User:Zorms887/Cruelty Squad

Cruelty Squad is a tactical first-person shooter developed by Finnish studio Consumer Softproducts and released in early access on Steam on 4 January 2021 and fully released in 16 June 2021. In the game, the player takes on the role of a biologically augmented assassin employed by the titular wetwork security company, Cruelty Squad. The player is tasked with performing black operations for Cruelty Squad's host conglomerate, and must kill various targets in order to progress. The game has been described by the developer as “an immersive power fantasy simulator with tactical stealth elements set in a sewage infused garbage world”. The game is notable for its surreal aesthetic, which is inspired by the likes of LSD: Dream Emulator and Super Mario 64.

Gameplay
The player chooses their weaponry and equipment before starting each of the 19 missions present in the game, and then must traverse open, sandbox-style levels in order to neutralize targets. Health lost during combat can be regained by using certain equipment, consuming cooked giblets, or even consuming corpses should the player die enough times on a level ("Power In Misery", the easiest difficulty mode). While there is no penalty for killing civilians during a mission, silent and non-lethal solutions are also possible outside of the necessary killing of targets. Outside of missions, the player can trade human organs and fish on a dynamic stock market for money, or explore their headquarters.

Setting
Cruelty Squad is set in a dystopian corporatocracy where corporations possess overwhelming influence over police and government affairs; technological advances allow people to be resurrected after death, rendering much of humanity immortal and cheapening the perceived value of life. Indiscriminate killings are commonplace, and armed Security is a fixture of virtually every populated area. Human organs are sold on the stock market, and invasive biological implants and augmented organs are used by security forces and assassins to aid in combat.

Corporate contract killings are handled in part by Cruelty Squad, a wetwork security company working under the umbrella of a large conglomerate.

Plot
After being discharged from the "SEC Death Unit", the unnamed protagonist receives a phone call from his handler, who offers him employment within Cruelty Squad. He is tasked to kill a number of people who have drawn the ire of conglomerate "higher-ups"; these include anti-corporate politicians, cultists, corrupt police officers, delinquent employees, and rival CEOs.

Development
Cruelty Squad was produced within the Godot game engine. It was fully released on Steam on 16 June 2021.

Lead Developer's previous works
Before the release of Cruelty Squad Ville Kallio’s artistic works consisted of, comics and video art, as well as installations and standalone artworks for galleries. Notable museums he has exhibited include the Futura in Prague, and the SIC Gallery in Helsinki, Finland. Many of these previous artworks contain allusions to video games, as well as many ideas that would later become parts of Cruelty Squad. In an interview with LVL3 official Ville Kallio has said things about his gallery work like “It never really felt like more than just a weird hobby" and that it was like "a black hole with no future" and stated that going into game development "started making more sense" since his previous work had been heavily inspired by video games

Other than gallery pieces, Ville Kallio produced many video projects before the release of Cruelty Squad such as Adversalife and Venmo Combat which was also a component of a multimedia art exhibition hosted at the SIC Gallery in Helsinki, Finland. Additionally he worked on comics such as HYPER PRISON-INDUSTRIAL and CORRIDORSPACE.

Reception
James Brod of Third Coast Review described the game as "grislier than Hotline Miami" and recommended it to fans of "old school tactical shooters". Jake Tucker of NME declared Cruelty Squad to be the "most compelling game of the year", awarding it five stars out of five. Zoey Handley gave the game a 7.5 out of 10, describing it as "a swirling vortex of bad design", but also as "awe-inspiring". Many outlets also commented on the harshness of the visuals, with Rock Paper Shotgun's Graham Smith dubbing them "sensorally aggressive". Zoey Handley of Destructoid described Cruelty Squad as a "purposeful desecration of the holy grounds of game design," while James Davenport of PC Gamer called it "some prime existential PC gaming horror."

In June 2021, the protagonist of Cruelty Squad was added to the video game Brigador as a playable character, under the name "MT Foxtrot".