Ruiner is a Polish indie studio’s unique spin on cyberpunk

Dystopia has never looked as good as it does in Ruiner, a fast-paced cyberpunk top-down shooter that debuted Tuesday for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It’s the debut from indie studio Reikon Games. Devolver Digital, who’s no stranger to masked protagonists with a penchant for violence, is the publisher of this Polish project.

At the start, you know nothing about the nameless, faceless main character. He communicates only with his digital mask, which displays neon threats and the occasional requisite Chinese characters. Reikon studded Ruiner with these kinds of cyberpunk tropes — biomechanical implants, digital interfaces, rampant hackers, nefarious organizations, and a vaguely Asia-inspired metropolitan setting — but its style sets it apart. It’s got a graphic novel aesthetic that’s awash in saturated colors, and as you traverse nightmarish factories and underground lairs, your screen occasionally glitches in and out.