New Cyberpunk FPS game on Steam is my classic Halo fix after just one demo

I just finished playing what is truly one of the best Steam game demos I've been playing for a very long time, and I'm here to recommend both that and what this game has to offer when it finally launches. SPRAWL Zero is one of those indie gems that I really think has the potential to be a knockout hit, and its overwhelmingly positive Steam demo seems to agree with me. Inspired by the Golden Age of 2000's FPS games, SPRAWL Zero draws from games that FEAR and Half-Life 2 to do old-school Halo feel new again – which is conveniently timed, considering Halo: Campaign Evolved is just around the corner, and I'm struggling to play it.

My Steam backlog has three backlogs, and yet SPRAWL Zero have somehow avoided it until now. What's interesting though is that I don't generally consider myself someone who prefers retro games to modern ones. They often feel a little too clunky for my taste, and there are way too many industry standards that those games don't meet. Because of that, I tend not to have the same appreciation for them that many others do. But that's also why I can't recommend it SPRAWL Zero enough, even this early in its lifespan. In some ways, it takes the basis of classic shooters like Halo and makes the foundation feel like it was just laid yesterday. Consider this your official recommendation to keep an eye on SPRAWL Zeroand click on the wish list that I just made.

SPRAWL Zero makes Classic Halo's gunplay feel faster, meaner and weirder

Let me be clear about that SPRAWL Zero is not a one-to-one Halo clone, and that's ultimately what makes it as exciting as it is. As for what I experienced in the demo, it feels more like someone adopted the general feel of old fashion Halos gunplay, pushed it into a cyberpunk world, gave it little Half-Life 2 mechanics, and then ramped it up until it started to feel borderline ridiculous. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Place the brackets in the correct order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Start

Players take on the role of FIVE, a cybernetically enhanced super soldier controlled by the Junta and ordered to eliminate SILAS, the leader of a radical techno-religious group called IMAGO-DEI. It already gives SPRAWL Zero the kind of sci-fi premise I want from a game like this, and it almost reminds me a little Crysis in some way. There are factions fighting for control, a city descending into chaos, and a central character who feels like the kind of unstoppable weapon these worlds always think they can control until they clearly can't.

SPRAWL Zero's key features

• 21st century inspired cyberpunk FPS combat

• Smart enemy groups that flank and communicate

• Gravity gloves for object manipulation

• Gravity Shield to intercept and return gunfire

• Bullet-Time for control of shots in the air

• Rushdown attacks with invulnerability and destructive power

• No traditional reloading; throw empty weapons instead

• Over 40 weapons with distinct roles

• Powerful melee-driven melee combat

• Handcrafted levels with verticality and alternate paths

• Multiple factions with organic and mechanical enemies

The real selling point, however, is the shooting. SPRAWL Zeros Steam page describes its combat as fast but grounded, and I think that's exactly the right way to put it. This is a very fast game – much faster than Halo—but it's not the kind of FPS game where everything feels weightless or where the weapons might as well be laser pointers with damage numbers attached.

The gun was the first thing that really sold me. Any FPS that gives me an absurdly satisfying gun is already halfway to winning me over, and SPRAWL Zeroimmediately got me thinking Halo: Combat Evolveds gun. It's powerful, it feels great to use, and it gave me the exact kind of “why would I ever put this down?” feel like every great FPS gun should. Unfortunately, SPRAWL Zero makes you lay down weapons because when you run out of ammo you either throw it at an enemy or grab another from the ground. I had to break my habit of constantly reloading in FPS games, but it ultimately made the frenetic pace of the whole experience that much more of a blast that turned out perfect.

Instead of sitting behind cover and waiting for a reload animation to complete, I was constantly looking for my next option. Do I throw away the empty gun? Do I gear up for melee? Do I pull something towards me with Half-Life 2-esque Gravity Gloves? Do I grab whatever weapon is nearby and hope it gets me through the next few seconds? It is essentially SPRAWL Zeros fast gameplay loop in a nutshell, which is why the demo never felt like it was slowing down just to catch my breath.

SPRAWL Zero's powers keep it from feeling like a nostalgia act

And then came SPRAWL Zeros gravitational forces, which is where the game really starts to build its own identity. Gravity Gloves allow players to pull objects closer, instantly adding a bit of that to the game Half-Life 2 and BioShock taste. I realize that “you can pull objects towards you” isn't a brand new idea in video games, but when it drops into a shooter that moves this fast, it changes the entire feel of combat.

The Gravity Shield might be even cooler, as it allows players to catch enemy gunfire and throw it right back. Bullet-Time allows FEM to deflect bullets into the air with absurd precision, while Rushdown allows players to attack enemies with invulnerability and destructive power. Put all that together, and SPRAWL Zero is starting to feel like a 21st century console FPS that somehow grabbed all the modern power fantasy it could find. It actually feels like it might become my new favorite recipe.

And thankfully the enemies aren't just standing there waiting to be fired across the room. They move enough, push you enough, and force you out of cover enough that all of FIVE's absurd tools actually feel like they have a purpose. That's what makes the combat feel as good as it does, because SPRAWL Zero isn't just giving players a bunch of weird abilities and then forgetting to build encounters around them.

The levels help sell it too, because SPRAWL Zero giving you enough room to actually use everything you get. I didn't just run down the halls and shoot whatever appeared right in front of me like I would in an arcade shooter at the local pizzeria. I moved through spaces with enough verticality and alternate paths to make the shooting, melee, weapon throwing, and gravity forces feel like they were all part of a coherent loop.

I think in the end that's what impressed me the most about the demo. SPRAWL Zero is very obviously an homage to the game's early 2000s, from its Y2K aesthetic to its sound design to the way it builds combat spaces, but it never feels like it's only interested in reminding players of games they already love. It takes the elements of that era that we all loved the most and then resurrects them until they feel as dangerous as they do nostalgic.

Of course, the full game still needs to prove it can hold this. A must-play demo is one thing, and a full campaign with enough enemy variety, weapon variety, level variety, and story pacing is quite another. SPRAWL Zero may still stumble when the full release arrives, especially if its best ideas start repeating themselves too often.

But based on what I've played so far, this is exactly the kind of Steam demo I wish I found more often. It sold me on the world, sold me on the combat, and made me want to keep playing the second it ended. If Halo: Campaign Evolved is about returning to one of the games that helped define FPS gaming for old consoles, SPRAWL Zero feels like the kind of game that can remind everyone why that style still works.

SPRAWL Zero is currently without a release date on Steambut it is available on the wishlist and has a playable demo.