Steam Tip: Dex is a hugely promising, criminally unpolished cyberpunk adventure
Icarus
Argh! Don't you hate it when a game shows so much promise, so many good ideas, and so much style - but it's hindered by annoying bugs and general glitchiness?
That's the fate of Dex - a fascinating side-scrolling cyberpunk game that grabs Deus Ex, takes out half the letters, and turns them into a platformer with a rad new hero: a no-nonsense chick with a natty trench-coat and neon blue hair.
You explore this open world, clambering down pipes and leaping up ladders, and tackle baddies in any way you want: through hand to hand combat, with weapons, or using a lightweight stealth system to hide behind cover.
The game's grim dystopian world, as hazy and downtrodden as Blade Runner's LA, has cities filled with shops and dicey bars and secret gun merchants, and lots of seedy underground areas.
And you'll find dialogue choices with fully-voiced characters, side quests to take on, lots of random items to pocket, stats to upgrade, and, of course, augmentations.
It wouldn't be much of a cyberpunk game without the ability to boost your speed, improve your aim, get immunity to certain dangers, and top up your jumping ability, would it?
There's also a bizarre but quietly brilliant hacking mini-game where you enter the "augmented reality" as a weird spaceship and zip through fluorescent mazes and blast away at firewalls like you're playing Geometry Wars.
Sadly, as much as I want to activate my gold-plated shades and dive in to Dex, it's far from perfect with unpolished animations, a few bugs, weird sound glitches, no key rebinding, and a forgetful annoying save system.
Luckily, it's all stuff that can be handled with a patch. When that's out, you might want to grab it on PC, Mac, and Linux for £13.49.
