Dex is a side scrolling AARPG game set in a dystopian cyber future from developer Dreadlocks Ltd. In the opening moments of the game you find yourself awoken by a mysterious blue visitor, who warns you of an impending home invasion. After narrowly escaping your would be abductors, you are led to a bar to discover that you hold the key to stopping the complete domination of the world by a shadow organization.
The combat system in “Dex” is very fluid at points when it comes to the hand to hand portion. Combining the ability to block or dodge the enemies’ attacks while intertwining your own into the combo gives it an overall satisfying feeling, but with enough variety in hostile variants that within the time that I played that it didn’t feel repetitive. The shooting elements of the game didn’t feel misplaced and there was definitely a tradeoff of being more vulnerable to melee while you had your weapon drawn. The skill tree is by no means deep and at only 1 skill point a level they’ve counteracted it by making the later skills require more points, So I would recommend looking at what skills there are when you start it up and having a plan for what you would put priority in before jumping in the deep end. There are going to be levels where you don’t get a new skill because you’ll be saving up for the next one.
One of the more unique aspects of Dex is the ability to seamlessly alternate between the “real” world and the cyber one, entering into the cyber world allows you in some areas to scope ahead of your character to see what lies in wait, or interact with the environment’s electronics in order to help gain advantages for yourself. Though not without its risks, entering cyberspace you encounter a different set of enemies in the form of viruses or Trojans that will attempt to destroy your timid connection.
Quests that you undertake in the game have a surprising amount of depth in them, right from the get go you were faced with obstacles that had different ways of being able to be solved. Combined with a “Mass Effect” like dialogue system that branched into a multi-tiered dialogue tree seems to be a staple for RPG’s these days and Dex doesn’t fall short in this regard. Characters in Dex are interesting enough but come through in a stereotyped fashion more often than not from the overweight Asian who’s tech savvy to a lecherous old doctor, sometimes you were able to pretty much guess what a character was going to be persona wise just based off of their occupation.
Overall Dex is a satisfying experience that gives off a very blade runner feel currently on sale on steam it is most definitely worth the £15 price tag. I was skeptical over how well an open world 2D game would do but Dreadlock Ltd. met the bar with Dex, I hope anybody else who picks this title up enjoys it as much as I did.