FORECLOSED Review

The growing trend surrounding cyberpunk aesthetics hasn’t gone unnoticed. While many gamers have been rightfully disappointed in some titles that carry the theme, Merge Games attempts to rekindle the love for dystopian futurism with their latest title, FORECLOSED.

FORECLOSED is a narrative-driven, action-adventure game set in a cyberpunk city. You play Evan Kapnos, a man who works for this company called Securtech in the Operational Department. Waking up one morning, Evan gets a notification that the company he works for and the company that essentially owns his identity has filed for bankruptcy, therefore foreclosing his identity. The situation is a bit complicated, but it forces him out of his house, and he’s banned from venturing out of the city.

You might be wondering why he just can’t leave? Well, Evan, and seemingly every person in this universe, has these neural implants that the State nearly controls. Once Securtech filed for bankruptcy, Evan acquired something called “identity debt”, which he cannot pay back. The court tells him that he has to appear before 4 PM to negotiate a deal, but armed men in suits ambush him before making it.

As you follow the story, you find out that Evan and Securtech were set up by someone at the top, pulling strings. Evan’s implants and the whole of Securtech are to be sold at an incoming auction, and it comes down to Evan to put a stop to it and get his life back.

Before I even started playing the game, there were technical difficulties that were already souring the experience. The game launched ideally, but there was an issue with the start menu. There is a “Press A” prompt that is unresponsive. I was a bit relieved when I found other players who had the same issue but could not find a suitable solution at first. I tried uninstalling the game multiple times to no avail. I restarted my Xbox One a few times and was still stuck on the main menu; “Press A” just sitting on my screen, taunting me. I almost gave up and was just lazily pressing “A” in hopes it would just… work. And then it did.

I was thrown into the narrative immediately but was greeted with bland, monotone narration from what I assumed was our main character. I got over the voice acting once I saw the art style: the game moves and transitions in a comic book panel-like fashion. Being a huge comic book fan, I have never seen it implemented into gaming before. Despite that, the story felt very convoluted, almost like the game should have been the second installment of an established universe with a knowledgeable audience. They introduce concepts and terms like “blockchain,” “identity debts,” and “implants” but never truly explore what any of it means. The narrative scratches the surface on deep subjects like bureaucratic interests, hyper-capitalism exploitation, and oligarchical societies. This potential for a great story is overshadowed by shoddy gameplay, unenthusiastic voice-acting, and anticlimatic endings.

FORECLOSED has a mix of stealth, puzzle-solving, and third-person shooting. The gameplay is relatively simple, go into a room full of enemies and fill them up with lead. Well, at times, that is easier said than done. Once Evan acquires his first and only weapon, he’s off on a killing spree to get his life back, but that’s if he can aim at the ones trying to kill him. One would think it would be easy since the enemies in this game just stand in the middle of a room, out in the open, shooting nonstop. Aiming in FORECLOSED leaves much to be desired as the game even as an aim assist, but there were times when I’d be pointing above enemies’ heads.

The enemies are another letdown in the game. While some gunfights can get repetitive, the game tries to solve this by having enemies ambush you by spawning in areas you just came from. This was very frustrating at times because the game has no way of letting you know that there’s an enemy behind you, and with the deadly accuracy the NPCs have, you’re left hoping you’ll respawn closer to where you left off. When enemies aren’t ambushing you from behind, they can be pretty easy to spot. The game does fulfill this interesting, “behind-the-wall” feature as it highlights enemies in red even before they come around the corner, guns blazing.

The game allows Evan to use some exciting powers with his implants. While going through the story, Evan develops telekinesis, and you can use nearby objects to take down your enemies. You can also use this ability to lift enemies off the ground. You are also able to overheat an enemy’s implants as a stealth maneuver. A few of the upgrades you can make to your gun, which I liked, is an upgrade that allows you to use telekinesis on your bullets. The telekinetic bullets make sure that you are consistently hitting your targets.

The stealth feature of the game can be fun, but in many instances, when you clear out an area using only stealth abilities, you just wind up in the middle of a gunfight when the second wave of enemies shows up. While the gameplay is a bit disappointing at times, FORECLOSED almost masters the visuals that it was going for.

My favourite aspect of the game was the visuals. FORECLOSED is masterful in its story visuals, as it pans over the screen with comic book panels, having the player control Evan in different directions depending on the panel. The art style is paired nicely with monochromatic tones and cool colours ripe with oversaturation, making the style “pop” with enthusiasm. I will say, I think the game nailed the cyberpunk aesthetic perfectly, especially with the direction they were going for. The attention to detail with graffitied walls and garbage that riddles the environment makes you wonder about the society that Evan lives in. There were times where I would take a break from my linear path and explore (what I could) the location that I was in just to look at the details the developers put together.

Just the way the game looks alone gives you a great sense of dystopian, lowlife fiction.

I tend to pay extra attention to language, pronunciation, and delivery when it comes to dialogue in games. While this could be considered nitpicky in some cases, there were many times when voice actors couldn’t agree on the pronunciation of certain words. This wouldn’t necessarily add any confusion but was noticeable throughout the game.

There were also other times when written dialogue wouldn’t match what the characters were saying, and it happened more times than I could count.