Que salada maravilhosa!

É impossível não lembrar de Ghost in the Shell logo no menu, observar o título do primeiro episódio sem pensar em Ergo Proxy ou desassociar seus becos, ruas e edifícios de obras como Blade Runner, Akira e outros derivados do gênero cyberpunk.

SPRAWL é o conjunto de vários conceitos distópicos que ao longo do tempo ganharam cada vez mais reconhecimento e se tornaram verdadeiras referências para trabalhos em todo o mundo. Aqui controlamos SEVEN, um soldado habilidoso que se vê envolvido em um grande conflito, lutando incansavelmente contra as forças de um regime militar que quer destruí-lo.

O jogo contém as mecânicas básicas de um boomer shooter padrão e que recordam muito a clássica franquia de Quake, mas com alguns acréscimos. O maior deles sem sombra de dúvidas está no Icarus, equipamento semelhante ao Sandevistan, que possibilita ao jogador agir em câmera lenta enquanto destaca pontos críticos dos inimigos, facilitando o combate. Além disso, ele também adiciona o recurso de wall run, permitindo andar pelas paredes e demais superfícies planas do cenário, ao melhor estilo Titanfall.

Minha maior e talvez única ressalva sobre esse game esteja no seu level design, que nem sempre indica com clareza os objetivos a serem cumpridos, deixando a desejar em alguns momentos. Ainda assim, consegue manter uma boa progressão sem perder o ritmo, sendo uma ótima recomendação para qualquer fã de FPS.

I got excited for Sprawl based off the first trailer. Motion based FPS action is something I have always been a fan of. Tribes, Quake, UT, Titanfall, Max Payne, Apex, even Ghostrunner -- they're all games that I have had a stellar time with.

It feels like Sprawl attempts to channel all of those games, to mixed success. The motion is fun, with a heavy emphasis on your tipple jump and wall run. But the game itself just lacks the polish that I would want (and compared to the other games listed above).

Both the story and aesthetics don't add too much to the experience. The music slaps! But most of my complaints come with the guns and enemies. The gunplay lacks some variety once you get to stronger weapons, and unless you're really practicing; you're going to be using a lot of bullet time to assist. This slows down the game. You'll do a lot of kiting enemies as you dance around their bullets and bodies. But then while you're dancing a random enemy may spawn around you and just do... comical amount of damage!

The enemy pop-ins feel quite frustrating. I can't always tell where I am getting shot from and a strong enemy could be unforgiving. Other enemies are kinda a non-factor, like the rail gun turrets.

At it's core there is something good and fun here. I played through it all on launch day in about four ana half hours. I have empathy for the small team, but I think this just needed a little more polish to really be what it could.

Great core gameplay with glaring issues, which are holding Sprawl's potential back.

Amazing dystopian cyberpunk aesthetic, wonderful DnB soundtrack with some asian chants (like in GITS soundtrack). Movement is pretty satisfying to do, slide, wallruning with shotgun jumping - reminds me of Titanfall 2 a lot. Guns also seem pretty good, especially the shotgun, it is one of my personal favorites across FPS games now. But I feel there are two huge issues in this game.

Level design feels too linear. Yes, it has some tricky spots with secrets, but with such solid movement I expect more in terms of level exploration expect going from point A to point B. And even despite its linear nature some of the level segments can be misleading: some of minor visual details attract more than the segments, which player is expected to go further. I fall too many times in E1M3 because I thought I need to fall below the platforms. Some of the platforming can get fun, the arenas at the episode 2 are pretty intense. These are highlights, but I don’t think that the levels are consistently good,

Combat-wise it really feels too easy. Yes it has custom difficulty settings (which is great), but I just feel that the enemies are not making that much of a difference in a combat, like the vast majority, of let's say, Doom 2 and Quake 1 enemies (with the exception of Berserkers, turrets and mechs with grenade launchers).

Also I feel that the visual appeal of the game gets worse with Episode 2 and 3, being more repetitive in terms of scenery.

Extra Horde and Time Trial maps are nice, and it is nice, that the devs are working on the game updates. But it should have been polished a bit more. Overall I enjoyed it, but it is a bit hard for me to recommend it to everyone.

My background:
1. Not a big shooter guy
2. Not a boomer shooter guy
3. Haven't played modern boomer shooter games

Soooo it's good. As you could tell I'm not a shooter guy, especially boomer shooter. While the gameplay sound perfect to me: bunch of crazy guns, super high-speed movement, versatility and so on, it kinda does not click to me. Like I sometime get in the flow and everything, but just deep inside, it doesn't click

What I usually don't like about these games is the world building and the setting. And that's why I got to play this game over others, cuz this one has a really nice world. The art in this game is my favorite part, especially with the retro settings. The art direction is just amazing, and the execution! Oh my, these levels are badass. But.... Only like the 1 chapter. The second chapter is just grey corridors and the last one is better, but still not as great as the first one.

The music is also great, fits the game perfectly.

The gameplay is fun, movement is crunchy and the bosses are fun. Some of the enemies be killing me fast tho, but the adrenaline mechanic is neat

If you are not a boomer shooter guy or just wondering about this game, try it, it's fun and beautiful

Pretty bad. I guess it achieves what it wants: being a retro cyberpunk fps but it has nothing new to offer and not only that, but the mechanics that it has are all done badly. The wall running is awkward and you’re never really confident in how far you can go, the slide is laughable, you slide like 2 feet. The shooting does feel pretty ok however the game doesn’t nudge you into playing in any fun way, so I just played in slo mo 70% of the time since it’s such a common resource. Alone this probably is better, however compared with the shooters it clearly borrowed from like ghost runner or doom eternal this is ass.

Oh also I encountered a game breaking bug that didn’t allow me to finish the game, so I technically haven’t beaten it.

ok first off its incredible how 2 people (mainly) created this game, i just wish that it was far more cohesive
this is a game that is best described as the opposite of innovative, everything here is something u have seen before and its done in a sort of middling way.. it feels like a lot of the mechanics and ideas were cobbled together without any regard to how they flow. "we should add a railgun" "what about a minigun" theres nothing special here, very little flare is to be found in the environments; the characters suck so bad and the entire game ur being commanded around by a dude (okay well its not technically a dude but u catch the vibe, bro is named father) and u never get to see SEVEN (THE MAIN CHARACTER WHO IS A GIRL AND POSSIBLY TRANS .. canonically) in anything except for the cover. the most egregious attribute to be found here is the weapon balancing, theres just no purpose to using the smg or railgun or minigun whenever u can just stick to the grenade launcher pistols and shotgun, especially when the shotgun is fucking broken

one gigantic huge complaint i have is the writing, it sounds like something a middle schooler cobbled together and its filled with dialogue u would find in a modern marvel movie where they cast doubt on themselves after saying something silly
I WANT CHEESY DIALOGUE, just not like this,,, this is an example of a b-movie game; its alright.

i do like seven's design though its cute i wish she was in the game

Wife’s Reaction:
“I like that I could measure the stress of each level based on the frequency and creativity of your swearing.”

Nightclub Rebellion:
When I was at PAX West 2022,I saw game dev/music producer Carlos Lizarraga speak on a panel about his game SPRAWL.I knew I had to pick it up when it dropped. I love the game’s soundtrack and art design, and the gameplay is intense and frenetic. Just an awesome time!

Shit this game is good man. A tight 5 (hours) of gore, guns, and these gorilla robot guys that really had me on the edge of my seat until I remembered it's a game about doing cool wall-runs.
More guns than I could comfortably reach the numbers for, more weapon combos than I could realistically remember to use, and more guys to use them on than should be reasonably expected from an indie game.
Seriously! every time I thought I'd seen all the enemy types they'd throw another one in just for fun, followed shortly after by a shiny new gun to kill it with.
The movement is fun and fluid, if occasionally a little frustrating - but that may simply be coming from my preexisting over-familiarity with the Titanfall 2 style of wall running.
Perhaps the one mechanic that I felt was a little under utilised is the bullet-time adrenaline slow-mo that's bound oh so zealously to right-click. Maybe it's just because I'm rather (and I admit this in shame, rather than to prate) good at pointing the cursor at things, but I sorta kept forgetting it was there. Every now and then I would get into the groove of slow-motion exploding the enemy's jump packs, or landing several head-shots in quick succession - but I do feel as though there could have been more incentive to use the adrenaline.
It's certainly a tricky situation to be in - balancing a "rule-of-cool" type mechanic. I wouldn't want to be forced to use it, but I do kinda lament that I didn't use it as much as I could have.

When it comes down to it I'm probably just sad that my gameplay doesn't look as cool as they stuff they pull off in the launch trailer - which is what convinced me to pick up the game in the first place.
If you're on the fence about SPRAWL I'd recommend giving it a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTqT9jKBio

You won't be doing all that fancy shotgun-jump, slow-mo-head-shot, shoot-a-grenade-out-of-the-air stuff the second you pick it up - but it sure as shit feels like it.
And if you're like me, you'll be doing your damnedest to look half as cool on the second play-through.

SPRAWL is, I guess, a Boomer Shooter.
Aesthetically it's pretty incredible what the one-man art/music team has done. It all comes together to create an excellent dirty Cyberpunk dystopia that you'll be wallrunning and shooting your way through.

The gameplay is very satisfying, but could probably do with a little more variation in encounters and UI.
The way the encounters and AI works, it rarely forces you to engage with the movement mid-fight.
A pretty fun selection of weapons, but few as satisfying as the starting pistols. So when enemies get a bit tanky for them, you just have to start abusing the hilariously overtuned shotgun.

Like most Boomer Shooters, the bosses are the weakest bit. Spending your last moments in a game all about dynamically moving around the environment in a flat room looking up at a big helicopter is a bummer of a finish.

Anyway, I did it in like 3hr30, so it didn't outstay its welcome!

someone played all the quakelive, titanfall, ut99, cs surf etc stuff and made a game for my tribe thats not quake arena again but will remind most of nudoom just with matrix wallrun stuff. It's just a shame a lot of enemies are quake stormtroopers mostly meant to fit in small arenas with enough verticality which is where the game works. Everything else is about plain arenas where enemy projectiles are too easy to dodge and the combat is mostly strafe to win. Tldr, there is some cool combat in this for real fps fans, it's just too little because enemies suck

honest to god one of the most beautiful cyberpunk cityscapes ever. carlos lizarraga's level design and 3D modeling are so gorgeously bleak, i want a more fleshed out game or RPG, ANYTHING with this mamoru oshii level of detail. more cyberpunk games need the blue-gray gloom of ghost in the shell or patlabor 2 rather than vaporwave exuberance. the visuals and banging soundtrack were the biggest reasons for me to complete the game, but the gameplay was still pretty commendable. the beginning of the game is slow, boringly slow. you have dual revolvers and smgs, killing enemies that make DOOM riflemen look like einstein. but once you get the shotgun, the game begins to elevate. the extra movement from the shotgun blast, gaining extra height or boosting yourself backwards, makes the arena fights so much more engaging. it's another weapon-swap doom eternal retro fps, but its movement is restrained. there are no jump pads, monkey bars, dashing, or even bhopping. you have to slide and wallrun to dodge hellfire. it's the constant movement and arena encounters where you'll find the retro part of the game, the movement itself is unique to itself. gamers will see a wall run and call it titanfall. sprawl's wall run isn't infinite. you lose height over time and can only jump off a wall two times. combine that with the somewhat pitiful slide that cant be abused for movement, and youve got a game that plays like a trudge through mud when compared to the impossible speeds of titanfall 2 making the comparison unfair since theyre wholly different experiences. oddly enough, as the game expanded with its arsenal and enemy roster, the game got better (although the bossfights are a bit lackluster, not terrible just a bit eh). i say this is odd because FPSs tend to fall off in the end third or quarter of their playtime, but this game is so concise in what it aims to do that it has no bloat and doesnt lose steam. the limited movement and heavy weaponry come together to make decent to amazingly satisfying combat when the arena allows for fluidity. there are moments of bland, too-open arena fights or claustrophobic halls that can be too frustrating depending on the enemy, but the feeling of struggling to stay above enemies to headshot them in slow-mo while weapon swapping is phenomenal.

somehow the combat is both frantic and methodical. slowly paced with constrained movement and max payne bullet time while having hordes of enemies and bullets to dodge. but those instances of bliss with the gunfights are only occasional, momentarily beautiful violence. more often than not, the enemies are too simple to keep the gameplay loop interesting where so many enemies are the same thing but with variations in their health pool. the potential was impeccable, but the delivery was competent.

SPRAWL is a very good Cyberpunk FPS that starts off promisingly, but unfortunately runs out of steam along the way.
The game offers satisfying movement and action, with incredible art direction inspired by Japanese Cyberpunk aesthetics and a neat DnB soundtrack.
The first half of the game is absolutely gorgeous, and parkouring across the rooftops of Hong Kong-ish cityscape while shooting in slow motion like Max Payne is super cool. Sadly, we're limited to 3 weapons and about 4 enemies to fight.
The second half offers a greater variety of weapons and enemies. Unfortunately, it's the art style that takes a hit, and we start to progress more and more through repetitive industrial facilities that don't feel as memorable as the city part of the game. The level design loses some of its cleverness, and the game just throws hordes of bullet-spongy enemies at us.

I'd still recommend the game if you like Cyberpunk and action-packed FPSs. When the game achieves its peaks (around E1M3-M5) it's one of the most fun I had recently.

This game defines itself as a "good enough" boomer shooter. I do not like how sometimes the enemies get stunned and lock on 1HP when they should have died, which isn't rewarded by a glory kill but you're meant to slash when you could also just headshot, and it just feels like it simply shouldn't even be there to begin with. The enemies are fine, the map design is good, and the game is fun but it doesn't feel like it works right together, especially with the guns. The dual-wield pistol is my favorite but eventually it just becomes weak, the shotgun is fine but it doesn't work when the game demands you to get headshots, so you need to be far too close for comfort. The uzis, or whatever they're called, have spread and I barely used them because they do. The grenade launcher works fine but for some reason it is way too weak and doesn't feel satisfying at all to use against what is supposed to be lower-tier enemies to mechs. The laser cannon requires you to be too precise and you'll surely miss way more than you want to. The chaingun is really, really strong but it hinders your movement greatly which is far from recommended. The rocket launcher is an absolute sin, requiring mid range or else it kills you if too close or scatters all around when too far. The story is there, the game reminds me much of Ghostrunner, but while it is a fun game I don't recommend it unless you can get it for cheap, since it is a very short game.

I liked it a lot. It never really reaches the highs I expected from the first hour or so of gameplay, but it was fun nonetheless.

The absolute best part of this game is its atmosphere and setting. The environment, especially those set around residential areas are a pleasure to behold, and they really make me wish this was a different game. One that would allow me to really explore this city and its story in a different way. The soundtrack goes really well with the environment. Made me want to go see 'Ghost in the Shell' again.

The story is about what you'd expect for the setting.
There are some data-pads all around that can be read by scanning a QR code. While the idea piqued my attention at first, the novelty wears off quickly, since they're just static text notes, and the content of these made me give up on reading them after finding the fifth or so.

The gameplay is solid, but it becomes less and less appealing over the course of the 4-5 hour campaign.
Towards the end, the only way they managed to make the combat more engaging was by throwing spongy enemies and hundreds of them in smaller areas.

Regardless, Sprawl is clearly a labor of love, and I really makes me want to check out what they get to work on next.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking, though overall the game is pretty solid. The wall running takes some getting used to, but after a few levels it became second nature.

There’s some jank yeah, but honestly my main gripe is that all of the boss fights are pretty awful. I know that’s the usual for shooters, these really were some of the worst.

There’s a great foundation here so I’m hoping the devs upon it in a sequel someday…

"Eles não vão nos controlar. Eles não vão nos dividir. Nós lutaremos. Nós lutaremos ou morreremos"

Tendo conversado com outras pessoas que já tem um contato amplo com o gênero de boomer shooters, escrevo essa análise com a plena consciência de que existem lacunas técnicas não preenchidas em Sprawl, algo que desagrada principalmente aos fãs do gênero. Mas eu não sou um fã do gênero. Inclusive, essa é uma das minhas primeiras experiências com um boomer shooter.

Falo neste momento como um fã de fps consolista. É por isso que, dentro desse caráter quase que inaugural, Sprawl me cativou de diversas formas diferentes, alugando um apartamento na minha cabeça. Me fez repensar sobre há quanto tempo atrás eu poderia ter experienciado as sensações possíveis somente com essa categoria de jogos, sentado de frente para o monitor, utilizando um mouse e teclado.

Em Sprawl, jogamos na pele de Seven, uma assassina super soldado que servia às forças governamentais e que agora está sendo perseguida depois de prestar os seus serviços para o governo. Uma voz misteriosa em sua cabeça, que se identifica como FATHER, se propõe ao papel de guiá-la no enfrentamento ao governo militar fascista JUNTA, a fim de libertar o que restou da humanidade das forças robóticas e autoritárias.

Essa é a primeira característica que me chamou a atenção quando comecei a jogar: as construções visuais e sonoras. A infinita megalópole cyberpunk, morta, insaturada e corroída é muito bem desenhada, e as referências a Ghost in the Shell são latentes mesmo para quem não tem muito contato com a animação japonesa. A trilha sonora, que bebe muito dos estilos breakcore, drum and bass e o famigerado metal trazem um tom saudosista, tanto com os vocais sublimes utilizados como pano de fundo em New Port City como em jogos clássicos que admirei de relance ao longo do tempo (Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein).

Para jogadores como eu que sequer sabiam nomear termos como "weapon swap", "movement shooter", ou "slow down time", Sprawl é receptivo e introduz com leveza as armas, inimigos e mecânicas disponíveis (introdutório até demais, para alguns).

Pude sentir pela primeira vez na pele a euforia da progressão e a mágica da troca de armas, cálculo de dano, tempo de recarregamento passivo, parar o tempo e performar ao som de músicas frenéticas e muito bem construídas. Meu coração palpitava ao final de cada fase e eu só conseguia pensar em como melhorar a minha performance fase após fase.

Sprawl possui alguns problemas técnicos, esbarrei duas vezes com um bug crítico, mas é latente o esforço no desenvolvimento para entregar uma experiência polida com início, meio e fim. Como jornalista e entusiasta de jogos, é comum ouvir que um dos maiores males do boomer shooter é não saber como e quando terminar, mas Sprawl entrega três níveis que são tão bem construídos que passam num piscar de olhos. O jogo se constrói de maneira sólida até o seu ápice, terminando no momento certo e com um desfecho gratificante.

Mesmo sendo relativamente superficial, a história de Seven cativa, e nos engaja a lutar contra forças opressoras, mesmo sem termos muita informação sobre elas ao longo do jogo. O fato de lutarmos contra máquinas programadas para oprimir os seres humanos nos remete facilmente às forças militarizadas em favor de governos que treinam e capacitam os seus policiais a usarem da força desmedida contra a população. É espetacular a sensação de desmantelar um governo facho de fora pra dentro, literalmente na bala, e a construção narrativa nos convida à uma revolução unitária.

Por fim, recomendo fortemente Sprawl, mesmo sabendo que existem experiências que são mais bem recebidas pela comunidade de boomer shooter. Foi uma experiência incrível pra mim, transformando tudo o que eu pensava sobre o gênero e me deixando ainda mais ansioso para aproveitar outros boomer shooters.

first things first, this is a game that I respect; it's crafted by only two people after all and I can see how they created a whole new thing with their inspirations, although unfortunately, I can't say I like the creation that they did. it doesn't play really well (at least not in my hand lol), and it has a lot of ideas that feels like scattered ideas that don't go anywhere. like, the game has a lot of guns, but some don't really fit the gunplay and even holds it back sometimes; the parkour can be a lot of frustrating in some segments and I felt they weren't well designed because of that. it's a shame cause I really like the idea of slowing down time in shooters, but I don't really used it here and I feel they wasted this mechanic because it's only purpose is for combat and even that is just for making it easier. my feelings with this one is basically this, in surface is a pretty good job but it doesn't exceed anything that I had already played.