I playedSifuon my PS5 when it launched in February 2022, and to this day, it remains one of my favorite games in my PS5 library. Its roguelike structure was perfectly tuned, its environments were as engaging as they were beautiful, and its combat was enthralling. I still occasionally boot it up to run a level and keep my deaths as low as possible. It’s remarkable then that, when I sawSPINEatGamescom, my brain went straight toSifu.
WhereasSifu’s presentation is more traditional martial arts,SPINEfocuses on cyberpunk aesthetics with Gun Fu-oriented combat. Players take on the role of Redline, a rebellious street artist, who has a combat implant called SPINE, and she uses the strength it gives her to fight an autocratic AI regime in search of her brother. What’s more, SPINE is intelligent and would communicate with Redline, with developers telling us this is important to the story in the long run. We didn’t get a good look at many story elements, understandably fitting the nature of the presentation. The presentation we saw at Gamescom was still very much an early-in-development build, complete with placeholders and incomplete features (such as text-to-speech instead of voice acting), but it managed to impress with its combat nonetheless.
SPINE’s Combat is Cinematic and Stylish
Our hands-off presentation at Gamescom saw developers play through a fewSPINEcombat encounters: on the street, in a club, on a roof, down a hallway, and in other locales, ending in a boss fight against another SPINE user. Thebeat ‘em up style of action gameplaylooked top-notch because we identified very few repeat combos during the presentation; it was also clear how players could pull Redline in a certain direction to hit a nearby enemy, utilize the environment, and otherwise work their way through the game. She jumped around in true cinematic style, using various kung fu-style close-quarter attacks complementing those with her pistols. That’s really enough to sell its Gun Fu/John Wick-style fantasy, but that’s not all Redline is capable of.
Multiple times, she would pick up weapons in combat, use them in ranged but also mostly close-quarter situations, hit enemies with them like a melee weapon, drop them, and move on. It seems her pistols are her typical weapon of choice, but picking up weapons and utilizing them goes a long way in terms of introducing new combos as well. On top of that, she is capable of using spray paint in combat as well since she is astreet artistafter all. Watching her spray an enemy and then lay into them with multiple hits was super exciting, thanks to its cinematic camera. Indeed,SPINEfeatures a strong camera approach that emphasizes making the combat stylish, really highlighting all its cinematic moments to make it feel tuned well, speedy, but also movie-like.SPINEwas as fun to watch as we assume it is to play.
SPINE is an Action Game to Watch
The final boss, as a SPINE user, featured different abilities from Redline. Her combat reflexes were geared as high as Redline, but she had the additional ability to control a massive swarm of drones. This combat shifted significantly from the gameplay thus far, as the demoist picked their moments to attack the boss while continuously fighting off the smaller adds. It still pulled out everything that enraptured us from the prior gameplay moments, but it clearly ratcheted up the combat scenario. Assuming every boss does this and assuming the combat retains the fun we saw here,SPINElooked absolutely incredible.
SPINEis still in development, with the developers telling me they were aiming for a release near theend of 2025. It remains to be seen if they can make that target and if the whole game lives up to this presentation, but one thing is clear to me:SPINEis one to watch.
