Unprecedented wealth disparity, cybernetic humans that blur the lines between robots and sapiens, corporations and government agencies working in unison toward their own interests: all themes that have been en vogue for the past few years in gaming. In other words, the cyberpunk genre is more popular than ever. Loopmancer, developed by eBrain Studios, jumps into the fold as a 2D action platformer that combines the grit and dystopia of cyberpunk worlds with roguelite elements to create a thrilling game filled with twists, turns, and plenty of violence.

Loopmancer is a beautiful game, offering up one of the most visually compelling indies this year. It's packed with heart-pounding combat sequences and a detective mystery storyline that produces an exciting cyberpunk noir narrative. However, its roguelite elements often feel at odds with the game and tend to create more friction than fun in an overall solid package.

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The year is 2046 and humanity has progressed to its next stage in technological advancements. Breakthroughs in nano-biotechnology have advanced medicine to new heights, citizens walk the streets sporting bionic prosthetics, and new breeds of criminals emerge in the wake of such tech. At the center of Loopmancer’s story is Xiang Zixu, a disheveled private eye still reeling from his daughter's death and his wife's disappearance. Amid grief, Zixu is tasked with finding a missing journalist that could have ties with Dragon City’s underworld. Quickly, Zixu unravels a conspiracy that could bring Dragon City to its knees.

Loopmancer Key Art

Zixu is shot and killed while in pursuit of Wei Long, a high-ranking LongXi Gang boss that could hold the answers Zixu is looking for and could also be the key to his wife’s disappearance. After falling over dead, Zixu wakes up on the same day he died, remembering everything that happened and stuck in an endless loop until he can find a way to break it. Equipped with his knowledge of past events, Zixu must make critical choices throughout his journey that could have drastic consequences for every character involved.

Loopmancer’s cyberpunk noir atmosphere is thick and engaging, being more than a simple framing device for the game’s loop-based mechanics. Although very B-movie in its execution and character development, Loopmancer still manages to hit the right story beats to keep players interested in what's coming next. Every layer that Zixu peels back only raises more questions for the audience and takes a few unexpected twists. The branching storylines at the narrative’s center aren’t as complex and interweaving as they could have been; however, it still offers enough incentive for players to go back and experience the multiple endings as the story goes to new places depending on the player’s choice. It’s a pulp fiction mystery worth following from beginning to end.

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Visually, Loopmancer looks excellent and serves as a wonderful showcase for the graphical prowess of Unreal Engine 4 even in 2022. The game’s first mission is striking as it juxtaposes the lavish, neon-soaked background of Dragon City with the monochrome and crumbling foreground of its criminal underworld. However, Loopmancer doesn’t stay too long in the streets of Dragon City, which is a surprise in a genre that leans heavily into its urban environments. ZIxu fights through run-down rural lands, corporate buildings, ninja training grounds, and even very lightly dips into the supernatural at some points. Every level is distinctive and offers something new to look at, a key element to get right in a game that heavily emphasizes repetition and seeing the same level numerous times.

While the plot is solid and its graphical presentation is excellent, Loopmancer does come up short in its voice acting and localization. Zixu and accompanying characters sound uninspired in their dialogue delivery, and their lines often sound flat. Localization could also use some work as intel caches, and subtitles are often rather clunky to read.

Loopmancer base

Loopmancer’s greatest strength is its combat, which always feels fluid and weighty. Combat works best when players are mixing and matching the tools in their arsenal, swapping between melee, ranged, and special attacks, with the game incentivizing this style of play thanks to a list of challenges for various zones. These challenges reward players with more currency and upgrade materials to get them better equipped should they fail and have to make another loop. Zixu’s selection of weapons is vast, ranging from katanas to bats to auto-turrets and drones. There are plenty of weapons for players to discover as they invest coins in weapon stations across each level, unlocking better weapons for higher chances of survival.

While Zixu and his combat animations look great, the enemies in Loopmancer lack the same level of polish. Enemies mostly slide across the ground in a manner that is incongruent with their walking animation speed, and they look unfinished in their current state. Moreover, some enemies have issues with stagger mechanics. Lower-ranking LongXi Gang members tend to stagger, stay there, and get hit until they die. In most instances, Zixu only finds a challenge when presented with multiple enemies, or in boss battles where the game forces players to reconsider their pace of combat. Overall, however, Loopmancer’s action feels fantastic and is the driving force behind the experience.

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Loopmancer is another entry in the 2D action-adventure roguelite genre. Every time Zixu dies, his loadout is reset, only taking upgrade materials and a reserve of currency to give him an edge in the next run. Each loop changes the composition of every level, but only slightly. Players will have seen close to the full extent of every level past the first five runs, and the changes are minuscule enough that they sometimes feel unnecessary.

Many roguelikes either lean into a procedural generation system that offers a unique experience at every run or a static yet challenging level design that forces players to master each mission. Loopmancer goes in neither direction, and its level design feels mediocre in its execution for a game that calls for repeated level runs. Its per-loop level changes are mostly superficial, occasionally sprinkling in a simple puzzle, and come off like a linear level design was initially present with the studio reworking it into roguelite mechanics.

Loopmancer platforming

As a whole, Loopmancer has some issues in its implementation of roguelike gameplay, and it occasionally detracts from a good package. A key component of roguelike games is their ability to make each run rewarding and unique despite its fail-and-repeat nature. It's a very carefully crafted system that almost underhandedly tricks players into having a great time despite the fact they are routinely failing. Loopmancer struggles to make each loop rewarding because its roguelite progression only really kicks in at the endgame.

The first half of the Loopmancer gives out upgrade materials and low-tier weapons at a slow pace before skyrocketing the rewards in the second half with legendaries and mountains of upgrade Cores. As a consequence, eBrain crafts an uneven experience where players can feel like they are spinning their wheels in the first two missions for hours before the mechanics pick up and they can breeze through the second half relatively quickly. There could have been a better way to let players find and earn high-quality weapons and Cores earlier in the game to make a more balanced roguelite experience. As it stands, Loopmancer's drip-feed early game progression makes the game feel tedious and boring at times.

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What's more, Loopmancer front-loads its dialogue and cutscene sequences at the start of each run, which makes getting back to the action a slog. An option to skip dialogue does exist, but it still requires running through two whole areas, loading screens, and clicking through a few menus before players are back in combat. Loopmancer’s attempt to mix roguelite mechanics into a compelling, dialogue-rich story is a novel concept but makes new loops a chore through extended play sessions.

Traversal is another sore spot for Loopmancer. Levels present some rudimentary platforming sections that fail when the game wants to be more mechanically rigorous. Namely, its wall-jumping mechanics are not as crisp as the rest of the movement suite. Players will find themselves fighting with the controls in sections requiring precise timing and spatial awareness in a handful of areas. Wall-jumping isn’t something the game regularly calls for, but it is a pain to endure when it does.

Loopmancer Boss Fight

Oftentimes, Loopmancer presents itself as a game struggling with an identity crisis. On the one hand, there exists a solid 2D action-adventure game with enough flair and rigorous combat to be an engaging and tight-knit experience. On the other hand, there exists a roguelite game that struggles to find balance in its execution of the genre and ends up making its gameplay loop needlessly tedious and occasionally dull. Where Loopmancer hits its stride is in its gritty story, frantic action, and striking aesthetic. Otherwise, eBrain’s debut title needs some tinkering with its roguelike premise to create a better-balanced game.

Loopmancer is available now for PC. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.

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