Foreclosed Reviews

Cyberpunk is not new to video games. For generations, games have presented this futuristic setting of augmented humans and giant mega corporations. The last nine months alone have seen CDPR and Neon Giant try their hands at it with Cyberpunk 2077 and The Ascent, with mixed results. So can Merge Games and Antab Studio stick the landing with their entry, Foreclosed? The answer is, “Ish.”

If you’re feeling the need for more cyberpunk games, Antab Studio and Merge Games present to you Foreclosed. Featuring a comic book art style and augmentations for both the player and their weapon, is this indie title worth your time and credits? Find out in our Foreclosed PS5 review.

Based on its premise, Foreclosed should be a lot more interesting, but it doesn’t have the balanced gameplay or nuanced story to even crack that conversation.

Plenty of characters have made the transition from comics to video games but only a handful of titles have tried to merge the two mediums. Foreclosed looks to create an authentic interactive graphic novel with panel-based gameplay but can this audacious release strike the perfect balance between gameplay and narrative?

FORECLOSED PS5 Review

Foreclosed has some really good ideas and excels in some areas. Sadly the gameplay elements make the experience a little frustrating and tough, and the pacing is uneven. Still, Foreclosed is well worth experiencing.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed what Foreclosed had to offer, and a circular narrative is always a good way to get on my good side. The game effortlessly makes you feel like you’re in a comic book, and it feels immersive. But while there are some outstanding elements to the game, I just want more of it—more story, more action, more mechanics. Furthermore, I want to see Antab Studio use these same elements to build a longer game with more complexity.

What’s more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose? That’s right, nothing. This is the mindset that I had while playing through FORECLOSED. It’s the story of a man in a cyberpunk-like world whose entire life was ripped away from him. However, as he goes along in his quest for freedom, he finds himself wrapped in a conspiracy that’s going to change everything he had known up until this point.

Foreclosed follows Evan Kapnos’ mission to unravel the mystery surrounding his identity foreclosure, and attempts to inject the style of a graphic novel into a third-person shooter. Does it deliver on its promise of a sleek Cyberpunk adventure?

While it has a strong premise and some neat ideas, Foreclosed it let down by rote, subpar third-person shooter action and unimpressive stealth sections during its short runtime.

I also wish some narrative sections played out to their end and the choices mattered a bit more, but Foreclosed tells its story and gets out. I can’t fault it for not overstaying. If you want a snappy cyberpunk adventure it might be worth seeing how the story of Evan Kapnos and his fight for his own identity play out. Just be prepared to deal with some average and occasionally frustrating gameplay all along the way.

Occasionally neat visuals and cyber magic can’t save this cyberpunk shooter from firing damp squibs on all cylinders.

A beautiful comic book aesthetic can't save Foreclosed from its mindlessly repetitive combat, poor story and characters, and overly linear levels.

Imagine waking up and having your entire identity cancelled. You can’t go to work, you can’t surf the internet, you can’t purchase anything – your entire digital existence is wiped out. That’s the life of Evan Kapnos, the hero of new cyberpunk shooter Foreclosed, and he is on a mission to clear his name, reinstate himself into the city’s “blockchain”, and get his life back. Along the way, Kapnos meets a range of characters and gradually uncovers a conspiracy he must expose and...

Every system presented to the player works on a functional level, but their implementation simply isn’t up to par with what’s required to make an engaging video game—even one that’s only about four hours long—and this culminates in an experience that ends up being more half-baked than hard-boiled.

Foreclosed features a masterful comic book art style and pumping sci-fi soundtrack, but its average action and failure to capitalise on its cyberpunk themes make it a hard sell.

The game gave you more horrors in your real-life experience than in your nightmares.

The cyberpunk genre is in the midst of a resurgence lately, and you'd be better off looking just about anywhere else for your genre fix.