Disjunction – Review (PC)
As this reviewer’s pick for Handsome Phantom’s 2019 PAX Game of Show, Disjunction has felt like a long time coming. What we were promised two years ago was a stealth action experience enhanced with gorgeous cyberpunk pixel art, engrossing narrative, and deep systems of customization. I’m happy to report that developer Ape Tribe Games has delivered on its promise and then some with Disjunction.
From a story and setting perspective, Disjunction clearly draws inspiration from the Deus Ex series. Set in New York city in the year 2048, the game is steeped in themes of underworld crime, corporate conspiracies, and blurring the lines between humanity and cybernetics. Russian and Chinese organized crime syndicates are feuding in the wake of an explosion of a street drug called Shard. Simultaneously massive tech conglomerates are competing for government contracts to combat crime while a pro humanity group fights for a purely human future.
There’s an impressive amount of lore and mystery in this unassuming indie game that will keep players guessing as to what is really going on until the very end. At times, you’ll be be able to choose between dialogue options that have major implications on that fate of both your enemies, the future of the city, and the ultimate culmination of the story. Snippets of lore are found strewn throughout levels that shed light on events that set up the current situation like a Caspian War and economic depression. With all of the different factions and events involved, the developer cleverly added a feature that allows you to hover your cursor over the name of the group or event in any text box to serve as a reminder of who they are and their motivations.
At the center of all of this is our three cybernetically enhanced protagonists. Frank is a former NYPD detective turned private investigator with a personal vendetta against the Russian mob. Joe is an underground boxer whose estranged daughter, a member of the pro humanity movement, was recently murdered. Spider is a mysterious hacker with deep ties to the Chinese mafia. Each of our main characters have very different motivations for unravelling the mysteries behind New York’s recent outbreak of crime and methodically move the story along to a satisfying end.
From a gameplay point of view, Disjunction is a cross between the original Metal Gear on the NES and the more recent Hotline: Miami series. The game takes place from an isometric perspective seeing one of our three characters slowly and quietly moving across stages made up of two floors. Stealth is king with Disjunction. Trying to go loud and fast will almost always lead to a quick and sudden death as you set off alarms and are swarmed by enemies armed with melee weapons and shotguns. Players will need to use a slow and calculated approach that draws a perfect line between satisfaction and challenge.
Stages are separated by rooms and connecting corridors that are crawling with enemy soldiers, spider drones, security cameras, and more. Despite the odds being not-so ever in your favor, each of our three sneaky heroes come armed with their own unique arsenal and set of energy fueled abilities that are instrumental in reaching the end of a level. Joe, being the bruiser of the bunch, packs a shotgun, massive health pool, and active abilities that allow him to storm into a room and quickly eliminate enemies with pure force. Spider lives up to her namesake by using a cloaking ability to silently slink by guards and a holographic decoy to lock an enemy’s gaze in place for a short time. Frank uses a shock bolter to temporarily stun them as well as a smoke bomb to screen his surroundings.
The aforementioned abilities all pull from a depleting pool of energy. This expertly adds an element of strategy as spamming your tech tools will quickly mean you won’t have enough energy to use them. They will need to be used sparingly and strategically. Luckily, energy replenishments can be found strewn around levels or dropped from downed enemies. Each character also has a non-lethal melee attack that can stun enemies and take them down without raising an alarm. Downed enemies can be left in the open and used to lure patrolling guards. Conversely, bodies can also be dragged to conceal them.
Where the game stumbles somewhat is in its balancing of attack styles. Each of our characters packs a different a lethal sidearm and ability to enhance these weapons. It almost seems to create the idea that going loud and lethal, a la Hotline Miami, is a realistic approach to take. In practice, however, firing your weapon is almost always a death sentence. Doing so will alerts all enemies in the immediate vicinity and, even with Frank’s massive amount of HP, results in almost an instant death. Perhaps that approach wasn’t actually intended – but the presence of the sidearm and ability to strengthen it certainly seems to insinuate that Disjunction can allow that type of approach to combat.
Disjunction allows players to customize the three characters and enhance their favorite tactical tools. One upgrade kit can be found in each level that provides a passive buff to specific abilities such as reducing their cooldown, increasing effective radius of tactical grenades, or increasing damage of non-lethal stun attacks. The kits can be bypassed, so finding them in each level adds a nice layer of collectability. Furthermore, completion of each level awards a set amount of XP that can be invested into enhancing movement speed, maximum HP, and energy pools. This all comes together to strengthen replayability where you can spec out the three characters very differently for subsequent playthroughs. However we would have loved to have seen either a NG+ mode or more than one difficulty setting to allow for a steeper challenge after completing the game once. Additionally a level select screen would’ve been a great way to go back and experiment with other approaches but these options are absent from the release version that we played.
Disjunction rides its strengths of rewarding stealth gameplay and profound narrative to create a fantastic indie experience. The game’s deep systems of customization and stellar pixel art make it easy to recommend to any gamer. Whether you’ve been looking for an interesting indie to check out, or that one game to rekindle your fond memories of the stealth games that pioneered the genre, Disjunction should not be missed.
Disjunction launches on Steam, Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on January 28th, 2021.
*Disjunction was provided by the publishing company, but this in no way affected the reviewers opinion.*
