulty has its audience but this game looks like no fun to me.
I'm a fan of modern, intuitive game design.
Can someone comment on system requirements? I've got a potato pc atm, and Cruelty Squad's minimum requirements look a little... high for what the game looks like? Anybody playing on old/weak hardware?
Going into Cruelty Squad, I really wasn't expecting the gameplay to be as rough as the visuals. I like the visuals. I find them funny, and I can tell that it's an important part of the overall presentation.
But actually playing the game seemed needlessly unintuitive, with mechanics that are tedious and annoyingly spiky. I've never seen an immersive sim where you're not allowed to save. The whole point with immersive sims is that you're exploring a large, interconnected level, while experimenting with what this particular level allows you to do. I can't think of a worse kind of game to force you back to the beginning as soon as you make a mistake, especially when it's possibly the game with the least visual clarity ever made. Woops, you didn't see that vomit covered man behind the vomit covered door in the vomit covered room and he killed you, time to loose 15ish minutes of progress and redo everything you just did and hope you don't make another mistake and repeat the process.
I do say this only based on the first level (the one after the tutorial level), but I refunded it after that. I know it must only get more long and complex with more enemies from there. I also don't want to reach the point where I have to play that cookie-clicker looking stock market thing.