We stepped into Port Desire’s bustling street market to conduct a simple, albeit grisly experiment: How many people can we make explode into bits of blood and pulp with a single gunshot?
To achieve this messy masterpiece, we walked slowly into the middle of a tightly packed crowd to find the optimal spot for maximum impact. A stasis grenade was then thrown into the mix, suspending every unfortunate body within its blast radius in a vibrating, temporal state. Such is the kinetic energy built up by the event that all it took was a single headshot for a chain reaction to begin, each subsequent body erupting into wet chunks of bone and organ as the market transformed into a human popcorn maker. In turn, this set off a nearby box of ammunition to continue the carnage, firing off extra bullets in all directions to claim yet more victims. This is only one example of how No Law’s malleable systems can be bent to your own sick desires. This could, maybe just, be the Deus Ex successor I’ve been waiting for.
When not painted with the insides of its civilian population, Port Desire is a vibrant, neon metropolis. Think Cyberpunk’s Night City crossed with Dishonored 2’s Karnaca, its Mediterranean-like vegetation fighting back to reclaim the land as vines wind up glass, steel, and concrete architecture. It’s home to Grey Harker, an ex-military man who’s just trying to lead a quiet retirement. As is the way, though, trouble finds its way to his door, and he’s left with no choice but to invite violence back into his life and clean up this city once and for good. With a body built like Reacher’s and the deductive mind of Deckard, he’s your vehicle for navigating this world, and you can use it however you see fit.
At first glance, No Law might look like Cyberpunk 2077, but to be frank, so will any first-person sci-fi shooter set in a futuristic metropolis that follows in the footsteps of William Gibson’s genre-defining cyberpunk fiction. But there’s an important distinction between No Law and 2077. This isn’t an RPG; it’s an immersive sim shooter in the mold of genre pioneer Deus Ex. No Law’s city is smaller than the average open world, but incredibly dense. There’s a sense of verticality begging to be explored, from dingy, rat-filled subways to rooftops high above. But these layers aren’t just set dressing — each tier can be scaled, especially once the ability to perform cybernetically enhanced superjumps is unlocked.
But for all the sci-fi tech and gadgetry on show, it’s still the human mind that is predominantly being pushed to its limits, and your ability to consider every possible approach to an objective. This is best showcased in a simple mission. The task, in theory, was simple: gain access to a second-floor room of an apartment complex. But in order to do so, we’d need to deal with a group of gang members, a surly, unhelpful receptionist, and a locked door. To show the full range of options available when faced with such a series of obstacles, developer Neon Giant walked me through the infiltration in two distinctly different ways.
First, we went for the sneaky option. Harker may be the size of a small tank, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t well-versed in the art of stealth. To circumvent the gun-toting gang members gathered outside the front door of the building, we searched for an alternative way in. This led us around the side, where we clambered up to some high ground and scuttled behind our would-be attackers, dropping down silently before sneaking through an open door. A turn to the right brought us face-to-face with a grumpy concierge dressed in a terrible flower-patterned suit. I could tell he smelled the opposite of the petals adorning his jacket, but his attitude stank even more.
He wasn’t going to let us pass through to the staircase, which led up towards our goal. And so, we were left with a choice to make. The quickest way would be to offer a bribe and cough up enough cash to make him turn a blind eye. But we didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of earning anything from us other than a powerful feeling of disdain, so we searched around the lobby area until we found a password written on a piece of paper attached to a notice board. Just that bit of patience and a willingness to search for an alternative solution saved us a whole lot of money.
Up the stairs we went, making sure to sneak past a couple of enemies patrolling the landing. The next puzzle to solve was how to get into the room that was the whole reason for us being here. The door was, predictably, locked, and we didn’t have any lockpicking gear with us, so another way in had to be found. So, we checked out the next-door neighbour, who had conveniently left their door ajar before falling asleep inside. We made sure to crouch and move quietly so as not to wake them, stealing some of their food and reading their personal diary while we were at it. Once full of nutrients and new info, we spotted a vent leading into the next room. And so, following in Batman’s tradition of oversized men somehow nimbly crawling through ducts not meant for them, Harker squeezed his way into the room at the heart of our objective.
But of course, this could’ve gone an entirely much bloodier way. We reloaded the save and started all over again, this time intent on causing chaos. That group of troublemakers loitering outside? One throw of the aforementioned stasis grenade and a round of ammunition quickly turned them into chunks. That awfully dressed, sweaty meat sack of a receptionist? A swift bullet to the head meant he had no more use for passwords. Perhaps the most interesting change this time around, though, was that this new run-through took place at night, and so the two gang members upstairs now exhibited different behaviours than when we snuck past them during daylight. One was leaning over a bannister, so we walked up behind them and sharply snapped their neck. The other lay asleep in bed – not that such slumber could stop us from taking out our pistol and making sure he’d never wake again, though.
This time, getting into the target room was much easier, thanks to this save having dropped a lockpicking device in our pocket and enough skill points to upgrade our breaking-and-entering ability and make our way in. Incidentally, this time we entered, items had fallen from shelves and lay strewn across the floor due to the impact of the stasis grenade explosion outside just moments earlier. It’s another great example of how reactive the world of No Law is to your actions.
Developed by a small team of just 24 members, it really is remarkable how good it all looks and sounds.
It’s a city packed with detail, too. Outside of the quest, we took time to stroll around its streets and take in some of the sights. Developed by a small team of just 24 members, it really is remarkable how good it all looks and sounds. Grimy, yet bright. Modern, yet lived in. Just browsing around a local shop, I couldn’t quite believe how much work had gone into making every item on its shelves — all of which can be added to your basket and consumed for a variety of buffs and bonuses. This is an open world that promises big, explosive moments, but one that isn’t forgetting about the small details, either. Each drink bottle and piece of food packaging has been handcrafted — Neon Giant isn’t a team interested in letting generative AI replace its artistry.
Of course, as is the immersive sim way, there are multiple ways to procure these items, too. You can be a normal citizen and simply shop here, filling up your inventory at the expense of emptying your wallet. You could steal the items, but the shopkeeper will remember and not be very happy to see you next time you set foot in there. Or, you can do what we did and wait until night, find the key to the back door, and sneak in while the owner is asleep. This is a persistent world, too, so when a door’s lock is cracked, this method of entry will remain available for the rest of your playthrough.
One thing that’s as of yet unclear is if Neon Giant has the storytelling chops to fully engross me in this world — neither the slice I saw here nor the studio’s previous sci-shooter, The Ascent, have been narratively focused — but it’s the promise of the stories I’ll be able to tell through the tools handed to me in No Law that has me most excited. Yes, Deus Ex: Human Revolution tells a great tale of corporate ethics and conspiracy worthy of the wonderful sci-fi scenery it’s set against, and Dishonored 2’s revenge drama stemming from a royal coup is highly engaging, but it’s the moments of magic I created within those stories that live longest in my memory. It’s the possibility of this, and all of the numerous other anecdotes No Law promises to offer, that has me most excited. That, and seeing if I can set a new record for the number of heads exploded by a single bullet.
