Cruelty Squad Score: Bizarre FPS Experiment
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The first-person shooter (FPS) genre has seen countless iterations—military sims, sci-fi epics, and retro throwbacks—but few games dare to be as deliberately abrasive as Cruelty Squad. Developed by indie studio Consumer Softproducts, this game is less a traditional shooter and more a surreal, grotesque experiment in discomfort and absurdity. With its garish visuals, intentionally clunky mechanics, and nihilistic corporate dystopia, Cruelty Squad is a game that refuses to conform—and that’s precisely what makes it fascinating.
A Visual Assault
From the moment you boot up Cruelty Squad, it’s clear that this isn’t your average FPS. The game’s visuals are a chaotic blend of early 3D graphics, MS Paint-style textures, and vomitous color palettes. Walls pulsate with sickly greens and pinks, character models look like melted action figures, and the entire world feels like a bad dream rendered on a Windows 98 machine.
This isn’t just an aesthetic choice—it’s a deliberate act of defiance. Cruelty Squad rejects modern gaming’s obsession with photorealism, instead embracing ugliness as a form of artistic expression. The result is a game that feels alienating, unsettling, and strangely hypnotic.
Gameplay: Jank as a Feature
If the visuals don’t scare you off, the gameplay might. Cruelty Squad controls like a fever dream of Deus Ex and Quake filtered through a malfunctioning PS1 emulator. Movement is slippery, gunplay is imprecise, and death comes swiftly. The game doesn’t hold your hand—instead, it revels in its own jankiness, forcing players to adapt to its bizarre rules.
Yet, beneath the surface, there’s surprising depth. The game features an open-ended approach to missions, allowing for stealth, brute force, or even stock market manipulation (yes, really). Weapons range from standard pistols to grotesque bio-engineered appendages, and the level design encourages creative problem-solving. It’s a game that rewards persistence, even as it punishes you for daring to play it.
A Nihilistic Corporate Hellscape
The world of Cruelty Squad is a dystopian nightmare where capitalism has won—spectacularly. You play as a freelance assassin working for shadowy corporations, executing targets in a society where human life is just another commodity. The writing is darkly satirical, filled with corporate jargon, existential dread, and absurdist humor.
One mission might have you assassinating a CEO, while another tasks you with suppressing worker protests. The game doesn’t moralize—it simply presents its world in all its grotesque glory, forcing players to confront the absurdity of late-stage capitalism.
Why It Works (For the Right Audience)
Cruelty Squad isn’t for everyone. Its deliberate ugliness, punishing mechanics, and nihilistic tone will repel as many players as it attracts. But for those willing to embrace its madness, it offers something rare: a game that refuses to compromise.
It’s a middle finger to conventional game design, a rejection of polish in favor of raw, unfiltered creativity. In an industry dominated by safe, market-tested sequels, Cruelty Squad stands as a defiant experiment—one that proves that games can still be weird, challenging, and utterly unique.
Final Verdict: A Glorious Mess
Cruelty Squad is not a "good" game in the traditional sense. It’s ugly, frustrating, and deliberately obtuse. But it’s also one of the most original FPS experiences in years—a game that dares to be different, even if that means alienating most players.
If you’re tired of sanitized, corporate-approved shooters and crave something truly bizarre, Cruelty Squad is worth the suffering. Just don’t expect it to hold your hand—or your stomach.
Score: 8/10 (For the brave, the masochistic, and the terminally curious.)
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