Disjunction

With striking gold, blue, and green colours, Disjunction certainly looks the part, and depicts its cyberpunk setting successfully. There’s plenty of atmosphere, and this is further elevated by an ambient soundtrack that really sets the tone in every level. The game’s overall length is a tad disappointing; you’ll rinse it in just a handful of hours, and there’s little incentive for multiple playthroughs. If you're itching for a decent new stealth title though (and aren’t quite willing to go for the cloud version of Hitman 3), then Disjunction is a glorious homage to the entire genre.

Disjunction successfully manages to capture everything that made classic Metal Gear fun, with none of what made you want to smash your Nintendo. It harkens back to an era long passed, all the while feeling fresh. Even today, amidst a sea of games made to emulate their developer’s childhood favorites, Disjunction stands out as one of the better efforts I’ve seen. Sure, I’d step over my own mother to get another Metal Gear Solid – so you know I might be biased towards stealth games. But that also means I’ll be brutally honest. And Disjunction is worth your time.

I don’t think there’s any other trendy theme that has saturated me as quickly as cyberpunk. We’ve had some great games released over the past few months, such as Ghostrunner and Observer: System Redux. Then the whole Cyberpunk 2077 release, as well as the mammoth-sized controversy that followed, made me feel completely fed up with the genre. That’s sad, because there’s a lot of potential to come up with interesting stories and gameplay experiences set in a cyberpunk world. Hell, my ...

A top-down stealth game that's a tad too tricky for its own good.

Disjunction is a fun stealth action game with great art and music, but there aren't enough interesting elements to keep the gameplay from eventually growing stale.

Disjunction doesn’t lean into cyberpunk quite as heavily as games like Cyberpunk 2077 or The Red Strings Club, but there’s enough sneaking and slaughter to keep you engrossed until the bitter end. It also warrants another playthrough where you force yourself to use stealth, meaning you’ll easily be getting your money’s worth out of this futuristic outing. Throw in a superb soundtrack that’s pure Blade Runner, and you won’t regret plugging into Disjunction.

Ape Tribe Games succeeded in making a game with a daring story, interesting characters, and unique setting that players will love their first time through. Subsequent playthroughs have the potential to be even more interesting, as players will likely need to completely change their strategies in order to see the different endings. Aside from some minor and mostly inconsequential issues, Disjunction is a real treat and acts as a love letter to fans of the Cyberpunk genre and stealth games as a whole.

If you enjoy action stealth experiences like those found in the early Metal Gear games and games like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (except being 2-D) and you like new retro-styled games in the modern era, chances are good you can enjoy this game, even if it doesn’t have the most realistic stealth mechanics.

Disjunction is a stealth-action RPG that seems to focus more on the "stealth" and less on action or even RPG. The framework is there for a better game, but it sadly fell short of what it could have been.

Blending genres is a popular trend because, when successful, it can result in a fresh experience with the best of both worlds. Disjunction is one of these hybrid games as it attempts to fuse a stealthier Metal Gear-type title with the top-down action of Hotline Miami. But this Hotline Miami Gear is far less than the sum of its disparate parts because of its imbalanced, tedious, and repetitive design.

However, I don't feel that I'm missing much. Disjunction has so much potential — it has a great soundtrack, interesting ideas for combat, and a serviceable story. These are all bogged down by frustrating and imbalanced combat mechanics, unimaginative stealth, and plain visuals. Disjunction impressed me when I originally played it some time ago, but it may have benefitted from being bite-size. Taking in the entire game, I couldn't help but want the experience to be over and done with.