I just got done playing what is truly one of the best Steam game demos I’ve played in a very long time, and I’m here to recommend both it and whatever this game offers once it finally launches. SPRAWL Zero is one of those indie gems that I truly believe has the potential to be a knockout hit, and its Overwhelmingly Positive Steam demo seems to agree with me. Inspired by the Golden Age of 2000s FPS games, SPRAWL Zero pulls from games like F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2 to make old-school Halo feel new again—which is conveniently timed, considering Halo: Campaign Evolved is right around the corner, and I’m champing at the bit to play it.
My Steam backlog has three backlogs, and yet SPRAWL Zero has somehow evaded it until now. What’s interesting, though, is that I don’t generally consider myself someone who prefers retro games to modern. They often feel a bit too clunky for my tastes, and there are far too many industry standards that those games fail to meet. Because of that, I usually don’t have the same level of appreciation for them that many others do. However, that’s also why I can’t recommend SPRAWL Zero enough, even this early in its lifespan. Somehow, it takes the foundation of classic shooters like Halo and makes that foundation feel like it was just laid yesterday. Consider this your official recommendation to keep an eye on SPRAWL Zero, and click that Wishlist button like I just did.
New Action RPG on Steam Is Fable Meets Breath of the Wild With One Huge Advantage Over Both
A new action RPG on Steam channels Fable and Breath of the Wild, but one feature gives it a huge advantage over both.
SPRAWL Zero Makes Classic Halo’s Gunplay Feel Faster, Meaner, and Weirder
Let me be clear up front that SPRAWL Zero isn’t some one-to-one Halo clone, and that’s ultimately what makes it as exciting as it is. As far as what I experienced in the demo goes, this feels more like someone took the general feel of old-school Halo‘s gunplay, shoved it into a cyberpunk world, gave it some Half-Life 2 mechanics, and then sped the whole thing up until it started to feel borderline ridiculous. And I mean that in the best way possible.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
Players take on the role of FIVE, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier controlled by the Junta and ordered to eliminate SILAS, the leader of a radical techno-religious group called IMAGO-DEI. Already, that gives SPRAWL Zero the kind of sci-fi premise I want from a game like this, and it almost reminds me a bit of Crysis in some ways. There are factions fighting for control, a city plunging into chaos, and a central character who feels like the kind of unstoppable weapon these worlds always think they can control until they very obviously can’t.
SPRAWL Zero’s Key Features
- 2000s-inspired cyberpunk FPS combat
- Smart enemy squads that flank and communicate
- Gravity Gloves for object manipulation
- Gravity Shield for catching and returning gunfire
- Bullet-Time for midair shot control
- Rushdown attacks with invulnerability and destructive force
- No traditional reloading; throw empty weapons instead
- Over 40 weapons with distinct roles
- Powerful melee-driven close-quarters combat
- Handcrafted levels with verticality and alternate routes
- Multiple factions with organic and mechanical enemies
The real selling point, though, is the shooting. SPRAWL Zero‘s Steam page describes its combat as fast-paced but grounded, and I think that’s exactly the right way to put it. This is a very fast game—much faster than Halo—but it’s not the kind of FPS game where everything feels weightless or where the weapons might as well be laser pointers with damage numbers attached.
The pistol was the first thing that really sold me. Any FPS that gives me an absurdly satisfying pistol is already halfway to winning me over, and SPRAWL Zero‘s immediately made me think of Halo: Combat Evolved‘s pistol. It’s powerful, it feels great to use, and it gave me the exact kind of “why would I ever put this down?” feeling that every great FPS pistol should. Unfortunately, SPRAWL Zero makes you put weapons down because, once you run out of ammo, you either throw it at an enemy or grab another one off the ground. I had to break my habit of constantly reloading in FPS games, but it ultimately made the frantic pacing of the whole experience that much more of a blast to perfect.
SPRAWL Zero‘s Steam page describes its combat as fast-paced but grounded, and I think that’s exactly the right way to put it.
Instead of sitting behind cover and waiting for a reload animation to finish, I was constantly looking for my next option. Do I throw the empty gun? Do I rush in for melee? Do I pull something toward me with the Half-Life 2-esque Gravity Gloves? Do I grab whatever weapon is nearby and hope it gets me through the next few seconds? That’s essentially SPRAWL Zero‘s fast-paced gameplay loop in a nutshell, and it’s why the demo never felt like it was slowing down just to let me catch my breath.
SPRAWL Zero’s Powers Keep It From Feeling Like a Nostalgia Act
And then come SPRAWL Zero‘s gravity powers, which are where the game really starts to build its own identity. The Gravity Gloves let players pull objects closer, which immediately gives the game a bit of that Half-Life 2 and BioShock flavor. I realize that “you can pull objects toward you” isn’t some brand-new idea in video games, but when it’s dropped into a shooter moving this quickly, it changes the entire feel of combat.
The Gravity Shield might be even cooler, since it lets players catch enemy gunfire and throw it right back. Bullet-Time lets FIVE bend shots midair with absurd precision, while Rushdown lets players charge into enemies with invulnerability and destructive force. Put all of that together, and SPRAWL Zero starts to feel like a 2000s console FPS that somehow got its hands on every modern power fantasy it could find. In fact, it feels like it could be my new favorite recipe.
And thankfully, the enemies don’t just stand there waiting to get launched across the room. They move around enough, pressure you enough, and force you out of cover enough that all of FIVE’s absurd tools actually feel like they have a purpose. That’s what makes the combat feel as good as it does, because SPRAWL Zero isn’t just giving players a bunch of weird abilities and then forgetting to build encounters around them.
I realize that “you can pull objects toward you” isn’t some brand-new idea in video games, but when it’s dropped into a shooter moving this quickly, it changes the entire feel of combat.
The levels help sell that too, because SPRAWL Zero gives you enough room to actually use everything it hands you. I wasn’t just running down hallways and shooting whatever appeared directly in front of me like I would in some arcade shooter at the local pizza parlor. I was moving through spaces with enough verticality and alternate routes to make the gunplay, melee, weapon-throwing, and gravity powers feel like they were all part of one coherent loop.
I think that’s ultimately what impressed me most about the demo. SPRAWL Zero is very obviously paying homage to gaming’s early 2000s, from its Y2K aesthetics to its sound design to the way it builds combat spaces, but it never feels like it’s only interested in reminding players of games they already love. It takes the parts of that era that we all loved the most and then cranks them up until they feel just as dangerous as they do nostalgic.
Of course, the full game still has to prove it can keep this up. A must-play demo is one thing, and a full campaign with enough enemy variety, weapon variety, level variety, and story momentum is another thing entirely. SPRAWL Zero could still stumble once the full release arrives, especially if its best ideas start to repeat themselves too often.
However, based on what I’ve played so far, this is exactly the kind of Steam demo I wish I found more often. It sold me on the world, sold me on the combat, and made me want to keep playing the second it ended. If Halo: Campaign Evolved is about returning to one of the games that helped define old-school console FPS games, SPRAWL Zero feels like the kind of game that could remind everyone why that style still works.
SPRAWL Zero is currently without a release date on Steam, but it is available to wishlist and has a playable demo.
