I believe it was Franz Kafka and Junji Ito who most effectively illustrated the concept of “trap designed specifically for you”. A process, labyrinth or a hole. Anything can suck a man in and not let go.

SPRAWL Zero is a honeypot made for yours truly. Inspired by shooters and aesthetics of the early 2000’s, SPRAWL Zero combines Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R. and E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy with the Metalheart and Vectorheart artstyles mixed in.

For those of you who are curious, Metalheart means abstract CGI squiggles while Vectorheart means abstract angles and egregious misuse of negative space. It’s Y2K all over again, babyyyy!

Developer MAETH had already made an impression on the gaming scene back in 2023 with the original SPRAWL. Both games are set in the same endless cyberpunk megalopolis. Humanity is a husk of its former self, barely hanging on to whatever evolutionary momentum it had generated thus far.

Mega corporations run the world, religious sects are popping up all over the place and the GDP has never been higher. But hey, at least the standard of living is lower than ever! The cityscape is rusted and barely up-kept. Everything is grimy, dirty, grungy… Feels like home.

If I were to list all the similarities between this game and its clear influence – Half-Life 2 – we’d be here all day. So let’s keep this as original as possible. You play as FIVE, a … well it’s not entirely clear yet what you really are. You are one of at least seven megacorp assets sent in to clean house when the going gets tough.

Why seven? It’s a nice, powerful number and the protagonist of the original SPRAWL is called SEVEN. So I put two and two together. The enemies refer to you as “The Machine” and a “Golem”. Your handler mentions your post-mission “recalibration”.

So you’re obviously not human, at least not in some sense. FIVE does talk though from time to time, but it’s not much different from how Robocop would repeat his directives. So does SIX, who flies with you to the first mission location. It is obvious that SIX is afraid of SEVEN. Why? You’ll have to play SPRAWL to find out.

While playing through levels you can find lots of hidden nooks and crannies, populated by data logs and relic fragments. Data logs are self-explanatory: flavor text, expanding the lore behind the world.

I rather enjoyed reading the corporate logs of all rebel guns, filled with disdain and unwilling admission of their utility in a firefight. Relic fragments are currency used to buy modifiers for New Game+. So you can look forward to replayability and try-hard speedrun categories.

Aside from looking the part, the game also sounds great. The era-appropriate drum ‘n bass tunes, mixed with passive vocals hits the spot just right. What’s extra excellent about the soundtrack is that it’s segmented accordingly.

A level opening has the least amount of instruments involved. But as you approach a firefight, the intensity ramps up and you lose yourself in the beats. Sure, it could be polished further to make it as seamless as possible, but I am no sound engineer. Just a perfectionist with unrealistic standards. And subpar competence.

The guns sound nice and punchy. At least the ones I got my hands on in this demo, the full game promises over 40 weapons. Those include pistols, machine guns and a thermal chainsaw. I was as puzzled as you when I picked it up, but it works the same as a regular one. Doubles as a portable hibachi hot plate.

Speaking of guns, I haven’t run across too many games which feature an ammo system like this. You do not retain any ammo, what bullets you find in any gun is all you get. There is no way to refill the ammo, not even picking up an identical gun, no ammo boxes either. MACHETE don’t text and FIVE don’t reload.

Steam store page promises “mastery paths”, so it’s safe to assume you’ll be able to increase the base ammo count further in the game. Or maybe that’s what those relic shards are all about and gun augmentation will only be available in New Game+? Who’s to say?

Weapons are broken into different tiers. The higher – the better. Certain weapons come with a pre-designed tier, so for example, you won’t find a CZAR autorifle below tier 2.

However there is a chance to run across a higher tier weapon, either in a chest or dropped by a diligent gun-nut enemy soldier. A high tier version of the weapon will be blessed with a high mag capacity, lower recoil and an unmistakable scent of cosmoline.

Now put yourself in MAETH’s shoes. You’re small game development team with barely a dozen people under your roof. How do you spice your game up? You add bullet time. Enhanced reflexes. SLO-MO!

But how do you keep players close to the enemy so they utilize the full impact of bullet time? You make enemies drop health and slo-mo refilling vials. That’s why you build a detox center next to drug dens. It’s simple urban engineering.

This also plays into the ammo mechanic, so you stay close to the enemies as much as possible. Your unarmed attack may be a one-hit kill move, but the wind up is slower than a line at the DMV. The health pool isn’t impressive and health packs aren’t too generous. The only full recharge comes in the form of checkpoints.

The levels can feel massive. And they are, geometry speaking. You’ll be running up and down and over trodden ground. If you’re not careful, you may fall down to the start of the level and have to walk all the way back.

With all that said, I can be singing this game praises all day long, but the biggest compliment I can give it is this: Currently, my ADHD-addled ass has 5 games to get though. I don’t want to play any of them. I only want more SPRAWL Zero.

Get the demo, NOW. SPRAWL Zero is currently in development and will become available on Steam soon(tm).