Immerse yourself in the retro future of the 80's. Defragmented takes you to a dystopia you can get on with.
Enter Defragmented, At face value it might look like a Hotline Miami knockoff, but what ended up in play was a much different story. The futurewave has hit, and hard, sending us out games like Far Cry: Blood Dragon, dripping in neon thumping music that matches the atmosphere of wetwork involved. It's a trend that I'm glad to be on board with, the nostalgia of the 80's a welcome place in my gaming heart.
You play as a newcomer to a cyber-esque future city called Entropolis, working your way up a chain of involvement that mirrors your talent trees. The player can choose from three different unique classes - Cyberzerker, Railrunner and Ascended. This allows for the malleable gameplay, and shapes your end game accordingly. Each class has it's own specific special ability to tailor what kind of destruction you wish to cause. And with the top down view, you feel like you're a rat in a maze, fighting the next for your cut of the cheese.
The gameplay is fast, hard and unforgiving. But with the right planning for each small job, you can make your way through quite smoothly. A very satisfying win to each level also--when the last enemy hits the pavement, and the stats of the day's work roll in with a sigh of relief and exhilaration. They don't forget to shower you in credits and Deal-EO tokens to upgrade though, making the feeling of a lost level not entirely impossible to overcome by any means. It feels good to win at this game... and I would certainly say that's what keeps you coming back for more pain each time.
The build of the objects and their surroundings might come off as simple at first, but are actually quite ingenious. Everything is made into geometric shapes, causing you to concentrate on how you're moving through each level. The pacing causing you to skip stopping off and smelling the flowers. Not to say you can't do this though--after each last blow, the level officially ends, giving you the score, but also leaving it open to explore before you calmly exit the premises. Lockers and dumpsters full of goodies--that room you might have missed when you were dodging a mounted machine gun...it doesn't rob you of the chance of a neat cleanup. This also adds to the replayability of the levels, as after you officially beat them, the items don't ghost out. It's an easy touch, one that makes me think the developers were quite in tune with how they wanted us to have fun.
If the playing bit doesn't entice you enough, there's always the soundtrack. A gorgeous mixture of what's widely called the 'retro wave' genre... it effectively gets a blood flow going at all the right moments, and reels you back in for an interesting dystopic storyline. A stand alone buy on its own.
In all, this game comes highly recommended on my end, something you won't regret having in your library. It's unique and challenging for the seasoned gaming vet, and easy enough for a casual gamer to enjoy as well. You don't want to miss out on this one!