We are living in a really strange time right now. Most people are confined to their homes at the request of the government with the only exception being the option to leave for work or for short grocery store runs. This causes a rush of emotions that eventually give way to the feeling of being trapped, which coincidentally is how I felt the majority of the time I spent with Neon City Riders. 

The game is yet another throwback attempt at the beat ’em up genre from days past. It places you within a VR setting that is ruled by four unique gang leaders which you must defeat to win the game. Visually, the game exceeded my expectations and delivered a product that looked like it was released alongside Streets of Rage 20 years ago, featuring a Casey Jones-ish looking protagonist and a rogues gallery that would’ve been at home in any of the major brawlers from the past few decades. If it hadn’t been for the widescreen display pumping out visuals at 60 FPS in 4K-ish resolution, I would’ve sworn I was sitting in front of my Sega Genesis connected to my parent’s wood-paneled TV. Unfortunately, the rest of the package doesn’t live up to the visual representation at all. It’s extremely basic on many fronts and gets even worse as the technical issues rear their ugly heads.

The issues started to pile up early in during the tutorial, which barely succeeds in educating you on how the mechanics of the game works, giving you small bits of knowledge from the NPCs or the occasional pop-up reminding you to explore the areas for secrets. In the initial room you’re dropped into, there is a switch that should open a gate that is required for you to advance, but it didn’t work. At all. I flicked it back and forth no less than twenty times without success, chalking it up to maybe I just wasn’t ready for what laid ahead and went on my way to explore the other areas. After about an hour of this, I decided to throw in the towel and consult a walk through to find that the previously mentioned gate has glitched itself closed like I was quarantined to the opening segment.

At this point, I came to the startling realization that the game is completely missing a pause option (the game doesn’t even stop if you go into the Xbox Guide), preventing me from the standard quit and relaunch tactic. After returning to the dashboard a few times with no success, I was forced to uninstall and reinstall the game. After starting a fresh run I was on my way beyond the busted gate, but was left with a sour taste in my mouth that never left. I always felt uneasy when I was stuck in an area, wondering if it was me missing something or the game acting out again.

When it’s running as it should, the combat and exploration elements are present, but are basic and become tiresome quickly. There’s a decent-sized list of enemies, but outside of the boss encounters, the enemy forces rely on the same attack patterns making it extremely easy to evade them, even in larger groups. Tipping the scales in the other direction is the environmental hazards, which more often than not are instant kills, requiring you to start the entire room over if you make just one mistake.

In a time where we’re all confined to the walls of our home, there are plenty of ways to spend the hours in isolation, but Neon City Riders isn’t one I would recommend unless you wish to feel even more trapped.

4 out of 10

Pros

• Crisp Retro-Inspired Visuals

Cons

• Bland Combat
• Instant Death Traps
• Lack of a Pause Button
• Technical Issues Prevent Progression

Neon City Riders was developed by Bromio and published by Mecha Studios. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of Neon City Riders, check out the game’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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