Cruelty Squad first presents itself as a wacky, cheap, and difficult Hitman-style game; the visuals are amateurish, the sounds are meh, the soundtrack sounds okay at best and bad at worst. You'll likely die about 8 times trying to complete the first mission. But then you learn that things you do in levels is actually permanent; when you come back, enemies & weapons respawn and enemies reappear, but your money, arsenal, and equipment persist throughout missions. With a unique death system of scaling difficulty and options per death, Cruelty Squad manages to make levels extremely multifaceted, requiring multiple playthroughs to fully explore the level and discover all its secrets. This creates unique decisions that the player has to make on how to best earn cash and build up their arsenal. As you make these decisions, you unintentionally read into the lore, and discover how all the seemingly unexplained gameplay mechanics actually fit together quite nicely. And then you realize that you actually really like the visuals, the sounds, and the soundtrack.

Cruelty Squad is a lot of things, but I will say that it is FUN. Figuring out how to properly play this game is probably most of the fun any casual enjoyer is going to have. You will likely die a lot, but it manages to not be frustrating. Until the last level of the first ending anyway.

Speaking of endings, Cruelty Squad has a lot of depth underneath the surface. There is a lot to uncover and a lot to do. If you find yourself enthralled by the world, the characters, and the general strangeness that is Cruelty Squad, I recommend you to continue looking deeper and trying to figure out all Cruelty Squad has to offer. As for me though, Cruelty Squad did not grab me enough for me to spend the amount of time necessary to legitimately discover all the oddities the game has to offer.

• Some menus hurt to look at
  
• One level, Fatberg Casino, arbitrarily has invisible walls. Why?
  
• Kaizos are still kaizos. Dumb unpredictable traps that the game pulls often. It's not clever, it's cheap.
  
• Weapon and equipment choices reset every time you launch the game

Despite my lack of interest beyond the first ending, I can wholeheartedly recommend Cruelty Squad. It's not a must-play, but I do think it's definitely a game avid gamers should pick up.

I took 6.3 hours to reach the First Ending.

[h1]Cruelty Squad is an in-depth, intriguing, and fun Hitman-esque shooter with a delightfully obnoxious soundtrack, artstyle, and atmosphere.[/h1] Cruelty Squad first presents itself as a wacky, cheap, and difficult Hitman-style game; the visuals are amateurish, the sounds are meh, the soundtrack sounds okay at best and bad at worst. You'll likely die about 8 times trying to complete the first mission. But then you learn that things you do in levels is actually permanent; when you come back, enemies & weapons respawn and enemies reappear, but your money, arsenal, and equipment persist throughout missions. With a unique death system of scaling difficulty and options per death, Cruelty Squad manages to make levels extremely multifaceted, requiring multiple playthroughs to fully explore the level and discover all its secrets. This creates unique decisions that the player has to make on how to best earn cash and build up their arsenal. As you make these decisions, you unintentionally read into the lore, and discover how all the seemingly unexplained gameplay mechanics actually fit together quite nicely. And then you realize that you actually really like the visuals, the sounds, and the soundtrack. Cruelty Squad is a lot of things, but I will say that it is FUN. Figuring out how to properly play this game is probably most of the fun any casual enjoyer is going to have. You will likely die a lot, but it manages to not be frustrating. Until the last level of the first ending anyway. Speaking of endings, Cruelty Squad has a lot of depth underneath the surface. There is a lot to uncover and a lot to do. If you find yourself enthralled by the world, the characters, and the general strangeness that is Cruelty Squad, I recommend you to continue looking deeper and trying to figure out all Cruelty Squad has to offer. As for me though, Cruelty Squad did not grab me enough for me to spend the amount of time necessary to legitimately discover all the oddities the game has to offer. [h3]Cons[/h3] [list] [*]Some menus hurt to look at [*]One level, Fatberg Casino, arbitrarily has invisible walls. Why? [*]Kaizos are still kaizos. Dumb unpredictable traps that the game pulls often. It's not clever, it's cheap. [*]Weapon and equipment choices reset every time you launch the game [/list] Despite my lack of interest beyond the first ending, I can wholeheartedly recommend Cruelty Squad. It's not a must-play, but I do think it's definitely a game avid gamers should pick up. I took 6.3 hours to reach the First Ending.