Disjunction finds itself right at home in today's video game market with its gritty story and hardy characters. As part of an uptick of Cyberpunk-themed video games hitting the market all at once, Disjunction puts players in control Frank, Joe, and Spider, three individually motivated characters in a dystopian New York with the goal of unraveling a city-wide conspiracy. The deeper players get into this mystery, the more complicated it becomes, but after a series of intense stealth missions, all will become clear. There's a lot to love about Ape Tribe Games' debut title, but astute fans will notice some consistent flaws as well.
In terms of inspiration, Ape Tribe Games tends to reference titles such as Metal Gear Solid, Blade Runner, Hotline Miami, and even Deus Ex. It's by no means a technical marvel, but it doesn't try to be. The retro graphics work well for the gameplay, and the character art during conversations helps to make the whole thing feel more modern. Players will need to learn how best to use Frank, Joe, and Spider's unique abilities in order to get through each level and uncover more plot details.
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Disjunction is first and foremost a stealth game, and it definitely makes stealth feel good. While players have the option to run in guns blazing, that strategy won't work in later levels. Because enemies are so deadly, players are encouraged to use stealth, and the feeling of clearing a room full of bad guys without getting spotted is very rewarding. What's more, players have both lethal and non-lethal options, and which they choose to use will greatly affect the outcome of individual missions as well as the story as a whole. In all cases, though, players have the final say in how they approach a situation.
Between the three playable characters, there are also several different playstyles influenced by Disjunction's unique upgrade system. By nature, Spider is a sneakier character than Joe, but upgrading her submachine gun can make her a killing machine. Likewise, Joe's rush attack can be used to take foes down, but creative players may also see it as an option to sprint past an enemy undetected. This type of experimentation is further encouraged by the way Disjunction handles character advancement.
Throughout each level, players can earn a set amount of experience for their character by completing the objective, but there's also an optional upgrade kit to be found that will allow the player to upgrade one of their abilities for the next mission and net them a little extra experience. The beauty of the system comes in how players spend these upgrades and experience points, as they can at any point be switched around. Players may want to experiment with making Frank's Deadeye ability more deadly for a mission, but if that doesn't suit them it's incredibly easy to switch abilities around and increase his First-Aid ability instead. This encourages experimenting with different playstyles.
All of this customization is great, but it ultimately serves to tailor each character to the player's preferred style. For those that want to be as stealthy as possible, getting in and out without a drop of blood spilled, there are options such as Spider's cloaking field or Frank's smoke grenade that will accommodate this. Meanwhile, players that want to leave a trail of death and destruction in their wake will probably get acquainted with Joe's shotgun rather quickly. To make matters even better, the story shifts and changes based on how the player handles each mission.
An early example of this can be found in the very first mission of the game. Frank's contact specifically instructs him not to kill anybody during a break-in, but the player isn't required to listen to this instruction. If Frank's revolver sees a little too much use, the client will get angry and cut contact with Frank, prompting the story to continue in a different way. This decision also affects the ending of the game, but the important thing to note is that players have full control over their actions and should expect that these actions will change the world around them.
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As stated before, there's a lot to love about Disjunction, but it isn't without its flaws either. The worldbuilding is unique and players will find themselves very interested in learning more about this dystopian New York City, but most of that lore is locked behind walls of text. During any conversation, players can hover over yellow text to get more information, and while this does a great job of explaining what Central City is or why a certain name is important, it always comes in the form of a block of text. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, but it definitely will turn away some players from learning more.
Along the same lines, there are a few typos here and there in the game that give it an unpolished feel. Once again, these aren't game-breaking by any means and they don't compromise the integrity of the game, but they do break immersion. To be fair, with so many branching paths there must be a lot of dialogue in the game for the relatively small team at Ape Tribe Games to parse through, so this isn't a huge issue.
These minor flaws are easy to overlook, but the game's crashing problem is not. It's frustrating to finally make it past a difficult part of a level only to have the game crash and lose that progress. Each level in Disjunction has around three checkpoints, and if players die before making it to the next one, they have to start over from that point. This wouldn't be an issue under normal circumstances, but during a ten-hour playthrough of the main story, the game crashed five times, usually when it was most inconvenient. It's entirely possible that these and other issues will be fixed on or shortly after the game's official release.
While it feels necessary to mention these hiccups in the game, they should not deter players from checking out Disjunction. For those that enjoy a solid stealth experience that will bring back memories of classic titles like Hotline Miami or Metal Gear Solid, this is a perfect game. The great levels of customization ensure that every character will be different from one another, and the branching story set-up encourages multiple playthroughs to see all the various endings.
Ape Tribe Games succeeded in making a game with a daring story, interesting characters, and unique setting that players will love their first time through. Subsequent playthroughs have the potential to be even more interesting, as players will likely need to completely change their strategies in order to see the different endings. Aside from some minor and mostly inconsequential issues, Disjunction is a real treat and acts as a love letter to fans of the Cyberpunk genre and stealth games as a whole.
Disjunction releases January 28th for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Game Rant was provided a PS4 code for this review.
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