SPRAWL is a nice welcome to people who would like to experience the movement shooter genre as a whole.
Movement shooters are fun, not going to lie. Does not matter the story or the uniqueness; they tend to bring more adrenaline rush than regular first-person shooter games where you have to focus on other tidbits. Movement shooter’s purpose is to combo your aim and movement to be precise enough to kill your enemies in one big swoop and come on top.
Although this genre was not part of the interest, it has recently become a subgenre for boomer shooters. They usually revolve around basic graphics, barely any story, and lots of exploration mixed with dealing with bad guys. What makes movement shooters stand out is the usage of environments being your tool as well, besides your guns, of course.
I got into SPRAWL with the mindset of being quick with my timing and accurate aim, and I must say that it has gathered my attention to the max. You see, it is not all graphics or the flow of the story that sells sometimes; it has to be the crisp gameplay with a high skill ceiling that makes people return for more and be better at it. SPRAWL had the same idea of letting players be creative and become better at what they are trying to be good at. It is too early to go deep into the title’s meaningful aspect, so let’s begin with the story.
Although stated earlier that stories are barely impactful on a retro shooter, SPRAWL has to have one. Otherwise, the game and its setting would be dull, and it would not differentiate from any other cyberpunk game on the market. The story begins with our protagonist, SEVEN, kicked by one of the government officers from a building, and she manages to get rid of the attention of the government forces.
It is unknown why the government is trying to take down a female half-cyborg with extra equipment that is vital, but that is the story. After some time trying to gather resources on the government, a strange noise taps into the system called FATHER and helps her along the way in trying to get rid of the government forces.
The game starts with a nice tutorial on movement, as expected. The most prominent way of movement is going to be wallrides, and almost all of the puzzles and making it to the next level are going to utilize wallriding. SEVEN is a cyborg; after all, she is fitted with experimental gravity-defying tools that allow her to walk on walls for an extended amount of time, though it is not for long until gravity starts dragging her down.
After managing to get through wall riding, our first kill has to be silent on an enemy that is unaware. With a mash of a button, SEVEN can initiate a glory kill. Glory kills are way off to finish shunned enemies or to basically get ammo back once you are completely depleted. Enemies start to glow yellow when they are vulnerable, and it marks the time when you should be focusing them instead.
After killing your first victim, you get a hold of the two handguns that have only 32 bullets in their chambers. Although this number seems a bit low, there is plenty of ammo spread around the environment, and glory kills drop ammo back. I would not say they are pitiful to use; they do not do much damage but can become clutch if you are going for headshots or the weak points of enemies. A constant barrage of the pistol can bring down a regular officer and a robot dog easily; however, for the other powerful enemies, a combo with other weapons is required to take them down.
The weapon selection for SPRAWL is nothing different than a regular retro shooter. You got your standard pistol, submachine gun, rocket launcher, double-barrel shotgun, and so forth. What makes SPRAWL a bit more dependent on every weapon is the slow delay in using weapons. This was quite apparent once I got a hold of the double barrel shotgun, expecting it to be quite literally a “blast” to use, but I quickly realized how slow and sluggish it was to use. Especially the firing speed and reload made it so that you needed to change weapons in order to get your damage-per-second numbers up.
One of the best mechanics of the SPRAWL comes from the time when you are overwhelmed by the hefty amount of enemies on your screen. Once you are pretty much cornered or have no way out, the Adrenaline mechanic can come in clutch and save your life. By clicking the right mouse button, the time slows down for both you and your enemies, making the aiming easy for you.
You can also use Adrenaline in a creative way, such as surprising enemies from above, making one-two tap executions, and managing your upcoming strategies on which weapons to use. Using Adrenaline comes with a negative side; as one would expect, it is completely tied to a timer, and it can deplete very fast. Glory kills or headshots can give you Adrenaline in return, so when you are getting run out of sweet, time-expanding juice, it is best to go for alternative ways of slaughter.
There is a nice curve when it comes to progress in SPRAWL. The game is quite forgiving at first stages, and with little resources you have, most fights tend to last less than thirty seconds. But as you keep going further, to your final boss phase, the game noticeably gets harder for you to keep off the enemies.
It is usually tied to the amounts of enemies rather than them turning into bullet sponges. As you keep going forward, the enemy types you encounter change too, such as shield-using forces, brutes, and invisible commanders. Although the premise of killing them is always the same- which is just to shoot them- taking them down in unique ways is a neat challenge for the player.
There were a few things that I noticed during gameplay that were not sort of suited for the SPRAWL, at least in the way that it was implemented. SPRAWL does not include a sprint button, and to be fair, it does not need to have one due to highly movement-focused gameplay. But pressing SHIFT for a few seconds allows you to slide until you come to a dead stop. While this is an okay way to add Adrenaline, wall riding, and slide to the mix, the implementation of the slide is to hold down the key.
Since many people use sprinting to evade shots, they usually hold on for a few seconds and get into cover. My experience was exactly the same; when I wanted to get into a cover, I pressed the shift key for less than two seconds, and all it did was stop my movement altogether and crouched slightly. The best way to maybe get around this is to bind the whole slide mechanic to one key only instead of continuously pressing. In this way, players can choose to opt for a proper way of changing directions.
Although I came across nice, dystopian, cyberpunk-themed environments, most of the maps felt a bit empty. Not to say it is a bad thing, but it kept the pace a slug’s pace due to some maps just being way too open. Utilizing those empty areas was not in question either, so you could potentially end up in a completely black room or a dead end after looking for an opening through the level.
It is obvious the idea is to use most of the environment to your benefit, but those places were mostly indoors and did not need to be included, in my opinion. Retro-style graphics and blasting drum and bass were a good way to compliment the gritty and dark atmosphere though. At least my credit goes there, and suddenly, all the little nitpicks I had vanished into thin air.
Not to try to over-correct anything or throw a wrench into the developer’s plans, but it was advertised to be directly inspired by Doom and Quake. However, those are just regular boomer shooters with a slow pace. SPRAWL has more characteristics taken from ULTRAKILL and recently released Turbo Overkill. It is still the spirit that counts, and I absolutely adored the way the developers, MAETH, poured their heart and soul into their project.
SPRAWL is a lot of fun when you get the grasp of movement shooters just right. It unveils the possibilities you can do with a given arsenal and environment, and it yields lots of unique ways to beat your way through. It was immensely fun and suited for both regulars of the genre and newcomers who wish to see how it feels. We are definitely sure that SPRAWL is going to get under the radar and stay as an underrated title, and we highly suggest you check SPRAWL out to get its name out there.
