I found Dex years ago on a Steam Sale and played through it over a weekend. Cyberpunk as a genre is my jam. Dex looked right up my alley with good-looking 2D sprites and gameplay that promised to be a stripped-down riff on Deus Ex, possibly my favorite game of all time. I was happy then when Dex delivered on all its potential. I played and enjoyed it then forgot about it for a few years until last week. I can’t remember what made me think of it, but I decided to hop back on Steam to play it again and I’ve been having a blast. Dex still holds up as an indie Deus Ex-lite. Cyberpunk fans should look at Dex next time it goes on sale.
Dex is the story of a blue-haired protagonist Dex as she navigates the near-future Harbor Prime. She explores, fights, body-mods, and hacks her way through a plot of shady corporations and outlaw hackers. Truthfully, there is not much in Dex that will be new to anyone familiar with cyberpunk genre. I do not think that should be held against the game. It was developed by a small team and funded through Kickstarter. The fact that Dex is able to hit all the major aspects of Deus Ex in a compact package without getting too wonky is impressive.
The 2D artwork is excellent. Each game location has a distinct look, from the industrial scrapyard to the Chinese quarter. Unfortunately, side quests and the main plot do not take you to all the locations enough. This problem is accentuated by the fast-travel which allows players to go to any location from any other. One can take the scenic route. Especially after clearing out any enemies (which do not respawn), it is easy to run through locations to get to destinations. I think I would prefer a more limited fast-travel system. A hub sort of system with four or five fast-travel locations that then asked players to slow-travel one or two screens to the final destinations would force players to ogle the gorgeous backgrounds more often.
Like any good open-world cyberpunk game, Dex can hack computers, cameras, and gun turrets. Hacking opens a small twin-stick shooter minigame. Enemies attack Dex’s avatar while she must stay in place over a certain point for the hack to complete. Dex is able to switch into hack-mode without any special gear (this is explained in the story) at any time, even while in mid-punch or jumping. This is great because Dex can hack vending machines for extra cash and she can hack enemies to stun them.
Any enemy in the game that is successfully hacked gets stunned for a few seconds allowing Dex to lay down the law without getting riddled with bullets. One way to cheese this system is to begin hack-mode as soon as Dex enters a new area. Until Dex begins to actually hack in hack-mode, there are no enemies in the minigame. Players can take advantage of this by entering hack-mode and scanning the entire location, even areas out of Dex’s usual view,for enemies and obstacles.
Dex upgrades herself through traditional RPG experience gaining to earn skill points and installing body modifications. Dex has all the normal cyberpunk RPG skills: combat, toughness, hacking, persuasion, etc. The implants available for purchase are varied but the number is limited by Dex’s toughness. This forces players to consider how they want to develop Dex because she will not be able to master all the skills or install all the implants. Thankfully, it only takes a half-hour or so before a player has a good idea how they want to interact with Harbor Prime. Personally, I love the mobility and exploratory implants because Dex does have many hard-to-reach places that are fun to find. Like any good RPG, end-game characters become incredibly powerful. A few points in the hacking skill enables Dex to quadruple the damage in the hacking minigame and the health regeneration implant eliminates the need for healing items.
The exploratory implants leads me to my biggest criticism of the game, the platforming. Dex is a 2D side scroller so jumping is vital to movement, especially if you are like me and enjoy the exploration. Unfortunately on my Xbox 360 control, the controls are not as tight as I would like. Too many times I have tried to run then jump over a game but the game didn’t register my button press until a moment late and I fell to my doom. The backgrounds look amazing, but it can be difficult to know what is a platform and what is window dressing. Save-scumming prevents against instant death and my end-game Dex was tough enough to fall from almost any height and regenerate her health. However, the first half of the game was frustrating in this aspect.
Dex is an indie RPG, not a polished Mario game, so I am not too upset over the lack of pitch-perfect platforming. The rest of the game makes up for this flaw. Dex is a good, short cyberpunk RPG. Steam reported my first completed playthrough was approximately ten hours, and I was trying to explore as much as possible. This time I am focusing on achievements; for achievement hunters I believe all Steam achievements can be earned in one attempt, but many are missable. As I mentioned, cyberpunk fans should enjoy Dex and need to seriously consider it during a sale.
The Keasy Depot 