Released on 30th April 2025, Kiborg is a fast-paced single-player Rogue-Lite style Beat ‘em Up from Indie Studio Sobaka Studios. A team of five from Moscow and Kaliningrad in Russia, known for their previous titles, Redeemer and Monkeys of Shaolin.

The game begins with no immediate introduction sequence. You are in a circular room with a fighting arena in the centre. This threw me off, as the speed of clicking New Game and being thrown straight in was off-guarding.

You are Lee Morgan, a war criminal imprisoned. Your only way out is the shuttle on the roof. To get there, you will have to fight through hordes of other inmates. AI Assistant Ingra is communicating with you remotely to guide you, but as she states, you are not to have conversations. You can learn the ropes of the controls at the computer terminal in the room or fight forward.

Then, we are introduced to Volkov, the host of the Last Ticket. It is a show being shown across the universe through Cable Galactica. You are tasked with climbing the prison room by room and taking on a variety of enemies and boss battles to fight for freedom.

But you will die. This is a common occurrence. With each death comes reconstruction. You can replace body parts to fit your fighting style as you progress and find meditation terminals.

The body modifications and mutations can have positive and negative effects, offering a large, varied play style and balance. You can parry and dodge with these abilities, getting the combat loop constant, but it can take some time to master.

The skill tree is varied and has so many possibilities. This offers the ability to unlock more ways to kill, new ways to survive and long and short-range weapons. As you learn and adjust your fighting styles to get closer to freedom, with upgrades to the tower to enhance the levels of items.

Controls are simple and offer no end of button-mashing fun when fighting groups of enemies. Combo chains get bigger and more intense once you start to improve Lee with enhancements, body modifications, and varied melee weapons you can unlock after each run.

Making the next run at freedom that little easier and action-packed. It nods to a popular style from the Arkham Series with parry and combo lock-on features but doesn’t quite get it right. It can feel a little robotic at times and frustrating when overwhelmed.

Graphically, it suits the aesthetic it brings, not AAA, but great work for an indie title. Dark, gruesome and full of blood. Did I not mention this game features extreme gore, from decapitations, blood loss and just the brutality of man and machine?

The soundtrack is limited, and the voice acting is not great for the roles presented. But overall, the game is all about little and more gameplay. But adds an amount of combat music to keep that feeling of intensity as you progress.

The game is like the old days of gaming: make it to the end, but we will throw everything at you to make that difficult. The building variety is huge and entertaining, with some awesome-looking visuals for the parts you connect—graphics that are not ground-breaking but get the job done.

Written by: Kevin Lal