Cruelty Squad (Zero Punctuation)

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Cruelty Squad.
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#ZeroPunctuation

[@theescapist]

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[@xenosmoke8915]

It’s almost as if the developers watched Civvies videos and took all the worst parts; all the broken glitches and the awful sounds and annoying textures and then presented them in a really polished way that actually plays. At times it’s like the final level in Tek War, as if they were genuinely inspired by the hilarity of watching Civvie trying to navigate it. “...CAPSTONE!!!!!!!!”

[@angeldeb82]

BTW, Yahtzee, please review The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

[@javkattavkjr.3601]

Aight you have civvie 2 weeks you guys are cool

[@jonathanjollimore4794]

The troll game genre were you intentionally make your games shit.

[@jaletemur6680]

critisizing? wow golly gee you really didnt have to i really appreciate tha- WAİT YOU LİKE THE GAME WHAT THE FUCK? İ ADDED SO MUCH BULLSHİT İNTO İT AND YET YOU STİLL LOVE İT?! FOR FUCK SAKES İTS NOT EVEN ONLY YOU İTS EVERYBODY ON EARTH GOD FUCKİN DAMNİT UGH -cruelty squad dev......lol

[@JokeCubed]

I love the idea of an assassin working for some agency getting a hit put out on them and then they get a call from the boss' secretary like "Yeah, sorry about that. Jim from payroll put your name in the wrong column on the spreadsheet. See you in the morning at 9am."

[@mikehawk9531]

That's almost literally what it says in the briefing you get lol

[@toobig7399]

Makes sense, the main thing about the plot of the game is that literally nothing dies anymore. Death has been beaten a long time ago, making all life to have zero value. Your corporation fucking up and brutally killing you became just as much of a mundane problem as someone breaking a coffee machine accidentally

[@dr.dylansgame5583]

i could honestly see a dystopian future in the real world like this one day if humans lived long enough to get that far

[@kendromeda42]

IIRC, your handler literally says that someone "fat-fingered the keys" when typing out the hit order, oops! Anyway, here's your next target....

[@lordoxyn5099]

Sorry bro didn’t mean to swat you it was a misinput

[@socksleeve]

Note: any target/NPC that isn’t armed or hostile has dialogue, sometimes several paragraphs of it.

[@socksleeve]

Second note: flamethrower can be used to cook enemy gibs, which will then give you more health than eating them raw

[@sweatygenius]

Hey, you're the guy from the Wikipedia article of this game: James Brod of Third Coast Review described the game as "grislier than Hotline Miami" and recommended it to fans of "old school tactical shooters".[13]

[@socksleeve]

@@sweatygenius holy shit, I'm quoted in the Cruelty Squad wiki article?! That's awesome! Can't believe I'm finding this out from a random guy on KZbin, lol

[@MCCanaryVideos]

@@socksleeve *than* eating them raw??? so it's one of those kinds of games

[@socksleeve]

@@MCCanaryVideos you can indeed eat the flesh of gibbed enemies for health, but it's only 5 health per gib

[@Ramonatho]

That final joke really nails the tone of this game and it was painfully on point.

[@daveman985]

Facts

[@thepicswin]

That exit joke just... Hurt.

[@SFact0r]

It was a little too close to home for me

[@LIETUVIS10STUDIO1]

Yes. With as much subtelty or nuance as the game itself has. It is worse than a shallow game - it is shallow art.

[@sanchez2673]

i have never seen these because the into/outro music is so damn loud in comparison to the rest of any of yahtzees videos that i close the tab immediately when the outro starts

[@fearandloathinginnorway7541]

I, personally, like the part where the chief of police does so many steroids he becomes an cube shaped arch-deamon

[@Killicon93]

*bouncy castle shaped

[@giovannicervantes2053]

​@@Killicon93musnt forget

[@Rando_Shyte]

an cube

[@ha1ban3]

@@Rando_Shyte be an cube

[@TooMuchSascha]

You got one thing wrong and it's that targets are *absolutely* characters. Some of them are too close to guards so they panic before you can talk to them, but many of them like ones in Paradise and the Mall can be talked to and give a greater understanding of how far Cruelty Squad's world has fallen into hypercapitalist decay

[@sigmanation6957]

Revolutionary progressive income tax and a 1% tax on corporate profits

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

@@sigmanation6957 and then you kill the guy and the stock market inflates so rapidly you can become a millionaire by idling for an hour

[@-Jester]

@@sigmanation6957 And a 1% tax on corporate profits is enough for your corporate handlers to have him assassinated and presumably turned into soylent green.

[@immortalartisan4724]

there is one target that just hired the company to kill themselves just because their so bored and they can come back from death and are interested in how you kill them.

[@richardsavings6690]

In particular, fuck the guy who stole money from his employer and blew it all on Funko Pop figures, of ALL THINGS!

[@degiguess]

the guy who made cruelty squad must feel like he's in a dream. Imagine making an incredibly niche game thats downright hostile towards the player and instead of being almost completely ignored by the world you see tons of videos from massive youtubers made about it.

[@karhu7581]

Especially since his previous work was not at all successful, being almost entirely ignored by the art world.

[@elkpants1280]

Old comment but by the numbers sold he has probably made just shy of a million over it, although I have no idea how much Steam’s cut is, so it could be a good deal less. I think that is just ironic in itself, lol

[@JPCollector]

@@elkpants1280 steam usually takes 30% with some other factors coming in if you sell wicked well

[@levilee207]

I mean if you make something unhinged enough, in a genre that barely gets any attention these days (immersive sim), it's bound to attract the streamers who love that shit, and the youtubers who make money off of reacting to weird games

[@danang5]

at the end of the day good gameplay triumps all

[@a_level_70_elite_raccoon]

The "are you still here" end card made me sad. Yes, Yahtz, half the fun of these videos is the jokes on the end cards.

[@kr4ftt]

is it a portal reference?

[@alsoSeeb]

Seriously. The plant/desk pulling out their own handguns was top-notch humor, and the little bits of text at the end of the credits are quality.

[@Pikminiman]

The end credits used to be only on The Escapist's website. They were cut off the KZbin editions for many years. I'm so glad we got past that.

[@leftovernoise]

I've been watching zero punctuation for well over a decade and had no idea there were jokes on the end card

[@Lucarioguild7]

For his sake I hope that's not half the fun, he puts a lot of work into the rest of the video as well

[@Tronnus]

3:49 that is false! Every target in the game, besides the two last bosses, you can talk to! They all have dialog that builds the world and lore around it! FYI the story is that mankind found a way to revive dead people so death became irrelevant and because of that everything went to the extreme. To get any thrill out of life anymore people would do the most extreme shit imaginable till life itself became boring. You play an assassin who gets orders by the big man to "punish" CEOs and other big people who went "out of line" and "too extreme". Like mentioned, death itself has no consequences, it is painfull yes but everyone can be revived for utter 500$. Some targets even taunt you, saying they will be back in a few days and that the effort is a waste of time. Trying to escape the loop is the main objective in the story!

[@mrrazfromnz]

I don't think you can talk to armed targets, or the bouncy castle man in Androgen Assault.

[@cate01a]

@@mrrazfromnz yep but some targets arent hostile so you can talk to them for sure, this is really cool though havent discovered the lore side of the game yet despite being past the police raid level. great game so far, really fun and indeed immersive because the engaging world and demandingly challenging gameplay. just wish the price was a bit cheaper.

[@DinsRune]

It's why the game isn't called "death squad": there's no point in killing the people your employers target, beyond simple cruelty.

[@cate01a]

@@abg9685 why? it's extremely good and fun to play. a light-tactically run and gun sandbox with character upgrades, a cool world and to me cool story/lore, with pretty good challenge (until you get the grappling hook) which is a bunch of fun because you get complete freedom of movement which works so well Why wouldnt you take the game seriously? It looks like a fucking piece of shit joke as everyone thought but turns to be really great.

[@cate01a]

@@abg9685 wdym by taking it seriously? that we enjoy and critique it like any other game? that we see it is a good game rather than messy shitpost?

[@theodorixjohnson4336]

Cruelty squad is one of those generational art pieces that I think requires it’s context to be understood either that or it’s just a massive screamed FUCK to everything the world has made

[@Rendo86]

I think the answer is yes

[@jocosesonata]

It's one of those games where it truly doesn't seem to care what you think. Whether your opinion that it's absolute garbage or an avant-garde masterpiece, it'll just shrug and piss on your chair either way.

[@Jacquelinsane]

It’s both. Not even as a joke.

[@greysnake2903]

My favorite kink

[@PyroSirBrad]

I like that he’s not mad or bored by it. Just really intrigued like how Stephen King was when someone told him about snake edging.

[@Graknorke]

does snake edging here mean something different to what it literally sounds like

[@PyroSirBrad]

@@Graknorke no it’s Bryan Fury’s tech in Tekken

[@zigfaust]

@@Graknorke I legit was thinking of Medusa in not so SFW poses....

[@Graknorke]

ohhh yeah I remember that. much better than what I was trying to imagine.

[@2000Doriyas]

OMFG How did I not know about this until now, I love Tekken and this looks like complete fucking gibberish to anyone that doesn’t play Tekken or fighting games at some level. Steven King must be imagining some bizarre technique being done to somebody.

[@denmark1226]

That... certainly was 5 minutes that left me as confused as I imagine the game would

[@Qreamey]

Damn, games so weird it confused the entire population of Denmark.

[@seasong707]

Oh shit, it's Denmark!

[@innocentbystander6620]

@@seasong707 shhhh Denmark can hear you

[@denmark1226]

Fuck, I'm hearing sea songs. It's the sirens again, isn't it

[@innocentbystander6620]

No sirens here Denmark, thanx for all the bacon.

[@samlipton7872]

If you were watching the livestreams that Yahtzee does, you would have seen him slowly come around on this game, just as he described doing so in the video. He literally went from calling it a troll game a few weeks ago, to talking fondly of it last week. And now, here we are, watching him talk about it in ways that were clearly foreshadowed previously leading up to this point. What I really appreciate about The Escapist these days is that they give such a pleasant “peak behind the curtain” on their reviewers’ perspectives of games. We don’t just see the Zero Punctuation and 3 Minute Reviews, but we get to watch the reviewers spend time with the game afterwards and get more of a sense of how they engage with it.

[@oneortwowilldo]

@Kathryn Elizabeth Are you really so bitter about this game that you have to try and psycho-analyze Yahtz just to justify him enjoying it?

[@socksleeve]

@Kathryn Elizabeth you really need to touch grass

[@Haaalp]

@Kathryn Elizabeth Bro, dude, muh man. Yahtzee spends just as much time on just about every game he's ever reviewed. And yet he shits on a good majority of them.

[@Graknorke]

@@oneortwowilldo It's not even like he said he super duper loves it or anything, just that he appreciates what it was going for. That's not sunk cost rationalisation it's basic media analysis, which we'd hope Yahtzee can do since it's his whole career.

[@ninetailedfox579121]

@@Graknorke I mean compared to his usual style of relentlessly shitting on games, this review does kinda seem like he loved it, or at least enjoyed it enough.

[@Driver-qt9jh]

I recently beat cruelty squad and I got to say this review is 100% accurate to my experience. I also appreciate the more "poetic" approach to reviewing it because the game does feel like it has creative ambitions aside from just being a joke.

[@karhu7581]

The guy who made it is a finnish painter with no background experience in game design, he just drank a fuckton of finnish vodka and read literature on obscure philosophy. And decided to make a game.

[@doorsareforopening]

It's far from a joke. The guy is a nut job who hates the social contracts and wishes we all just kill each other like in video games.

[@ajragle]

It is the Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff of immersive sims.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Oh my god you're right.

[@twinkiesmaster69]

WHY DO YOU HAUNT ME

[@MrBones-yy8vh]

I warned you about those stairs bro

[@therobotFrom94]

Next patch will add the Kringelfucker

[@KasuyaIceKarz2000]

The majority of the game ........ was a distaction

[@2CPhoenix]

I honestly thought this was some sort of Quake mod that managed to gain a modern following somehow.

[@Felipemelazzi]

That would be equally interesting!

[@Jaximous]

It does use Qodot

[@zorn2017]

@@Jaximous it uses Godot actually, completely different.

[@mrbri6463]

The only Quake mod with a modern following would be Arcane Dimensions.

[@hormblende]

@@zorn2017 Qodot is a plugin for Godot to load Quake map source files

[@sonofawil]

“An expression of nihilistic frustration, bubbling up from to morass of modern society.” Every once and a while Yahtzee stops swearing and reveals the soul of a poet. Frankly, it’s a bit jarring.

[@doorsareforopening]

I know I'm late but just look at any gameplay of his game The Consuming Shadow. He's straight up profound when not making genital jokes

[@Alfwin]

I've not played Cruelty Squad yet, but the trailers make me think of those Nine Inch Nails songs off _The Downward Spiral_ that, at first, sound like incoherent cacophony, but when you listen closer, you realize that, in fact, a _lot_ of skill and effort went into carefully crafting the sound to be as upsetting and abrasive to the senses as possible. There's intention behind this game, and I can respect that. Also, I showed my dad the trailer for the game, and his reaction was "oh, so it's the video game equivalent of Picasso?" and honestly I think that checks out. I'm definitely considering giving this game a try when I get a chance.

[@mrbri6463]

Do so, it’s the best game I’ve played this year so far.

[@firefly5247]

It's the KFC Murder Chicks of video games

[@Tustin2121]

I don’t see the appeal behind neither Picasso or this game, honestly. But I also hate the culture behind a lot of memes and “troll games” anyway, so..

[@mrbri6463]

@@Tustin2121 it’s not a meme game tho. It just have a surreal art style.

[@greg5646]

@@Tustin2121 It's really not a troll game, at all. It has a pretty pointed political and philosophical underpinning to it. It's abrasive and harsh deliberately because it is pointing out how empty and ugly and cruel and darkly funny our society is. At one point you murder a nerd who embezzled money meant for building bioweapons to buy funkopops, and his entire house is decorated in hideous boxes and surrounded by an army armed guards. Ridiculous, but how far from reality is it really? I imagine there are more then a few Raytheon programmers who build iraqi murdering drones in their dayjob, then retreat to their gated communities to buy plastic shit to surround themselves with.

[@zodayn]

The reason people loose interest in novelty after adulthood is because of the exploration/exploitation dynamic. Once you figured out the things that work for you investigating alternatives becomes less rewarding while benefitting from what you have and the safety that comes with it is relatively easy. Especially when offspring brings its own worries. At least that's what a behavioural psychologist said on Hidden Brain once. I don't know why I'm replying to an offhanded comment on a game review with this much effort either.

[@nisnast]

hey, i'm thankful you replied, that was something interesting to consider

[@DukeOnkled]

This game is, by the end of it all, one loud and agonizing scream of "This is is madness, this can't go on, make it stop," directed at the current state of the world. I recall someone else saying that if games are art, Cruelty Squad is protest art. It does not come from a place of contentedness. It comes from a place of despair and desperation. It's easy to just go "har har look how ugly this game is" and move on. It's quite a bit harder to digest that this setting is only a modest exaggeration of our own world.

[@duodot]

Well said. Exactly the vibe i get too.

[@Shiroi_Mokun]

This setting is only a modest exaggeration of how many people perceive the world. Which is not the same thing as how the world actually is. However, perception often overtakes reality in terms of meaningfulness, and that confused rage is the source, as much as the product, of the problems in the world.

[@Ch4pp13]

Can't help but get reminded of Civvie 11 with that quote.

[@bit_ronic]

@@Shiroi_Mokun cruelty squad is cyberpunk more than anything, and the genre is known for showing how bad the world can get if we don't put the brakes on an overly capitalistic system. yeah, i agree, it's kinda exaggerated compared to the current world, but that's not what it's talking about, it's talking about what would happen if we let the corporate world act as a de facto government, it's supposed to make you think "man, this place sucks, i wish we don't ever have to live like this", in contrast to many other games treating cyberpunk as a cool aesthetic.

[@MBMephisto]

@@bit_ronic Corporatism is not the same a capitalism

[@nicklager1666]

Yes both Yahtzee and Civvie 11 has covered this gem.

[@or_gluzman561Peace_IL_PS]

and ICARUSLIV3S

[@ultgamercw6759]

And Gmanlives

[@JereR]

And dunkey!

[@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382]

@Kathryn Elizabeth but it's not poorly designed? the game itself is VERY well made, if anything it takes even more talent to make a great game look bad but still feels great. you just seem incredibly close minded.

[@Ooffoop]

@Kathryn Elizabeth I take it you haven’t played it or if you did not for long

[@nahnah390]

People call this a shitpost, and I can't help but agree... but it's one of those shitposts that once you look at how many details there are, you start to wonder just how fucking long it took to make this, realize it's far more elaborate than you ever realized, start noticing how real a lot of the things it's making fun of... good lord.

[@fk3239]

Isn't it satire at that point?

[@heartache5742]

except for the overpopulation theme

[@mr.cup6yearsago211]

I saw a quote from someone talking about Cruelty Squad, which went something along the lines of “The developer of this game spent thousands of hours crafting a finely tuned experience with brilliant social commentary. They then spent twice as much time making it look like they didn’t.”

[@AxonJaxon03]

I’m DYING that Andrew Lloyd Webber is the “deliberate hideousness” face

[@AFriendOfUsul]

He's done a few jokes at Andrew Lloyd Webber's expense. "...it's why you wouldn't put Andrew Lloyd Webber's face on the cover of a game, even a game about Andrew Lloyd Webber..." I'm sure someone else will have the full, correct quote and video it came from, but I can't remember exactly which one it was.

[@ayyguevara8448]

you need to look up Stewart Lee's view on ALW. If piss taking could ever be art, then that is it.

[@Bmacthesage]

It's crazy that you can get these episodes out every week and still work on your own game. You're a beast Yahtzee

[@steffanhymer1285]

And he writes books. While having a wife and child.

[@robintst]

Retreating from society and losing touch with common cultural references that would allow me to relate to new trends has been my fucking life's goal.

[@kairo3201]

sus

[@SneakyLittleHobbit]

@@kairo3201 ligma

[@psychopompous489]

@@SneakyLittleHobbit Steve Jobs?

[@SneakyLittleHobbit]

@@psychopompous489 Who?

[@psychopompous489]

@@SneakyLittleHobbit Ballz

[@espio87]

Honestly, I wasn't expecting Yathz to review this game as he would deem it too bizarre. I stand corrected.

[@ryguy9876]

I think Cruelty Squad is one of those games that will in time wind up occupying the same artistic space as Deus Ex not due to it's gameplay but because of it's subtle ability to unite the gameplay and aesthetics with its themes. The game is steeped with the philosophies of Georges Baitalle, most notably his theory of General Economy, and it works as both a theoretical scenario of it being artificially manipulated and as a critique of the idea in general.

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

And a year later it's forgotten... Sorry

[@lukehershey5149]

​​@@thomastakesatollforthedark2231The game just hit its peak player count the other day. It's actually more popular than ever.

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

@@lukehershey5149 hm well im happy to be wrong. How the heck did that happen?

[@dynostretch9215]

"Every new song you hear sounds like a microphone held up to a florescent light." Yahtzee is an absolute master of wordplay.

[@zigfaust]

I wish I could give you something for that PFP alone. Missile is the greatest doggo in gaming history and Ghost Trick is underated so hard it hurts.

[@sid6645]

He really is a phenomenal writer, isn't he?

[@DiscoBallGaming]

It's weird how this game is more of a Vaporwave style, It's the idea of taking an old work of art, and remaking it to make something new. and this feels like that exactly. It looks terrible, but the game play reminds me of those absolutely terrible early 90s style shooters. Not like Doom, but more like a movie tie in game. When every game had hideous borders telling you what the name of the game is, and terrible looking graphics. but the gameplay is what you came for anyway. It's like playing Gmod. Everything looks horrible and outdated, but it's a fun game regardless.

[@alterdnothing1855]

Gmod looks horrible and outdated? Are you insane?

[@Askejohn]

Gameplay is like goldeneye 64

[@terminalyuppie611]

​@@alterdnothing1855 Idk, they've got a point. Maps like rp_downtown, especially on heavily modded servers, look like a mess. Most servers are a mashup of different models and textures from CSS, HL2, TF2, and custom mods ranging from anime girls to Sonic characters. Even if you stick to CSS and HL2 assets, the broken Source lighting and restrictions on entity counts make maps look dead and barren. It's not as bad as Cruelty Squad and definitely isn't intentional, but it's undeniably not as nice or coherent looking as other games, even HL2.

[@T3sl4]

"If Tekwar had good gameplay"

[@Mezuzah87]

This isn't vaporwave, you're thinking of hypermeme. The garbage below KZbin poop.

[@GallowglassVT]

So... it's the internal monologue of anyone who's ever worked in retail then gone home to blitz themselves on their drug of choice? Fuck me, that might be the most relatable thing ever made.

[@drdca8263]

What if instead, they blitzed their chakras?

[@karhu7581]

It's the internal monologue of a finnish artist who got fucked up on cheap finnish vodka and philosophy literature.

[@brainflash1]

The Cruelty in the title is a reference to what the graphics are doing to your eyes.

[@Graknorke]

it's garish but IMO it's actually pretty well designed from a gameplay perspective. it's very easy to look at something and see what the geometry is and to distinguish walls from doors or interactive objects or NPCs

[@shadowrundas]

@@Graknorke agreed even he secrets have tells if you are keeping an eye out for them I was surprised how many of them i was able to find without looking them up compared to other boomer shooters as the kids call em

[@noahmegill3716]

It seems like there's a quantifiable amount of respect in his tone, which is odd, yet refreshing.

[@Pbairsoftman]

The best thing about Cruelty Squad is once you get the speed upgrades and armor, you can play it like DOOM. It's so fucking good

[@CaptainSeasick]

...but then why not just play DOOM instead? It's infinitely better.

[@mrbri6463]

@@CaptainSeasick Doom doesn’t let me use my intestines as a grappling hook and shooting snot out of my back to propel myself.

[@thedingleberrybush6076]

This game has cult classic written all over it. Cant wait for the future copy pasted cruelty-likes to flood the market.

[@XxXNOSCOPEURASSXxX]

>make game look user unfriendly but actually playable >add some dumb mechanics for the spastic obsessive types >shill on the usual hipster places ??? Profit

[@bit_ronic]

extra points the copycats miss the point of cruelty squad lol

[@mannhouse8014]

@@XxXNOSCOPEURASSXxX >le epic meme arrows on youtube

[@K0sm1cKid]

@@mannhouse8014 >meme arrows Kek

[@MrSafer]

I stared into the abyss, it stared back and asked "what's for lunch?"

[@redenginner]

Just remember You are a flesh automaton animated by neurotransmitters.

[@TheWuffball]

It's amazing seeing these in 2021, where the only real change is a better mic and HQ video, that the format has not gotten stale even slightly. Props to you, Yahtzee.

[@steffanhymer1285]

I think he talks maybe a little slower now but that’s about it. I think he managed to keep the charm of ZP while learning pacing to help the viewers listen and follow along a little better.

[@imagunner7164]

He's also aged a bit, you can tell it in his voice if you watch one of his older videos. Regardless I still love these reviews and I'm glad so many others seem to agree, even with his at best "power pointesk" animation.

[@Ch4pp13]

It makes the stark contrast of watching something from 7 years ago not hit as hard. I can appreciate that.

[@P1nstr1p3]

This may have been one of the best takes I’ve seen in a hot minute.

[@mitski55]

Agreed. Really feel like the content really intersected with the style of the reviewer for this one. I like the insight that “liking it isn’t the question” -rather it is to be experienced for the sake of experience.

[@Code7Unltd]

Or is it a hot take in a best minute?

[@Grymbaldknight]

This episode stands out to me... in a good way. I feel like, given the source material, Yahtzee put a lot of extra work into the writing and the what-i-hesitate-to-call-animation. The entire thing just feels super slick for some reason. Thank you, Yahtzee, for this gift of a ZP installment. We, the plebs, shall treasure it forever more.

[@mikehiebert6227]

I was also going to say that this video is one of his funniest I've seen in a long time. Not that his other ones have been bad or anything but the writing really stood out on this one, there was like 4 extremely clever or insightful jokes per minute in this one. Bravo yahtz

[@MrPikaGammer]

He didn't really put his research in, I doubt he's played much of Cruelty Squad. You can talk to most of the NPCs and man they have some strange dialogue

[@Relgar47]

There wasnt enough sarcasm in that last Amazon joke. Shit got real for a moment there

[@NeovanGoth]

There is this phenomenon in music subcultures. After some years, when a scene matures and productions become more professional, young people start trying to distinguish themselves from the older ones (who they view as mainstream) and to create their own sub-subculture. This is commonly done by taking the music, reducing it to its essence (or at least what the young people believe its essence to be) and make it so fast and stressful nobody of the older ones wants to waste their time bothering with it. This new sub-genre is then called nameoftheoriginalgenre-core. Speedcore, Breakcore, Psycore, Mathcore, Nintendocore, Shitcore, Whatevercore. Cruelty Squad is a perfect example of this scheme. It's Gamecore.

[@citizen_grub4171]

Just going by the visuals it could be gorecore.

[@NoConsequenc3]

what a load of bullshit

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

Pseudo Lain ok weeb

[@SterlingDeklin]

“As you get older you retreat more from general society and lose touch with the common cultural references that allow us to relate to new trends.” Shit, sign me up for the retirement home, because that’s my life already.

[@driftertank]

Get a haircut. AND GET OFF MY LAWN!

[@AgentTasmania]

I was starting on that in high school

[@strangemobius]

As an old person its definitely just a light switch moment. You stop giving a damn about various kinds of things because otherwise you'd go insane.

[@oddcrafter1270]

I feel like I may have already hit that point, and I'm 28.

[@LemonFilmsForever]

@Someguy136 🤨

[@aspenshadow7920]

@Someguy136 I don't think whatever culture war bullshit you're going on about is gonna fix the root of the problem bro

[@AnonJuggerbot]

@Someguy136 Ah yes... Da gubermin and dem femoids is ruining muh traditional family values

[@Ezekiel_Kleyer]

@@oddcrafter1270 That's rough. 25 and the feeling started about 4 years ago.

[@DrewSew]

I'm sure this automatically makes me as a zoomer, but I actually non-ironically enjoy the aesthetics of Cruelty Squad. I love games (and websites/software/etc) that feel like someone actively learned to code and model while making it, bullshitting and finding weird workarounds to problems along the way. It strangely lets me feel close to the core mechanics and actually helps with immersion in the world. For lack of a better term, it feels crunchy.

[@DarrenSmith-j8m]

It’s an acquired taste.

[@Gomberto2000]

One thing you get wrong at 1:36 is that you say you aren’t supposed to shoot civilians. There is no downside at all to killing nonhostile npcs, if anything you are rewarded for it, being able to sell their organs on the stock market for profit

[@thepwrtank18]

or if you're on the lowest difficulty, eat them

[@lavoroxan8114]

I was waiting for this video simply for Yahtzee to actually form a comprehensible explanation of how this game looks

[@Dipshit_The_Clown]

Fuunny and well-written as usual. I have nothing to add to the conversation so I'm just leaving this comment to appease the algorithm gods

[@stpirate89]

I'll reply as that probably helps appease the gods too

[@tree427]

thats a very talented well that wrote this

[@rayzerot]

The algorithm Gods control all.

[@rift3068]

Everyone has a different take on this game. Some say it’s rebel art, some say that it’s but a slightly exaggerated version of our corporate world, some say that the game hates you, and not in the “haha our game is hard, git güd skrub,” yet despite this, all of them are accurate

[@kadabraguy9846]

2:39 guys Yahtzee just called Among Us an Immersive Sim

[@B1tPixel]

It's not an immersive sim, it's an impostor sim

[@Anklarr]

The game he talks about at 2:08 is called crack life, it's a half life mod on steam and it's full of swear words and dated references, can really recommend.

[@kindaawkwardbro]

Anyone else surprised It didn't make it on his top 5 list?

[@unknownvariable2456]

"Your targets are never characterized or given any dialog" yeah, right up until you interact with them and they start talking.

[@ThingsThatRhymeWithOrange]

2:05 So what you're saying is that Yahtzee played Crack-Life?

[@Axl4325]

IT´S CANON BABY

[@jaypg]

Really glad yahtzee discovered this one, now all that's left on my bucket list is getting him to play Kenshi.

[@sid6645]

Oh man I can't wait to see Yahtz make his global weed trafficking programme hehehehe

[@olliezoop]

If games are art, then Cruelty Squad is protest art Unironically game of the year 2021

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Eh, it doesn't really say much beside "NOT THIS" like most protest art so it's not *that* great

[@JG_Wentworth]

The targets actually do have dialogue if you try to talk to them. Often times what they say is actually interesting.

[@XD-sc4ix]

3:48 actually nearly all targets have have dialogue which shows their personality and their view on the world of cruelty squad along with insight on the lore of the setting

[@Connorthecatsdad]

"life is one long, bleak joke at humanity's expense" Boy that feels... relatable

[@lodaceva1741]

To answer your last unspoken question Yatz, yes. I'm here. Oftentimes the endslate pisstake is one of the funniest parts.

[@wheresmyeyebrow1608]

“Every new song ya hear sounds like a microphone being held up to a fluorescent light” Lamao

[@rafaelneumann8365]

Haven't gotten around actually playing Cruelty Squad. But from what I've seem of it it seems like the equivalent of the dadaist movement of a century ago but on the videogame medium. "The world is horrible, we are horrible and we don't deserve good things so I shat this out to mock the farce that is human life but there is actual nuance to the shit I shat in the fact it was deliberately shat to get a certain reaction out of people that's not actually just shock value." Goddamn this sounded pretentious but I think it is the most sincere description I can give.

[@Grenkappa459]

yes as we age humans produce less, and are less receptive to, dopamine. This isn't just a "happy" or "reward" neurotransmitter; its far more complicated than that. It also makes us appreciate novelty or new ideas, or tolerate new situation or try new things. It is also what literally allows us to move towards the new things we want to try (Parkinson's movement defects are linked to dopamine deficiencies and treated with dopamine agonists). Essentially as we age we have less dopamine which not only is what makes us able to try new things, but makes us willing to or find novelty in doing so.

[@BlindMischief]

3:48 you can speak to your targets, they just dont force dialog

[@EthanStarcher]

The Real Estate Values joke was, by far, the most well-written joke I've heard in a while.

[@spinningninja2]

This is one of the hardest to follow Zero Punctuations ever and I love it

[@williamdiaz8599]

Glad to see you're still around Yahtzee. That was an excellent description of Cruelty Squad. CEO Mindset.

[@romxxii]

See, this is why I dislike the term "immersive sim" to describe a (usually) first person RPG where "you can either stab a dude from the back or shoot him in the head." Some games that have those features are aggressively categorized as "not immersive sims" for some arbitrary reason -- see the Deus Ex Human Revolution and its sequel, Mankind Divided, which both feature leveling, multiple possible build types, functional shooting, hacking, and stealth mechanics, and multiple avenues to victory, but is widely considered "not immersive sims". Hell, the wiki entry for "immersive sim" even goes so far as to explicitly state that only the first Deus Ex counts as an "immersive sim."

[@aaronlaluzerne6639]

Cruelty Squad sounds like the name that people on Discord, Facebook, and Twitter would go by. Sometimes even living up to the title.

[@SuperStingray]

The visuals are so hideous that I'm honestly impressed by it. Like, it took concentrated effort and taste to make it look as bad as it does.

[@VideoBakery]

2:02 to 2:30 is the most perfectly worded description of meme humor that I've ever heard in my life

[@jenweatherwax7113]

Looking at the graphics in the review, I kept looking at the publish date of this video to confirm I hadn't accidentally opened an old review by mistake XD

[@20xd6]

"...Check your privilege." And I'm dead. XD

[@minimalgrammar1276]

Can't wait to see what the dev makes next.

[@SheolAbaddonus666]

This game surpasses casual psychedelic use and goes straight for PCP laced methamphetamines.

[@jlshel42]

Thanks for reminding me that my dad's birthday is soon, might be a season of Midsomer Murders he hasn't bought

[@yesssint7243]

I’ve been reading your novel Jam! I love it! Sorry, I didn’t know where else to say this, and I’m here right now. Anyways, I enjoyed Jam. I took it with me ‘bout a week ago to a candy shop with my family. Surprisingly, the candy shop also acted as an antique store and a… jam seller. I had a very nervous feeling when I saw all the jam jars.

[@G-Mastah-Fash]

Comparing modern pop to a micophone being held up to a fluorescent light is pretty spot on actually.

[@The-Grey-Area]

Wow, he called it decent? Yahtzee must have really liked this game!

[@jerrysmith2349]

Right!?! This is a shoe in for one of the top 5 apparently

[@Graknorke]

When you review 50 games a year anything novel has to be a high point given how formulaic the big boys in the industry play it.

[@thedingleberrybush6076]

It’s my personal GOTY so far, due in part to the dearth of releases but also with how surprising it was to me as an experience. Can’t say I get that with every game I play.

[@paulovinasrocha6166]

@@thedingleberrybush6076 depends on how many you play

[@RustoKomuska]

3:51 there's something about the way he says "you just kill them and piss off" that gets me

[@eltiolavara9]

ok so this game. i dont know about anyone else but i saw that artstyle, this "kid pix and 400 powerpoint presentations took a shit and vomited pure RGB colors on everything" presentation and immediately fell in love with it like for me the artstyle and weird gimmicky bullshit was a selling point i love body horror, same with the music i love the ost and its detuned sound i also liked the gameplay, and once i got used to the gameplay and cleared the first 4 missions i spent like 7 hours in a fucking row playing this game and never once felt any amount of boredness, which is something that has never happened to me in so fucking long i thought i'd never feel it again. this game is fucking magical. the level design is like that of an early 00s tf2 map, where it invites you to break shit and find obscure, weird secrets that are littered absolutely everywhere. and the lore is great, it's not just "xD capitalism bad" it's (SPOILERS) a world so troughly fucked by the nonexistent value of life that the best ending involves killing everything. i feel like what the games message is not just "haha capitalism bad", it's telling you to well, value life and that it's extremely important, and its hidden amongst layers of shitposting there's a templeOS reference in this shit that's almost required to progress, the only way to progress in the lategame is trough hours and hours of experimenting or by looking up a walktrough (this shit gets pretty deep), which sure, may be "bad game design" to some (probably people without a CEO mindset), but i swear to god its so mesmerizing to me, it feels like the game is endless, it gives me that child-like wonder of "holy shit what else could be hiding in this?" is it an art game? i don't know, it just excels at everything in my eyes $20 may be a bit much but man, i think it's worth it

[@Saterienne]

this video proves yahtzee has a CEO mindset

[@EdShear_em]

I'm just writing this comment to voice my appreciation of the end credits gag with the imps, desk and potted plant.

[@mephistophelesthesilentchi3446]

Witnessing this game's art style was like witnessing a car accident; it's horrendous, visceral, and disturbing but you just can't look away.

[@vivusthevivusthing6182]

@Kathryn Elizabeth I'm impressed at your apparent seething hatred of this that you'd respond in so many places just to talk shit.

[@mephistophelesthesilentchi3446]

@Kathryn Elizabeth I disagree, especially since this game's design is actually far from accidental. Whether it's some kind of social statement or just a joke at the player's expense, I personally find it quite interesting. But to each their own.

[@fancyskelleboy8220]

It took me 10 seconds to realize Yahtzee wasn't using an Americanized version of 'Philosopher's Stone' when he said 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'.

[@Nielsblog]

I got the feeling this is going to be on his best of 2021 list.

[@galtar862]

The 100 gecs of video games

[@gulfcoastgaming6034]

One of the Steam reviews of this game is literally just the Unabomber’s manifesto

[@Sora383]

Juice you like an over ripe orange, going to have to remember that phrase for when I beat my friend in a game next time. Thanks for that Yahtzee.

[@monkeeee]

That was one of the best final jokes in a while

[@solblackguy]

Cruelty Squad is like Golden Eye 64 but interrupted by reddit posts about dystopian capitalism by a nihilistic OP that can't afford the deductible to have his prescription of lexipro renewed.

[@Blaza303]

This entire game looks like it should be the music video of every 100 gecs song ever made

[@VioletteValkyria]

I thought the same thing of Hotline Miami when I first saw it, but then it became one of my favorite games, so maybe there's hope for Cruelty Squad. However, it won't have me listening to its soundtrack years later, that is for damn sure.

[@socksleeve]

Actually, the soundtrack kind of slaps, you should give it a listen

[@RioManegos]

I find it sad that he missed the fact that you can crack open non-hostile NPCs for money by harvesting their organs, which is just the kind of completely apathatic-towards-human-life sort of tone that fits the rest of things.

[@dandydoodle4456]

And also cook their gibs with a flamethrower to eat them, when i fully comprehended what i was doing in game, i felt genuinely horrified

[@StrikeWarlock]

This is the third game MandaloreGaming has referenced that Yahtzee proceed to plays, 1st being Pathologic and the other being Necromunda 4th one is probably gonna be Mechanicus.

[@finler3]

It'd be nice to see more of yaht's wit poke at the 40K universe.

[@espio87]

Oh, yes, please be Mechanicus.

[@heymay724]

@@finler3 he used to hate 40k a decade ago

[@TheDarkEye]

It's shocking how calm and sincere he's talking in this video o.O

[@WretchedIcon]

Cruelty Squad: A Love Story Yuck! *Closes laptop* Yuck! *Opens laptop* Yuck?

[@drdca8263]

Opens laptop

[@jiminfested]

I think I'm still here, and pausing to read the ending screen has always been worth it.

[@srofv7805]

Probably the best game review Yahtzee has done

[@Coreisus]

"It might just be any game where you crawl down air vents"!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@omfggala3913]

Lol as someone who works at a amazon warehouse I have never felt more called out

[@SurprisinglyDeep]

You're a strong person for putting up with that hard labour and b.s. corporate management.

[@omfggala3913]

@@SurprisinglyDeep lol not really, the job is pretty easy and I have been treated well, don't believe all the shit you read