Psycho Patrol R - Open World Immersive Sim with Mechs, by Cruelty Squad devs - in Early Access

[NoNamedNN]

Psycho Patrol R is a mecha FPS hybrid policing and punishment simulator set in the decayed state of Pan-Europa. You play as an officer of the European Federal Police, a V-Stalker pilot of Psycho Patrol, a special unit tasked with counter-psychohazard operations and neural meltdown prevention using cutting edge criminological frameworks. The battleground of the 21st century is the human brain, the base unit of the hyperconjoined egregore Terra. The soul of the planet is on the verge of collapse. Your chances are 0.001%.

The gameplay is a combination of high intensity tactical FPS combat, combined seamlessly with operating your V-Stalker mecha unit to decimate your enemies. The world is open with a variety of different goals to achieve.

• Different weapons, from small arms to 120mm cannons and DNA sniffers.
• Customize your V-Stalker for a massive tactical advantage.
• Choose from a wide variety of routes and approaches.
• Open, non-linear world.
• Unique NPCs to meet and interact with.
• Solve the mystery of the Orgone.

 

[karoliner]

 

[kites]

He advertised on twitter earlier that it will be $40 for EA. I don’t know if that’s a joke. It may work for him though..

 

[Necrensha]

Finally, I cannot wait for my eyes to bleed once more.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

mecha FPS hybrid

Now there's an underserved genre. Enjoyed Cruelty Squad, definitely will consider picking this up if it makes it out of EA.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

so was there any appeal to Cruelty Squad aside from its surrealistic atmosphere and aesthetics?

 

[HumanTotemPole]

so was there any appeal to Cruelty Squad aside from its surrealistic atmosphere and aesthetics?

Yes actually. Fun to be had messing around with the weapons and upgrades, coming up with different ways to complete levels. You can chase timed ranks and Hope Eradicated changes enemies as well as adding an additional target to the missions.

 

[rubinstein]

kinda looking forward to it, however, i dont think the game will "impress" me, and its core audience, as much as Cruelty Squad did on its release. yes, i know that for a lot of codexers CruS must have been some ugly ass troon game, but beneath its peculiar art style, one could find a really fresh fps (im-sim even. i found myself positively surprised that my experiences from games like thief or deus ex helped me in clearing first couple of levels of CruS). what is more, the game was released during rather interesting times. maybe im projecting my personal feelings a bit here, but back in late 10s and very early 20s post-meta-ironic content was still seen as something hip, something new, unlike now, when we finally see what it evolved into - annoying nonsense. or as youth call it: brainrot. CruS was heavily covered in layers of this spiritual sludge, but deep inside the game aspired to be something more. i know it will sound ridiculous to a person who knows the game exclusively from screenshots, but it tried to be transcendental in its themes, which were more pronounced and explored in the later stages of the game.
i remember following the developer of CruS for a while after finishing the game, catching up on his lore, and in one of the interviews he said something along the lines of: "if i was good enough i would be writing books instead of making video games". this would explain the rancid aesthetics and cynical writing of the game. ive always felt that this must come from fear of being sincere in your craft, failing miserably, and looking like a fool as a result. if he presented his ideas and reflections in an unfiltered form, he would expose himself to potential ridicule. ouch!
products like CruS tend to have one major flaw: they age like a milk left on the sun in the summer. what once seemed like a coherent piece of media, despite its shitpost appearance, arriving at the peak of the zeitgeist, now looks rather lame. its critics, people who judged it mostly on its visuals long ago, may triumph now. "ha! we were right from the start, this game was shit!". if media isnt timeless, then its much easier to emotionally distance yourself from it after some time. and its much easier to find some truth in such rough judgements.

my hope for psycho patrol is that the writing will be slightly toned down. maybe the dev will cool it down with memes and layers of nonsense. visuals are obviously the same, therefore not as impactful, but that was to be taken for granted. introduction of mecha and non-linear format are surely interesting. gunplay seems to stay more or less the same, nice. however, if EA is truly 40$, then fuck the dev, what a greedy bastard.

 

[Ivan]

so was there any appeal to Cruelty Squad aside from its surrealistic atmosphere and aesthetics?

 

[NoNamedNN]

Yeah it seems to be 40$, a shame.

 

[__scribbles__]

 

[RobotSquirrel]

LSD with mechs looks kinda alright. Not $40 alright though.

 

[orcinator]

Sure I'll play the second Sam Hyde game.
If it turns out to be weak like most if not all of the Cruelty Squad coattail riders I'll at least have some new SewerCore music to torture awe people with.

 

[NoNamedNN]

The game is released.

 

[buffalo bill]

Infinitron this game has stats and people reviewing it on steam are calling it an RPG, so I think this thread should be moved.

Here is a description of the gameplay on steam:

The gameplay is a mix of free exploration based detective mystery with RPG elements, high intensity tactical FPS combat, combined seamlessly with operating your V-Stalker mecha unit to decimate your enemies. The world is open with a variety of different goals to achieve. The boundless blue skies signal endless opportunity.

• Different weapons, from small arms to 120mm tank guns and DNA sniffers.
• Customize your V-Stalker for a massive tactical advantage.
• Choose from a wide variety of routes and approaches.
• Open, non-linear world. Every quest is a side quest.
• Unique NPCs to meet and interact with.
• Solve the mystery of the Orgone.

Also, people are complaining about the difficulty, so probably this game is incline.

 

[Jinn]

Also, people are complaining about the difficulty, so probably this game is incline.

Great to hear. I felt Cruelty Squad was too easy the majority of the time. Luckily, knowing this guy, he's not going to change much due to criticism and make what he wants.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Well I pirated this and it turns out my 10+ years old laptop is too weak to run it. Cruelty Squad ran like a charm, silky smooth. This thing? 10 fps. Despicable optimization on behalf of the Finland Man. Too bad, the aesthetics look impeccable as expected, and CS was one of the best games of the past 10 years in my opinion.

 

[buffalo bill]

Well I pirated this and it turns out my 10+ years old laptop is too weak to run it. Cruelty Squad ran like a charm, silky smooth. This thing? 10 fps. Despicable optimization on behalf of the Finland Man. Too bad, the aesthetics look impeccable as expected, and CS was one of the best games of the past 10 years in my opinion.

still in EA, so maybe optimization will improve before final release

 

[orcinator]

Also, people are complaining about the difficulty, so probably this game is incline.

Great to hear. I felt Cruelty Squad was too easy the majority of the time. Luckily, knowing this guy, he's not going to change much due to criticism and make what he wants.

It's harder because you get one-shot from a mile away but also more tedious since the solution seems to be one shotting everything from a mile away.
Or doing the usual corner camping since enemies seem to have far less health.

Edit: It does have bosses now.

 

[buffalo bill]

Also, people are complaining about the difficulty, so probably this game is incline.

Great to hear. I felt Cruelty Squad was too easy the majority of the time. Luckily, knowing this guy, he's not going to change much due to criticism and make what he wants.

It's harder because you get one-shot from a mile away but also more tedious since the solution seems to be one shotting everything from a mile away.
Or doing the usual corner camping since enemies seem to have far less health.

Edit: It does have bosses now.

I haven't played the game yet (I'll wait till it's out of EA), but several steam reviews claim that there are ways to become beefier (especially your mech?) and that a more careful approach (like waiting until night I guess and using stealth?) let's you overcome obstacles that seemingly can't be dealt with head on

again though I haven't played yet

 

[orcinator]

Managed to beat the EA.
Pretty disappointing overall, feels like unless there's a True way to play or most of the game gets redone, the only fun is going to be finding the funny twitter referrences; my main complaint is that level design is far more down to earth so while corner camping against retards with no AI who kill you really fast managed to be fun when it happened in Mario64 esque levels, it's a pretty boring when you're doing it in generic corridors.

that there are ways to become beefier (especially your mech?) and that a more careful approach (like waiting until night I guess and using stealth?) let's you overcome obstacles that seemingly can't be dealt with head on

The mech dies quickly to anything with mech weapons so you're just corner camping but from inside of a cockpit, maybe there's a right combo for upgrades to change up the gameplay a bit (I think I saw a flying upgrade in a video) but the later enemies take you from 1000 armor to 0 while you can do the same once you take their weapons so I'm not sure about being able to salvage the mechanics without an overhaul.

Stealth boils down to sniping things at night when the detection range goes down, and potentially using quiet weapons(often a hindrance since loud guns let you corner camp the enemies more efficiently), that's about it.