Dex is quite an ambitious indie game, and one that clearly had a lot of care put into it. It was in Early Access for quite a while, and I'd say the full release turned out something definitely worth looking at. That said, it has some flaws, even if they weren't a complete deal breaker for me.

You play as the titular character, who is awakened one night by a mysterious informant who warns here she is about to be attacked by a squad of military toughs. He helps her escape and reach an acquaintance of his; your mission is to find out why whoever was behind this, and why they seem to want you dead. It's a cyberpunk story, so suffice to say the answer isn't so simple.

After the tutorial, which covers the game's main mechanics pretty well, you're left to roam the streets of Harbor Prime. It's open world, but on a smaller scale: the city is about ten screens wide, although there's plenty to see in each - stuff to unlock, rooms to ransack, and of course quests to take. These range from dealing with gang activity, to corporate espionage, to general good deeds. All the NPCs you meet are voiced, and while they're not the best the actors inject a lot of character into their roles.

The actual gameplay of Dex mixes up genres quite a bit. You move around the city on a 2D plane, and there's platforming, both mandatory and to reach optional goodies. When fighting enemies, you can either go hand to hand, which functions like a simple beat-em-up, or pull out your guns, also the latter doesn't work so well when most enemies charge for you. I found just punching them worked fine. A lot of the time you'll have to jump into cyber space, where the game shifts to a twin stick shooter as you penetrate a system's defenses. When talking to people there are also some opportunities for a charisma check, ala Fallout.

It's nice the game wanted to mix things up, but although there's variety none of it really excels. By the later parts of the game I found myself running past enemies unless they were seriously in my way or I had to kill them. If you're half-decent at twin-stick games I doubt the hacking will give you much trouble, and even if you die in them all that happens is a bit of health taken off Dex, while your progress in the computer is usually saved.

The whole game in general is quite easy by the time you get access to the augments and later parts of the skill tree, actually: by the end I was a juggernaut with almost twice my starting health, able to take out most enemies in a few combos. If you wanted to challenge yourself you could probably get away with ignoring all the side quests. But I can't say feeling superhuman in a game where transhumanism is a major theme is really a bad thing.

Overall I have to say I liked Dex despite these issues, since while it's not a perfect game it definitely has soul. It also doesn't overstay its welcome, and looks great (some other reviews say the animations are bad, but I never really thought so). Pick it up if you want a cyberpunk game while waiting for 2077.

I've played this game like, maybe 10 times? That's how much fun it is. Nice sandbox, laid back, beat 'em up (the guns aren't well implemented; use your fists), cyberpunk, COOL. Like Metroid, Double Dragon and Deus Ex had a threesome and someone got pregnant.

The problems that some had with this game I can only somewhat speak to: as far as I know any bugs have been fixed (elevators no longer kill you and I never had to deal with dying as soon as I entered a room as some have said to have). Guns though, well to be honest the guns in the game aren't very good. Even with your skill fully upgraded they don't work out that well. At any rate it's just easier to beat people up. But that's still fun. Also cyberspace is just a simple top down shooter, but that doesn't mean it's not fun!

I'd say the game's trailer video speaks for it pretty well. If it looks like your kinda style, then it probably is.

One of the best games i have played. Read what the game is about and you should not be disappointed. Not sure why people thumb this game down because of the graphics and animation? if you take two seconds to look at the store page and can go beyond the graphics an amazing story and a very enjoyable game await you.
Might be for the more mature gamer.

I spent the evening playing the game. It is good. I initially thought that the game had buggy edge detection for grabbing ledges, but it turned out that I had just missed that you have to press the up key as well to grab on.

The game is difficult. Two enemies with guns can kill you easily. A gun + melee combo can also be a challenge. Towards the end of my session I came across a warehouse filled with enemies and turrets that seemed impossible to take on. I spent all my skill points unlocking persuasion and lockpicking, so I guess this was the game punishing me for not investing in aggressive hacking or combat skills. In this regard the game reminded me more of Alpha Protocol than Deus Ex - it takes your skill choices quite seriously and will gladly border stuff off if you come unprepared. There is also no quicksaving to manipulate conversations, although you can back up checkpoints as you enter new areas (just like AP).

The story has been okay so far. It is typical cyberpunk fare with hacking, ais, megacorporations, human augmentation and so on. After the short introduction, the main story seems to be on the backburner, leaving you to explore the city and do sidequests.

I recommend the game. Fans of Deus Ex, Alpha Protocol and VtM:Bloodlines will probably have a good time with the game.

This game is a bit tricky to rate; If I could give it a "thumbs sideways" verdict, I would. It has a lot going for it, but the execution is far, far from polished and even the first hour of the game is more an exercise in frustration than pleasure.

First, the good:

1. The writing is very good. It's clear that someone with a lot of talent put a lot of heart into the script. Bad writing is one of the perennial, almost universal hallmarks of video games, but this game deftly avoids that pitfall.

2. The voice acting is phenomenal. Just like the writer(s), the voice actors portray their characters with passion and fluidity, and their performances are convincing, rather than "video game voice acting". There are AAA games with worse voice acting than this game.

3. The visual aesthetic, while nothing exceptional, is solid and convincing. The game looks good in screenshots.

4. The concept underpinning the game--2D action RPG brawler--gets my blood pumping. One of my favorite genres, and one that I think is underserved.

5. The game is fairly forgiving of mistakes and death. You always have the option of restarting from the beginning of the screen you died in, although this turns out to be a double-edged sword as well (see below).

And now for the bad:

1. Remember when I said "the game looks good in screenshots"? It does, but it looks awful in motion. The animations are stiff, with few to no transitional frames between sprites, which gives combat a jerky, unfinished quality that looks like it's still in the conceptual stage. Even simple movement gives the impression that the characters are skating or gliding rather than walking or running, as animations are not precisely keyed to movement speeds of characters.

The game also has almost no visual feedback for events, even ostensibly important ones. For instance, during the opening tutorial-like sequence, you are instructed to perform a task in AR to seal a door against men coming to kill you. Visually, the entire sequence is greatly underwhelming, almost no animations accompanied the task (destroying a firewall around the door controls), and initially I did not even know I had accomplished the task because there was no visual indicator that it had been finished aside from a portion of the AR node disappearing (not fading, not fizzling, not exploding, just pop, gone).

2. The audio is almost non-existent. What music there is is good, but there isn't much of it. There are very few audio cues for actions or events, which combined with the lack of visual feedback makes playing the game feel like you're an incorporeal ghost floating through the world. Walking through a jet of superheated steam inflicts damage to your character, but does not so much as elicit a hiss from the game. Enemies don't make noise as you fight them, and impacts in combat lack any sort of punch or weight because there is next to no audio feedback when they land. When you die, you fall over soundlessly.

3. It's a good thing that the game is forgiving of death, because the game punishes you severely for making even minor mistakes. There are many bottomless pits promising instant death, and I guarantee that you will fall into them sooner rather than later, because they are poorly demarcated and there is no good way to distinguish "pit that I'm not supposed to jump into" from "pit that I'm supposed to jump into". Environmental hazards are savage and even a few seconds in one is good enough to kill you in many cases. This would be more palatable if those same hazards were more clearly visually identified: steam jets are easy to see, but toxic gas is mostly identified by the fact that your character suddenly starts taking rapid damage.

4. But it's not all great that the game is forgiving of death. It's not only possible but very easy to place yourself into a situation where you die or take damage immediately upon entering a room, and if you die in that room, guess where you restart? That's right: at the beginning of the same room. I hope you had an earlier save. What's worse is that the game loads you from the beginning of the area (essentially loading an autosave), it doesn't keep track of environmental variables. That trap puzzle that you worked through to get to where you are? Turns out that's a one-way trip and you don't have a way back except to take massive damage. Oh, is your health too low? Hope you had an earlier save.

The last item in particular is what made me stop playing the game and what will probably prevent me from continuing to play it. I want to like the game, but it's clear that for all of the loving care placed into the script and acting, the game's GAME parts are untested and ill-conceived, leading to pretty egregious death loops and lost progress. Which might even be excusable if the combat had more weight and punch to it. As it is, the gameplay feels thin and hollow because the game makes it look and sound thin and hollow.

It's a good start, and I expect that the developers will be able to produce a sequel or remastered version that have more punch and more well-considered level design in due time. But I'll be waiting for that version instead of playing this one.

I really want to like it. The world is immersive and large. There's a lot to do, lots of quests and dialogue, and the setting is cyberpunk at it's finest. The world really holds true to it's cyberpunk roots, and that's what drew me in initially. However, the game itself though is just too buggy.

First of all, saving the game doesn't save all of the information you'd assume it would, so you end up losing progress every time you re-load the game. Apparently there's a forum post on how the saving system works, but that just proves my point. Overall, the save system makes you feel unassured that your progress is safe, which was enough to drive me away from playing any more.

To add to that, there have been multiple instances where I've been in combat and entered a cinematic, but combat went on behind the cinematic and I died, while the cinematic was playing. There were also some abilities that I was able to activate, but I couldn't pinpoint how I was activating them. I later learned that these abilities were only supposed to be available after upgrading your stats upon level-up, which proved that the upgrade system was bugged and broken. Too many bugs.

Edit: I didn't realize so many people would be reading this review, so I've elaborated a bit!
Edit 2: I'll update the review once I've play the latest version.

Wake up Dex! The complex is after you! My name is Raycast, I hacked into your network to give you some guidance. What you see outside is Harbor Prime, a dystopian mega town, covered with darkness and smoke. But there is no time for you, use the cyberspace to disable the door and make your way out of there. Sneak through the sewers, get into Fixers Hope and find a man called Decker, he will surely help you.

If my introduction made you feel like Matrix met V for Vendetta and the main theme of the Shinra Corp. makes it’s way back into your head, you are in the right mood for this game. As you already noticed, Dex is your name and survival is your aim. A hacker called Raycast makes your sweet neckplate-wearing body move, right into the arms of some retired hacker and his over-cautious friend. They present you a story about a powerful AI, named Kether, that got created by The Complex, a Megacorp, in order to reach control of every network ever created. That may sound like a fairytale but doesn’t explain exactly why you were chased and what the famous hacker Raycast wants from you.

This is how you will get started in Dex, a Sidescrolling Steampunk Cyber RPG, presented with 2D-Graphics, that mixes Metroidvanian-platforming and open world experience with some heavy plot influences of Deus Ex. Let`s see whether developer Dreadlocks succeeded in combining this cocktail or left you getting lost in cyberspace. First, graphics are nice, with hand-drawn locations and 90`s style animations. It feels a bit like crossing old Beat em up stages if you move from one district to another. Characters are well drawn too but animations of enemies tend to look a bit clunky sometimes.

A big city like Harbor Prime needs music and sounds to paint the illusion of a living and breathing environment but Dex could use a bit of improvement here. The music is great and every district has it’s unique style like Chinatown, which got heavily influenced by traditional Asian instruments whereas the rich and industrial Highrise has a cold, more mechanical touch. You can hear some cars or even hot fat that boils in a frying pan when entering a restaurant. What is missing are the people. It feels like they are all quietly moving along. No beggar shouts for money, no hooker praises her legs, no child laughs..or cries.

What makes Dex shine are the dialogues. Every NPC you can interact with has a voice and well written dialogue. May it be an old sailor or a drug dealing kid on the streets, it feels like the developers invested a lot of time into the game’s story. And talking about story, we slowly approach the core of the game. You can strictly follow the main plot but doing so means you will miss lots of interesting side quests. Dex wants to be open-world and thus allows you to explore the whole city on your own. Have in mind that you might encounter situations or enemies you aren’t ready for, like a jump passage you can’t pass yet. You will die. You will curse this game. But you will come back for its great stories. There is much more in Harbor Prime than just The Complex. Digging under the surface allows a look in a society where hackers are gods, corporations fight each other in dirty ways and people who haven’t implemented a mechanical part into their body are considered outsiders.

All you need to know is how to solve and to survive. Every quest earns EXP and maybe Gold or other usefull stuff. Use EXP to level up Dex, unlock and upgrade skills, varying from Melee to Hacking and even Charisma, altering your playstyle and how you want to finish quests. Up for satisfying close combat? Become a Melee Expert! Talking your way out of trouble or get secrets while examining Others? Charisma may become your best friend. Gold is important to get medicine or weapons, even more important to get augmentations to make yourself a true cyber warrior with the ability to cloak yourself or get immunity against toxic gas.

Cyberspace, the last one on my checklist. Hacking and entering the network will save your life and provide you with necessary information. Dex can hack cameras, turrets and even other people to harm, kill or at least stun them. She can also enter the network and fight her way through it, offering you a game inside the game. Doing so you fight against viruses, trojans and firewalls, hopefully finding some useful e-mails or passwords to provide yourself with EXP, Gold and Satisfaction.


Pro:

• Retrolook Steampunk RPG with a heavy touch of 90`s games
  
• Dex is great - blue hair, black humour,
  
• Beautiful Backgrounds
  
• Music sounds good and fits the setting
  
• Interesting plot and Side-Quests
  
• Well written dialogues and credible NPCs
  
• Skill system: Find your own way of solving a problem - fighting, talking, hacking
  
• Implement augmentations and upgrade Dex - jump higher, hit harder, act tougher

Con:

• Trial and error gets hard sometimes - Open-World-Problems
  
• Saves work like checkpoints - leave the district if you want to save your progress!
  
• Description of items is too small
  
• Strange Keybindings (like Guard on Shift but Dodge on Q) - can be reassigned
  
• Quiet townfolk

Dex earned many bad reviews after it got released too early. It suffered from game breaking bugs, corrupted save files and many other things that made it nearly unplayable right after the start. But the latest updates fixed most of the problems people were arguing about and I did not encounter any bug myself while playing. That said the community still rages about the save system that uses checkpoints instead of a real savefile. All I can say about that is: once you get used to it, you will be fine.

It took me some time to find into the game but right now, it totally satisfies. Once you got used to the controls, the town, the dying, you will start exploring and find quests, that offer great dialogues and a lot to think about in the “not so bright” future. It’s not like Dex is a perfect game but the cocktail tastes good and I definitely recommend this brew to steampunk lovers and RPG-fans, who like their Deus Ex turned into a sidescrolling 2D experience.

Personal Verdict: 8,5/10

To start off my review, I want to say that Dex is a really fun game and I would most certainly recommend it. However, there are a number of bugs and gameplay issues that can hinder the overall experience, and although I enjoyed the game, I can't help but to feel some disappointment in the final execution. To put it short, if you want a casual experience just to enjoy the story, this game might not be for you.

Now to break everything down. Dex takes place in a really cool cyberpunk setting. As a fan of sci-fi and cyberpunk, I think the game captures the cyberpunk feel perfectly. The art is truly superb. The character sprites look great, and the environments are very colourful and beautifully done. Dex proves to us that you don't need a game to be all grey and brown to show a gritty setting. This is complemented by a lovely musical score. Music playing in every area was fitting to the setting and memorable. Most notable one is the main theme, which has become one of my personal favourite main themes in gaming.

The story has its good points, but overall it's a pretty standard cyberpunk story. Hackers, gangsters, evil corporations, secret experiments - all this stuff makes an appearance. To me most issues come in the gameplay.

The gameplay consists of a mix of stealth, combat, and hacking in cyberspace. Hand-to-hand combat was really well done. The fighting was smooth and each impact was felt. By contrast, gun combat was done rather badly. For some odd reason, it's not possible to walk with your gun out. If you want to shoot, you have to stand absolutely still. If you make so much as a step, the character automatically holsters the gun. This can become extremely annoying during fight sequences, where each second can mean a difference between shooting the enemy and them taking off half of your healthbar.

The platforming aspects such as jumping and climbing were fine enough, although at times it was very hard to tell where you could jump onto and where you couldn't. At times it seemed like you could jump onto something, only to see your character fall through it and to their death. And because you cannot save when you want, this becomes annoying.

Hacking... ugh. I just didn't like it at all. It was nothing more than a basic pixel shooter and your sole job is to click, click, and click. What annoyed me more than the hacking mini-game itself is the fact how often the game forced you to play it. Most times there were no alternatives. Play the darn hacking mini-game or make no progress. I signed up for a cyberpunk sidescroller, not a cyberspace pixel shooter.

The game also had some balance issues. Like for example, there was no permanent cheap/free heal anywhere in the city. So if you were out of money and low on health, there's probably nothing you can do about it. Likewise, there was never any place where I could grind for money and/or experience.

The game had plenty of sidequests. Most were pretty interesting and I attempted to solve each one of them. However, quite a few of them I never managed to solve due to things not being clear. Maybe I just needed to do more exploration or simply to get lucky, but I think a bit more direction would've been nice. What was nice though is how some main quests and sidequests had nice multi-branched paths to accomplishing your goal and at times you had to make important decisions.

Finally to round it off, the ending was extremely disappointing and felt rushed. Without giving any spoilers, the game forces you to do your "final fight" in cyberspace. That's right. Hacking again. And the ending cutscene lasted a total of 10 seconds. I really wish there was more to the ending than what I've experienced.

I know this is a tonne of criticism, but I am glad to have played through this game, and it is a promising game. It's just, it's currently riddled with too many small issues, which pile up and hinder the enjoyment.

Dex is a 2D science fiction action roleplaying game that might seem linear at the first glance but is full of surprises and will eventually make you consider your choices, once you face the consequences. Needless to say, from the Storytelling perspective, it will punish you for mistaking this game as a sidescroller. It is, in fact, a roleplaying game and a proper one, I might add. - Oh boy, I have no idea where to start. This might take a while and a bit reading.

Dex combines many elements from different genres together and does it quite well. At least this is my opinion, since I've felt exactly like I'm playing a damn good, well put together, professionally written RPG. Therefore you get a set of interesting approaches to playing the game; while the character progression will allow you to improve your abilities, and they will actually improve how you play the game as you progress on different skills, your interaction with the environment will heavily be affected by the choices you made - not to mention that the implants you're going to get will seem optional but the game will continuously itch the urge to upgrade your augmentations and/or install new ones in order to avoid various obstacles that are not necessarily mandatory for the main progression. Yet you will run around for more quests, more experience and more money to get implants, buy softwares and progress on side stories, because you will be having your fun.

The main story, however, is relatively short. This is true if you take the side quests as optional activities. But, believe me, they are not. The progression you will have on side activities will greatly help on your main course and will actually affect the future steps of your progression. - For example, before going on a main mission, completing side activities and talking to people who you have done jobs for in the past and learning about your main quest will end up in several side quests that will not only make your main quest relatively easier, it will also end up with more experience and more money you earn in return. - This approach alone should tell you that Dex is not just another attempt to recreate what has been done in the past, but a product of the good perspective what we call "if it ain't broken, break it and build something better" - it is exactly what has been done in this project.

Now, it is to be expected from a cyberpunk theme that hacking should exist in such games. Dex's hacking is a minigame that is affected by your character progression. As you progress on your hacking skills, your minigame will become easier -of course, the damn black holes are there to torture our bloody souls- but there's always side progression to it; software upgrades can be bought and there are also usable items while in Augmented Reality. - This also is a huge help while in hand-in-hand combat, because you can just go into AR and hack into your enemies' implants and stun them for a while, which is also a part of the stealth system. - and, oh yeah, there is stealth. You can takedown your enemies from behind, you can get into cover, get invisible for a while. But there's also using enemy turrets against them and letting the tools do your dirty work.

Implants are a bit dull, unfortunately. Nothing actually that interesting there. But who cares, you can jump higher, regenerate health, become invisible, change your field of view, detect enemies etc. - Fun little things. They do greatly affect the gameplay, however. So It wouldn't be wise to say they aren't mandatory, but aside from the jumping the rest is pretty much optional; Things like an inhaler and immunity to electricity are quite the quality of life improvements.

Before getting into the story and the characters, I have to point out some notes. - There are some sound design flaws. Character Voices and Background Music sound levels have certain problems. However, I played the game on GNU/Linux, which shouldn't be a problem at all, but after experiencing some launch issues on almost every DE and hearing sounds overlapping, I had to guess that there are problems somewhere between ALSA drivers working poorly with the engine and unpolished state of the game. - Now, I have to point out the elephant in the room, Dex is an unpolished game. No, it is not an unfinished game, it is an unpolished game. I don't know why this is the case, but you will encounter some ugliness. But will this affect your gameplay? No. Not at all. In fact, you will easily forget about the problems like words overflowing the dialog screen, or pretty much every menu content running over the menu textures and things like inconsistent scrolling.

Again, these are minor problems. Doesn't affect the game in a great way. So, they didn't really bug me at all.

Voiceacting is outstanding. Actors did gave life to every single one of these characters - a professional approach of narrative. Infused with lovely, extremely good animated cutscenes and the well written lines describing the heavy atmosphere and the reactions of characters, the quality of the production does speak for itself. There's nothing more to say about this, really. I loved every bit of it. I listened every bit that characters had to offer and loved every line. Dex, truly is not a wasted potential. In fact, it's a perfect begining for an independent team.

Of course, you might not be into such artstyle. Which is completely understandable.

Karel Antonin did an amazing job with the Soundtrack. - and Dex's Soundtrack Album became one of the Soundtracks that I wanted badly. A good friend of mine acted way before me and gifted me the album, for that I am really, really thankful. Because make no mistakes folk, this is an extraordinary work for an Independent Game - actually, forget about the Independent label, Dex's Soundtrack is an artistically accurate approach to this game and I salute the people who put the time and effort to compose and release this piece of artwork. And, you know what, if anything; I highly recommend buying the soundtrack. It does worth the price. I, kid you, not.

Now the hard part, the Storyline. - Well, Dex takes place within a futuristic society and you play as Dex, a woman you hardly know anything about. Has absolutely no skills whatsoever, just trying to stay alive. At this point the narrative is so strong that while you're running away, the music, the background the jumps you have to make, in the very first ten minutes, the game makes you feel like you're living these moments from her perspective and you literally live for her. - and then, you find yourself on an elevator, going down, you see the logo with a beatifully composed theme. You are living in the movie, you are experiencing the game. - and believe me, as someone who has experience in the industry, this art direction, this story driven introduction is pure professionalism; it is idealism. For that, I very much so in love with everyone who's involved with this project.

From that point forward, Dex has to meet with a couple of others who has been driven into this corporate level series of conspiracies and she has to make vital decisions, with consequences. - Her character is in your very hands.

Dex is one of those well-written hidden gems with great design decisions and a product of sincere endeavour. If you are into science fiction; if you love cyberpunk theme, this piece of art is here, waiting in the shadows, glowing. All you need to do is to take a look. You will see the potential and you will see the artistic effort. - Support these people. Believe me, they will deliver more and they will deliver better.

Note - I wrote this review at 4 in the morning. So, I'm terribly sorry about the typos.

The game tries to do a lot of things but doesn't really have much content.

Tries to be like Deus Ex but doesn't give enough utility to stealth or charisma and doesn't allow for nonlethal takedowns. Weapons are limited.

Tries to be a metroidvania, but has limited exploration.

The story is *incredibly* short for an RPG and very generic.

Looks pretty and handles well. I like how combat works for the most part. Would prefer a way to upgrade takedowns though.