Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Reviews

Great game, absolute gem for the cyberpunk/shadowrun fan.

This game is fantastic. I'm somebody who really easily bounces off games but I keep coming back to this. So much depth here, great RPG elements, lots of loot/gear. If you've ever enjoyed xcom type games then this game is for you. Devs are pushing out patches like crazy and the game is actively evolving. If I had one critique is that I think there needs to be more "biomes"/map types as things can get visually same-y after a bit. Judging from their post-launch roadmap, it looks like this is coming though.

absolute gem if you're into things like xcom, shadow or colony ship. the base/strategic is very interesting, the upgrade paths on characters are complex and force to balance and use correctly skills vs. weapons etc. the mix between stealth, ultimate shootout, balancing escalation vs. progress in missions is far better than any other game of the genre I've seen. ingenious addition of security devices that have to be managed. storyline quite interesting with lots factions, balancing of interests and risks.

Great game this is basically the true version of Shadowrun. It basically takes Shadowrun and makes it into a game. Very interesting mechanics.

A very good tactical and cyberpunk game. Can be dense at first, but pays off once it clicks. Some notes which are not full complaints: The game updates for >1GB multiple times a week, usually with very worthwhile content, so be aware if you have a slower connection. Character customization is deeper than you might expect, but could be deeper, and several elements of it which should be mutable are not. You will be offered way too many Hackers. Do not add more unless your RP absolutely demands it. A few minor but iconic cyberpunk elements are missing, like long-coats, drone/robot companions, grapples or jumps for z-axis shenanigans, and (maybe more personally) sledge- or rocket-hammers. Things are being added often, so I may amend later, but as of the end of July, all are absent. Still, I've sunk almost 200 hours into this game in under a month, so I can say it's worth it.

Why add one system would you could add 20? I love this game. This is better than their last game (Start Traders) which was also good and also had a web of systems. The system web there was more disconnected though, with more oatmeal in between (keeping the long list of factions differentiated was hard, and combat felt unrelated to other game loops). THIS game though, most systems interact with at least 2 other systems. Game dimensions are nested to make it easier to keep things parseable without becoming oatmeal. Also, just a joy to play. I'm 30+ hrs in, I'll probably be here for at least another 30.

OK...at 1st I thought - X-COM... It's really just X-COM again. But then again, I LOVE X-COM! So I hung around for a bit and being a bit thick, noticed slowly that the game was evolving around me! Of course then I jumped onto Steam and saw this Amazing team just keeps adding to an already fantastic game. It's NOT X-COM but it is as addictive! Way more so because it's constantly evolving! This is barely a fair review - there's so much here but I couldn't sit by and not give props to the development team here. Thanks guys!

Well made merc management turn based tactics game. I am actually enjoying this just as much if not more than xcom long war. pros: - tons of customization options - endlessly replayable - challenging AI cons: - takes some time to learn all the deep mechanics - after a while the missions seem to be too repetitive. would like to see more variety

I'm rather sad that I cannot recommend Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, to be honest. Mechanically, it's perfectly sound - an interesting blend of turn-based stealth and XCOM-style combat, with a strategic layer where you enhance your mercenary unit's hideout, develop contacts, and take on new contracts. The setting is solid, there's plenty of content, and the devs are still adding more. So why the thumbs-down? Basically, the game has two major issues, which compound each other to the point where it kind of renders all the good points irrelevant, at least for me. Firstly, there's no real overarching plot, no great objective for you to achieve - nothing that can really drive or motivate you. Depending on what 'origin-story' you select for your main character, you may initially have some debts to repay, but getting out from under those doesn't really take all that long, and then... well... you just kinda' do whatever you feel like, I guess? You're not trying to save the world, there's no ongoing invasion, no doomsday clock, no real antagonist beyond the cruel and unfeeling system you're a part of, because y'know... CYBERPUNK! Your player character may have some vague dream, depending on what background you picked, that mostly just boils down to 'make it big' - and some of your team-mates may likewise have some personal goal or objective that you can work towards, or not, it doesn't really matter. You can work to develop powerful underworld contacts, and elevate those contacts in order to gain some vague sort of success as a mercenary, but... I dunno. If you're the sort who likes to make their own fun, maybe it won't matter to you, but I personally prefer having some kind of narrative REASON to fight, beyond just "Making money, I guess?" The second issue is the fact that the game basically incentivizes you to do as little as possible. Since there's no ongoing invasion to keep up with, or anything of the sort, the level of opposition you face is instead based on your Reputation... which obviously goes up with every heist you pull, every mission you complete. It creates a sort of level-scaling-with-extra-steps effect, since the same missions that levels up your crew, levels up your enemies. On top of that, there's a 'Heat' mechanic, where pulling multiple missions in a row draws more attention to you, making it harder to stay covert and potentially even causing bounty-hunters to appear, out for your blood. How do you deal with that? Well, you sit in your base for months and wait for the heat to die down! The upshot of all this is that you're basically encouraged to sit in your base for as long as possible between missions, building stuff and sending your crew off on non-combat missions while using up all the resources you have, and only going into the field when you absolutely HAVE to - after all, every mission you run increases your Heat-level and pushes you closer to the next Reputation-increase, with all that entails! It's a weird sort of system, that kind of feels like it's trying to make you play the actual game as little as possible. So basically... the narrative provides little to no motivation for anything you do. Meanwhile, the game-mechanics actively punish you for engaging with the tactical gameplay (AKA, the FUN part) too much. It's a one-two punch of demotivation, and regardless of the game's other qualities, just makes me want to go off and instead play a game that actually seem to WANT me there. EDIT: Just to address some of the comments below, without being held back by a 1000-character limit. Is it realistic that you've got oodles of downtime between each heist? Oh, sure! Just like it's realistic to meander aimlessly through life with no greater goal than just making sure you can pay the bills each month, but that kind of realism ain't what I play videogames for! Games are MEANT to get progressively harder? Well, YEAH, no shit - but HOW they get harder isn't unimportant. In an old-school RPG, for instance, enemies will get tougher as you reach and explore new areas. In X-Com and most of its imitators, enemies get stronger as the clock ticks down. In either case, you have options for getting ahead of the curve - level-grind in earlier areas, play smart and get crucial technology into the field sooner rather than later, etc. It creates a sense of push-and-pull, which helps make the games, well, FUN. If the growth of the enemies is tied DIRECTLY to the growth of your own power, though, that sense of flexibility is lost. Instead, you get something more like Oblivion/Skyrim, where becoming a max-level badass just means that every random bandit you meet on the road is now Level 100 and decked out in Ebony Armor. Basically, if enemy progression and YOUR progression is too directly connected, you never get to feel like you're growing stronger, and leveling up becomes pointless instead of rewarding. They should've found another way to scale the enemies... though, the 'ticking clock' mechanic used in many other games of this genre obviously wouldn't work either, considering how all the rest of the game's mechanics seem designed to encourage you to do as little as possible. I'd suggest tying it to specific milestones in the story... if there WAS one.

The cyberpunk game I didn't know I needed. This is a masterpiece. My team had an obligation to one of their contacts and were forced to take a mission where we had to assassinate somebody who had become an informer. We were outdoors and told that a helicopter was going to land, but we didn't know where. We circled around, stealth killed a guard . . . and then the helicopter landed on the opposite side of the map. My cyberknight dashed across the map, skills on etc., straight down the street, out of cover, while the informant was running for the chopper . . . he was tough but everybody on the map was shooting at him, and he took a bunch of hits. Right as he got to the chopper, my sniper took a shot from across the map and killed the informant. I then ran my quad all the way back across the map while getting shot at the whole way. My soldier got overwatched by two cops and barely got out alive. It's like a fast paced XCOM with Invisible Inc stealth mechanics. Don't let the tutorial faze you - it's daunting at first but gets steadily better. I don't think I've played a cyberpunk game which captured the feeling of going FAST like this one does.