Deal | Overwhelmingly Positive immersive sim that inspired a four-hour analysis is now 90% off

Cruelty Squad is currently 90% off on Steam, and if its screenshots have spent the last five years convincing you that it is some deliberately ugly meme game, this might be the excuse to finally look past the facade and figure out why the game is as revered as it is. SteamDB's price tracker confirms this is the cheapest the game has ever been, so now would be a great time to pick it up if you're curious. You only have until August 10, though. 

Released in 2021 by Consumer Softproducts, Cruelty Squad describes itself as an "immersive power fantasy simulator" set in a sewage-infused corporate dystopia. Beneath the eye-searing colours, hostile interface and low-poly body horror is one of the most uncompromising immersive sims in recent memory.

A typical assassination can be approached as a conventional tactical shooter, but Cruelty Squad actively incentivizes you to start abusing its systems. Find another entrance. Blow a hole through something. Install equipment that fundamentally changes how you move through a level. Scale a wall with your intestines. Reverse gravity. Replace part of your brain with a gun. Or pick up a toilet and throw it into a room full of people.

These aren't isolated jokes, but legitimate gameplay mechanics that could help you cheese your way through an otherwise daunting mission. Levels are built around giving the player enough tools to devise increasingly ridiculous solutions, and Cruelty Squad actively encourages experimentation. Missions can be replayed for faster times and better rankings, while implants can be swapped between runs to produce radically different builds.

There is a lot more going on underneath the shooting, too. Cruelty Squad has functioning stock and organ markets, and events during missions can influence company valuations. Kill the right executive, and you can watch their stock collapse while competitors benefit. It effectively turns insider trading into another legitimate game mechanic. Its grotesque corporate dystopia consequently functions as both setting and system.

That depth is one reason the game has inspired unusually obsessive analysis. YouTuber Pyrocynical devoted more than four hours to dissecting Cruelty Squad in 2023, covering everything from its weapons and implants to its economy, hidden areas, difficulty states and remarkably dense worldbuilding.

And the rabbit hole goes considerably deeper than a normal playthrough suggests. Secret equipment and levels are buried throughout the game, there are multiple endings, and an unlockable late-game difficulty substantially changes existing missions with different enemies, targets and environmental presentation. Completing the game can even unlock a Chaos mode that randomises enemy placement and properties, wrecking routes players may have spent hours mastering.

It initially seems designed to make you stop playing. The visuals are abrasive, the controls are deliberately unconventional, the game explains very little and death comes quickly. Stick with it, however, and that apparent hostility gradually gives way to an extraordinarily flexible sandbox that rewards curiosity, experimentation and outright abuse of its mechanics.

Cruelty Squad isn't completely without rough edges. Despite the enormous freedom afforded by its levels and equipment, mission objectives can become repetitive, usually revolving around eliminating a handful of targets before extracting. Enemy AI is also relatively basic compared with the player's elaborate toolset. Digging up every secret can require a fair amount of grinding, too, and the game's unconventional mouse-driven reload mechanic makes playing with a controller pretty cumbersome.

That said, plenty of players apparently made it through that initial barrier. Cruelty Squad currently has an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, with 96% of nearly 20,000 English-language reviews giving it a thumbs-up. PC Gamer awarded it 93/100.
 

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