Deadlink is a Rogue Like Cyberpunk First-Person Shooter developed by Gruby Entertainment. Set in a sprawling megalopolis called the CORE, you play the role of an elite operative elite operative recruited by the Corporate Security Agency to combat rampant MegaCorp hijinks and anyone standing in your way.
Piloting an autonomous combat shell as part of the experimental and titular Deadlink project, you'll fight your way in randomized simulations and combat ops through cramped slums, twisted labs, grimy warehouses, and sleek office buildings on a mission to thwart the schemes of the most powerful corporations in the world. And if that shell gets blown up, there's always another...
Released on Steam's Early Access on October 18, 2022, the game formally launched on July 27, 2023. Not to be mistaken with Dead Link.
This game contains examples of:
- Alternate History: On top of the Soviet Union still being around in the 21st Century, there are mentions of events such as a second Vietnam War.
- Bilingual Bonus: Your enemies all speak in their respective faction's languages, including Japanese and Russian.
- Cassette Futurism: The setting takes comes across as a dystopian take on how The '80s viewed the future, from Japanese aesthetics and sprawling urban decay, to blocky hyperfuturistic tech existing alongside arcade machines.
- Conspicuous Consumption: The Femto stages all take place in a clean, specious skyscraper that's more akin to a luxury hotel than a corporate HQ, reflecting how blatantly exuberant the company is in flexing its wealth.
- Corporate Samurai: Femto's "Peace Officers" are augmented guards in sharp corporate attire who happen to moonlight as corporate marketing staff.
- Corporate Warfare: On top of crime, the streets of the CORE are rife with covert and open warfare among the corpos. The CSA hopes to exploit this through the Deadlink project.
- Crapsack World: From what little is divulged of the world beyond the CORE, and America for that matter, it's not a pretty picture. The second Vietnam War in particular proved so destructive that there isn't even a Vietnam anymore, with the ruins being a convenient wasteland for rival countries to wage proxy wars over in relative safety.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Interport's mooks have been so heavily augmented and assimilated by Iskra that they're more akin to robotic zombies than cyborgs.
- Cyberpunk: The game wears its inspirations openly, complete with gratuitous neon, corrupt megacorporations, and cybernetics aplenty.
- Defector from Decadence: Rumiko Usagi used to work for Watts-Rücker Bio, Gmbh before deciding to join the CSA.
- The Engineer: Of the Combat Engineer variety. The titular Engineer shell can plop down a sentry turret and disable enemies through a wire-hack, while being equipped with an automatic Gauss Gun and grenade launcher for good measure.
- Evil, Inc.: As far as the CSA is concerned, every MegaCorp gallivanting about in the CORE is this.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: This applies to the various Combat Shells.
- The Soldier is equipped with a shotgun and a grappling hook to engage enemies in close quarters. It is the most straightforward to play. The Juggernaut is a Mighty Glacier who comes equipped with a Sawed-Off Shotgun as well as the ability to charge into enemies.
- The Hunter is the Critical Hit Class of the game equipped with a Hand Cannon as it's default weapon, the ability to switch places with targets and an Invisibility Cloak.
- The Engineer is The Turretmaster who comes equipped with an assault rifle that's good at inflicting status ailments. It's turret can be upgraded so that it can inflict all types of status ailments as well as being able to be powered up by the Engineer's basic ability.
- For Science!:
- Watts-Rücker Bio, Gmbh is dedicated to advancing bio-augmentation and genetics, at the expense of such things as ethics and morality.
- Karl and Irene, two Watts-Rücker scientists you might encounter over a run, can offer your Combat Shell potent experimental perks at the expense of drawbacks that expire after a certain period.
- Framing Device: The initial runs are presented by the CSA as simulations both to prepare you for the actual operation and to have Congress green-light the Deadlink project. It's heavily implied, however, that the CSA likely decided to let you loose on the CORE and have the "sims" play out for real even without Congressional approval.
- Fun with Acronyms: The CORE stands for "Capital Outreach and Reinvestment Executry."
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Every run beginning with fighting the Tosa Yakuza is explained away as the CSA needing to keep you up on your toes and highlighting the CORE's rot. And an excuse to wipe the streets clean of them for real.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: "Crisis Levels" (VR Orientation, Deep Dive, and Neuromancy) correspond to the general difficulty of each individual scenario/run.
- Industrial Ghetto: Interport's facilities seem to be comprised of repurposed bunkers and grimy, prefabricated factories that wouldn't look too out of place in post-Soviet Russia. According to intel, they're so prone to collapse that they're routinely rebuilt just to save on maintenance cost.
- Mega City: The CORE is a massive "gigacity" encompassing the East Coast, much of which having been privatized to the point wherein corporations rule large portions of it and only vestiges of Federal control remain.
- MegaCorp: Comes in multiple flavors.
- Tosa Heavy Industries is the resident hegemonic Japanese zaibatsu, with an army of jacked-up Yakuza thugs, killer gynoids, and heavily armed combat mechs.
- Watts-Rücker Bio, Gmbh is a German-run chemicals firm with a specialty in bioengineering and genetics, and enough money to pay for a top-of-the-line augmented PMC to keep its assets secure.
- Interport is a corporation from the USSR whose AI CEO, Iskra, is taking Soviet Superscience to its logical conclusion.
- Femto represents the successful startup standing up to the established corpos through its investment into nanotech, while masking its unethical antics under a veneer of being revolutionary.
- Multiple Life Bars: Bosses will generally change their combat patterns or weak spots once their health reaches a threshold. Iskra, meanwhile is more unique in that its myriad components have to be destroyed individually.
- No Such Agency: Played With in the case of the Corporate Security Agency. Officially, it's the US government's main regulatory body tasked with keeping the megacorporations in line. In actuality, the CSA's goal is to reclaim the CORE from said corpos and reassert Federal authority, even if it means having to covertly work along corporate lines.
- Old Soldier: Thomas Crusher, the head of the CSA, is a grizzled veteran and patriot who will do whatever it takes to take back the CORE from the corpos.
- One Nation Under Copyright: America has become heavily corporate-dominant, with the East Coast-sprawling CORE being effectively a MegaCorp playground with only vestigial Federal control. The CSA, however, is the government's answer to that problem and possibly its last-ditch attempt to reassert itself.
- Peace & Love Incorporated: Femto's public face remains centered around old anti-corporate rhetoric that, under CEO Lizz Watson, rings exceptionally hollow.
- Plausible Deniability:
- Part of the reason why the Deadlink project was launched, in order to prevent the corpos from catching on to their own demise.
- Tosa Heavy Industries has much of its dirty work and street-level activities handled by the Tosa Yakusa in order to keep its image clean.
- Playful Hacker: Maria Argentea, the CSA's ELINT Specialist, is much more easygoing and eccentric than her erstwhile co-workers. She is, however, described as being so good at hacking that Interpol considered capturing her a top priority.
- Private Military Contractors:
- Founded by veterans of the African bush wars, Phoenix Militaries Ltd. is a highly trained PMC, whose augmented mercenaries offer their services to the highest bidder.
- Interport's "Altaroids" are hired mercs from a Soviet PMC called Shostakovich-Division, which retain their autonomy and are more heavily armed than their zombie-like underlings.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Final Boss of the fourth level is Lizz Watson, CEO of Femto and a cyborg equipped with two katanas.
- Remote Body: You take control over various "combat shells" rather than fight the corpos and their lackeys in-person. These can range from basic robots to highly-sophisticated killing machines.
- Rogue Like: Each scenario/run is randomly generated, as are the various perks.
- Sequential Boss: Lizz Watson, CEO of Femto, is technically fought twice. After defeating her the first time around, she loses her temper and decides to go all out against you
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The basic Soldier shell comes equipped with a powerful shotgun as its main weapon.
- Shout-Out:
- Tosa Spider Tank enemies are almost a dead-ringer for the Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell. Similarly, Playful Hacker Maria Argentea is described as a brain in a full body prosthesis, much like Motoko Kusanagi.
- The lead scientist at the CSA is named Rumiko Usagi.
- Phoenix mercs come across as an amalgamation of various Metal Gear PMCs.
- Liz Watson's battle taunts includes lines such as "Nanomachines, son!" and "Like your own reflection in a hall of mirrors"
- Soviet Superscience: Interport is a Soviet state-run MegaCorp fixated on robotics and Brain Uploading, which clashes with the Brutalist prefab architecture it operates around. Justified, however, given that it's run by an AI with an obsession with elevating humanity and possibly becoming a god itself.
- Super Prototype: The Final Boss of the Watts-Rücker stages is the Pheonix Apex, a heavily-upgraded cyborg mercenary infused with the MegaCorp's most state-of-the-art augmentations.
- Take That!:
- Watts-Rücker Bio, Gmbh riffs on both shady pharmaceutical companies and PMCs.
- Interport lampoons "Just in time delivery" and e-commerce companies, showing the stark contrast between their sophisticated tech and their often rickety if not haphazard physical infrastructure.
- Femto is similarly a not-too-subtle jab at modern startups and Big Tech corporate culture, especially with the dissonance between their actions and PR.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The various corpos try to maintain a positive image as valuable, upright contributors to society. The CSA, though, seeks to expose them for what they really are.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Watts-Rücker Bio stages are noticeably harder than the Tosa-dominated Streets preceding them. Justified, however, in that the Pheonix mercs fought there are much more heavily armed and well-trained than the Yakuza-type mooks you've wasted up until that point.
- Yakuza: Tosa relies on its own private Yakuza gang to do its dirty work, whose thuggish behavior sharply contrasts with the highly-sophisticated Japanese engineering being used.
- You Are What You Hate: Femto is a MegaCorp that began as an idealistic startup touting itself as a progressive, innovative alternative to corporate corruption. Only to wind up being one of the most dangerous corpos in the setting.
