You know how there are those games with massive worlds, sprawling stories, and deep moral choices? They are fun, but the sheer scope of them can also be very tiring. Sometimes, we just want to jump into something straightforward. KIBORG is exactly that.
You wake up in a sci-fi prison and your only real goal is to punch your way to the roof, while you massacre a legion of prisoners in ways that will make you wake up in the middle of the night wanting to go for just one more run. So, leave that open world for a weekend or two and go on a digital killing spree with a raw, challenging action game. Here, the only thing that matters is surviving the next room.
That survival has now become even better. KIBORG: Descent is a recently released DLC that helps you crank everything in the base game up to 11. It’s a chance to really lose yourself in new territory and test your might against new enemies.
Welcome. You will die. A lot.
Dying is just part of the process in KIBORG. We have to admit, our ego wasn’t happy about us jumping back in over and over, but surprisingly, each death made us try harder. That’s because each run can be wildly different from the previous one, all thanks to the mechanic that allows you to try out different robotic upgrades.
Then there’s the fighting itself. It feels incredibly heavy. Don’t think of a fast, flowing dance; it’s a gritty brawl where you have to manage your energy and watch out for enemies shooting at you from off-screen. It took us a good while to get the hang of it. Those first dozen runs, until we were able to somewhat master the parry mechanics, were brutal. There are also guns, but the best part about the arsenal is your fists. No matter how many skulls we bashed, we never got tired of our ‘bad boys.’
If you had fun with the base game, you definitely have to check out the recently released Descent expansion. This DLC throws you into a flooded basement with some really nasty traps and tough bosses. We thought we were doing great in the base game, but the DLC was a much-needed reality check. It forced us to play smarter and mix our upgrades better. We had to relearn things and adjust our old tactics accordingly especially on the two new dificulty levels.
We loved our time with KIBORG. It felt strangle familiar, taking us to another game that we couldn’t quite put our finger on until we check the name of the developers. Sobaka Studio are the people that made Redeemer and, our favorite, 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, so they definitely know how to make a hit feel like it actually connects. However, even though we had some amazing, fast-paced fights, some crazy difficulty spikes seemed absolutely unfair.
Some heavy-hitting fun facts just for you:
Sobaka Studio released a free standalone prologue called KIBORG: Arena ahead of the main launch. It gave players an early taste of the combat.
Upon finishing the main 1300-year sentence and conquering the prison tower, the game unlocks a dedicated endless arena mode with exclusive cosmetic rewards.
The game’s aesthetic vibes drew heavy comparisons to the gritty spectacle of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and the punishing flow of Sifu during preview phases.
KIBORG is a tough game that slaps your hand hard every time you even think about reaching for help. But, when you want that escape from anything complex, and you crave the opportunity to just relax with a solid and challenging brawler, this game offers a pretty good time—especially if you decide to ‘descend’ a bit deeper. Get it? Ah, you get it!
ID Card:
- Developer: Sobaka Studio
- Publisher: ESDigital Games, Gamersky Games
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Genre: Action Rogue-lite / Beat ’em up
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