Cyber Knights: Flashpoint – Impressions (semi-review)

Now, after spending about 30 hours in the deadly cyberpunk world of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, I’m ready to write some impressions. I would rather do a full-blooded review, per usual, but the game is not complete, even after being released as 1.0. Call me autistic, but I think this should mean something, especially in this world of gaming when dubious Early Access releases are very common. I’m not calling Cyber Knights: Flashpoint “dubious”, far from it. Yet, it doesn’t change the fact that it was released unfinished, as I will show in screenshots after the jump. Other than that, it’s a good title for anyone who enjoys X-com-like games. 

Missing questlines?
The developer team Trese Brothers are known for supporting their games long after release, which is admirable, since it adds tremendous value to any product they create. Adding additional content is almost never a bad thing, as it enhances the original experience, especially for a second playthrough. That is not in question, but in the 1.0 release of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, there are from what I understand 3 incomplete quests that end in a really awkward way. When I encountered two of these quests, it zapped away my immersion, similar to having an actor breaking the fourth wall to tell you something about the film you are watching. 

This could be considered petty, which it probably is. I’m just tired of things not meaning what they are supposed to mean. What’s the point of patiently waiting for a 1.0 release, when Early Access continues as normal, but just under a different name? It erodes the general confidence in EA games, which is already low, from a personal viewpoint. There have already been 5 content patches of different sizes since release (2nd June), and apparently the quests will be ready by next week. So, it will not be a long wait, but I feel that’s beside the point. Sadly, it made my cynic stat score a few more points (+5 Cynic). Enough of this for now, though. I just had to mention it, since it was very disappointing to me when playing through the campaign.

Cyberpunk world
The story is surprisingly my biggest issue with the game (beside being unfinished). It’s delightfully cyberpunk, with good engaging writing, but I have not noticed an overarching narrative so far. The X-com games (including similar games in the genre) have always had a very nice sandbox approach to the story. However, they also provide a clear end goal to work toward. For example, in all the X-com games, old as new, is to eventually defeat the invading aliens. There doesn’t seem to be anything like that here, except scripted “side-quests” with interesting world-building among randomly generated missions. And sadly, it just leaves me feeling empty in my endeavor to build a successful underground cyberpunk syndicate. 

Since I have not finished Cyber Knights: Flashpoint yet, I can’t tell if something pops up further down the line to strengthen the narration, but as it is now, I just meander from one contract to the next. And it’s starting to feel pretty pointless. Building up the network might be enough for some, but I feel I crave something more. I will give it a few more chances later, as I really want to get into it, yet those endless sandbox days of Mount & Blade: Warband feels like a distant past when I had more time (life).

Stealth & shooting
Where Cyber Knights: Flashpoint certainly shines, is with the gameplay. Right from the get-go, it plays like modern Xcom, except that it has action-points instead of a two-move/shoot system. The shooting is very similar, except that full walls actually block the view, instead of just lowering the chance to hit. Anyone that has played any kind of turn-based game in the last ten years will feel right at home here. What makes Cyber Knights: Flashpoint stand-out concerning the battlescape is the focus on stealth. And getting out of dodge, since you will be doing heists for the majority of missions, instead of just straight-up combat. This means, you will be screwed if caught in pro-longed firefights, so everything involving skirmishing, and nicking stuff, must be a calculated action by you, the player – if you want to survive. 

However, that’s not to say combat will not happen. It definitely will. I dubbed this kind of new turn-based combat: the Fighting Retreat genre. You see, starting a fight is in general a terrible idea (especially early on a map), as you only want to fight when leaving an area, hence Fighting Retreat – to make a hasty exit with your precious loot. How this works is that every location has a security AI that measures intrusion through “escalation”. Every kind of suspicious act increases escalation, like being caught by a camera. The more escalation you accumulate, the harder the response from the AI will become. It will call for guards, and reinforcements outside the map, and these things add up extremely fast, let me tell you. Killing a guard, and leaving his body, will always warrant a search, so as soon as you start popping guards, be ready to hightail it fast.

Now, there are a lot of skills and items (like dissolving the poor guard’s body) to limit the escalation, but more often than not, you will run into trouble. To be successful in these situations, it all comes down to understanding Fighting Retreat. Never ever let the enemy pin you down. Killing guards, while fun, does not give anything, as XP and loot come from making it out alive. As soon as you learn this, the game becomes damn fun. I played it like any old Xcom game in the beginning, which frustrated me, but as soon as I started to plan my heist in making it out breathing – in for example items: packing smoke instead of explosive grenades. The experience changed to something genuinely awesome.

The underground base
When you are not murdering innocent factory guards, you have a secret cyberpunk base to contend with. There is a lot to do here, from equipping your team, buying and building cool equipment to planning dicey heists. There are also many rooms to build that all come with different kinds of bonuses and “favors”, that will affect the outcome of missions depending on how you spend the favors. There’s a ton here, far too much to cover in this short impression article. Let’s just say it’s very sandbox in the best sense, which easily can take you hours to meddle with to optimize your team and contacts – contacts that feel dynamic within the sandbox framework. Very cool and impressive, to say the least.

Visuals & sounds
The graphics are adequate, and really shines in certain environments where the lighting is just right, but I can’t help but feel that the models and animations look somewhat rough in places. It does its job, and comes with plenty of customization options, which is fun to experiment with, letting you create a sleek cyberpunk crew. So, that makes up for it. The sound design feels quite basic, and at times, inconsistent, that I started to worry it’s my setup not playing all the audio files. For example, at times, my guns don’t make any sound, or seem to change sound-effects mid-session, unless I’m missing something here where it’s supposed to work like this. The ambience also seems to be somewhat lacking, which is hindering the atmosphere, making it harder to truly immerse yourself. Maybe it’s my setup that does not work well with the game for some weird reason, or I have gone half deaf suddenly – who knows? Because I don’t think the audioscape has been neglected, not to this extent at least.

Conclusion (for now)
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is an impressively designed game, seeing how all gameplay elements interact with each other dynamically to create a fun cyberpunk sandbox. So far, I enjoyed my time with it, stealing prized tech and making daring escapes, with failure of missions as an acceptable outcome. Overall, the sandbox nature is impressive, but the lack of an overarching storyline feels sorely missed after spending half a day playing.

It also has to be mentioned again that the game is not finished (beyond the missing questlines), as classes and other things have been promised for future content patches. If you prefer playing a complete game, waiting might be the best decision here. I will be doing just that from this point onwards, but that’s not to say it’s not worth playing if what you have read vibes strongly with you. Because, as it stands, it’s still a fine and unique turn-based X-com-like.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas