One of my favorite things to do at gaming shows is to simply meander around and see what surprises and discoveries I stumble on. During Summer Games Fest’s Game Days, I had a little time between appointments and got to exploring and came across Spine, a cyberpunk action title that is currently in alpha. I sat down and tried it, and walked away from it as one of my surprises of the show.
Developed and published by Nekki, Spine is an action game with a Cyberpunk vibe, where you play as the rebellious street artist, Redline, who is equipped with a sentient device on her back, referred to as a SPINE. In the small segment I played, the general gist is that someone resembling Redline killed someone, and now everyone’s trying to kill whoever that was, which unfortunately includes her, and she has to fight her way to the truth.
Even in its current alpha state, Spine feels like a throwback to the PS3/360 era — and I mean that as a compliment. To get a sense of what it plays like, imagine the combat from the Batman Arkham series – the brutal takedowns, light and heavy attacks, and a focus on counters – and throw in the brutal gunplay of John Wick, and you will have a pretty solid grasp on what to expect. As Redline fights her way through clusters of goons, she will steal their guns, which she will then incorporate into the various combos you use. Throw a couple of punches and flow into a shotgun blast to the chest, or whip out your dual pistols for a little added flair. The takedowns are especially gruesome, and you can tell that the team at Nekki has taken a lot of care in animating them, and even in this demo, there was plenty of variety, and I only remember seeing one or two repeats. Speaking to one of the developers, he mentioned that the final game will have a large variety of these animations to keep things from getting stale.
As someone who studied film in college, I always appreciate when developers do neat things with their cameras. Be it multiple perspectives, interesting camera moves, or lensing choices for shots. In one area of the demo, which I believe was an apartment, the camera, instead of the over-the-shoulder perspective that had been used up to that point, swung upwards and adopted a more isometric view. I could see when people were coming up behind me, and it was clear where the doorways were, which gave the game a more arcade-like feel to the whole experience, despite only changing the camera. While I only got one taste of this, I am curious to see how else Nekki will play with the game’s camera in future segments of the game for its final release.
The demo ended on a boss fight, the culprit that everyone had mistaken me for. Taking part in some sort of lobby (it felt very much like the Matrix’s lobby scene), the boss would go invisible, throw exploding drones at me, and require me to pick the perfect time to try and counterattack her and avoid her flurry of attacks. It was undoubtedly the most challenging portion of the demo. It was a good test of what I had learned so far, having to adjust a bit on the fly as my regular combos and attacks weren’t working, and instead requiring me to really pick the moments when it was safe to hit back. I hope that all the bosses will test me like this one did.
Spine still has some time yet in the oven before it’s ready to come out, with the team aiming for release sometime next year. I may not have been aware of the game before finding it on the show floor, but its neon cyberpunk world was quickly added to my Steam Wishlist after getting my hands on it. I look forward to seeing what Nekki manages to pull out with Spine, and how the combat and gunplay continue to grow and evolve up to the game’s release next year. If they manage to maintain the combat variety and flair, Spine could end up being one of next year’s action-packed surprises.
When it releases, Spine will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, and the Epic Game Store.