While Nightdive and Aspyr regularly remaster classic and cult first-person shooters, from Star Wars: Dark Forces to SiN Reloaded, a handful of developers are creating new experiences that draw from the past. MAETH’s SPRAWL zero is a fine example, intended to look and feel like a noughties shooter. It’s easy to imagine playing it on a chunky CRT monitor while it puts the latest 3dfx Voodoo card through its paces.
This isn’t merely a retread of old ground, however. In fact, this cyberpunk-themed endeavour has more than its share of fresh ideas, helping it to stand out. Foremost among them are the Gravity Gloves, which our cybernetically enhanced supersoldier is armed with from the outset. These nifty gizmos would make even Gordon Freeman jealous, serving multiple purposes beyond grabbing grenades mid-air and lobbing explosive barrels into groups of enemies. They can be used to punch enemies into pulp, grab weapons off the ground, tear holes in walls to access new areas, and crush fuse boxes from afar to open electric doors. They become more powerful over time, too, eventually making it possible to throw enemies around like ragdolls.
Weapons still play an important part. Keeping the pace swift, there’s no ammo to accumulate. Instead, every weapon has a set number of bullets by default. Once the clip is spent, it’s then a case of lobbing said spent weapon at an enemy before using the Gravity Gloves to pluck a new weapon from the hands of defeated foes. Smartly, weapons give off a coloured glow, indicating what type is about to land in your hands. Much like the crumbling game world itself – a sprawling complex of uninhabitable tower blocks and disused sewer systems – weapons have a worn and chiselled look, being a mixture of pistols, shotguns, SMGs and sniper rifles. More fantastical fare doesn’t appear until much later, unless you happen to consider katanas and energy hammers exotic. Every weapon packs a punch – even the basic pistol will tear into an enemy’s health bar – and you’re bound to find a favourite. Eventually, at least.
Shielded enemies appear more commonly in the late game, by which point your skills have been boosted enough to deal with them without breaking a sweat. Then, to mitigate the one-weapon limit, a screen-smothering barrier can be activated, catching bullets mid-air before flinging them back. Proficient use will get you out of sticky spots time and time again. Another tactical advantage is that killing a leader first reveals all troops in the area, also highlighting any potential stragglers.
There’s an alternative means of restoring health too, as not only can health pods be grabbed and thrown from afar to release their regenerative gases, but every enemy killed while using ‘bullet time’ will restore health. When playing on the harder difficulties, using this skill becomes increasingly vital. Checkpoints, too, replenish health. Incidentally, there is an easy mode here if you just want to blitz through the whole thing. I’d hesitate to call this ‘story mode’, as while there is a story here – which involves stopping a radical techno-religious group – it mostly unfolds during mid-battle dialogue and can be hard to follow. If you require a recap, the mission select screen details things from the perspective of both warring factions – a nice touch.
Navigating the various skyscrapers, sewer systems, metro lines and strongholds isn’t too tricky due to the ability to ‘ping’ for a waypoint. In keeping with the fast pace, the only time you may have to explore fully is during sections where giant power cells must be gathered and plugged into their corresponding terminals. This is the closest SPRAWL zero comes to featuring keycards – a trope of the era. Collectable Codex entries expand the lore, while seldom-found Shards are used to unlock modifiers back at the main menu – something easily overlooked. Bosses, meanwhile, act more as diversions, pitting you against helicopters, spider tanks and more – all of which require you to grab the missiles they fire and fling them back in their direction. The final boss breaks this tradition, ending the experience with an appropriate challenge.
I’d love to report that SPRAWL zero uses bright colours and neon hues sparingly within its environments to make an impact, but this isn’t the case. The first half of the experience is predominantly beige, while the underground-focused second half is predominantly brown. Because of this, it can be quite hard to tell stages apart, especially during the first half. It does at least have a few areas where copious corridors eventually lead to a wide cityscape overview. For better or worse, it remains true to the era visually and is uniform in style throughout. Don’t expect environs packed full of intricate detail, and you won’t be disappointed. The music, meanwhile, has been designed with the fast pace in mind, being a mix of trance and techno – with a main theme worth turning the volume up for. In more ways than one, it’s definitely a loud and crunchy experience.
In lieu of a multiplayer mode, there are a bunch of cheats to unlock that help extend the replay value, as they all require replaying certain stages with modifiers active. It took me nine hours to finish the campaign, with lots of secrets left undiscovered and the harder modes still to tackle. If you have no interest in seeing everything or challenging yourself with the harder difficulties, then you may struggle to find a reason to return.
SPRAWL zero succeeds at making you feel like a powerhouse, bludgeoning enemies, summoning shotguns to your fingertips, and tearing down walls. With this might, though, comes the risk of feeling more like a passenger than a participant, blitzing through waves of enemies with reckless abandon. This was how I felt during the first few hours, paying little attention to the health bar and rarely dying. By the time larger enemies and bigger weapons are introduced, things feel a lot more substantial, with the larger enemy roster adding some much-needed variety too. It’s an experience that asks you to turn off your brain and come along for a thrill ride, and I don’t think you can knock it for that.
MAETH’s SPRAWL zero is out 8th Sept on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. Published by Kwalee.