$9.99CRUEL Ten floors, one burning sprint
Blast your way up a collapsing tower floor by floor, where every run reshuffles the rooms and death sends you back to the bottom.
Is CRUEL worth it?
CRUEL is worth it if…
- you like fast shooters where hesitation kills faster than the enemies do
- you enjoy short, sharp runs you can finish in about half an hour
- you want gunplay that rewards precise aim over wild spraying
- you like retro shooters in the Blood and Quake tradition, gore included
- you do not mind losing everything and starting over from floor one
Screenshots
Outrun the fire, floor by floor
You climb ten floors of a derelict apartment block while flames creep up behind you, so standing still is not an option: commit to a hallway, kick the door in, deal with what is inside, keep moving. The layouts are procedurally generated, so no two runs route the same way, and the floors themselves shift as you go. Crows, bombers, ghosts and chainsaw-wielding tenants all want a piece of you, and several of them punish pure sprinting. The trick is a steady, deliberate pace: fast, never careless. Die and it is gone; perma death sends you back to the start, where you type in a name and a voice lets you back into the hallways.
Soda, perks and a very small merchant
Cans of soda are the whole economy. They top up your health, and they are the currency you pay a small white Pomeranian for perks between floors: more bullets, faster reloads, a bigger health pool, or stranger things like kicks that set enemies on fire. Rerolling a bad perk costs another can. Spend everything on upgrades and you might not survive the next hallway; hoard your soda and you go into the later floors fragile. There is also a man named Erik, who may share his soda, steal one of your perks, or take a bite out of your life depending on his mood. Every floor is a fresh decision about what you actually want.
What else should you know?
How long does a run take?
Short. A full climb of the ten floors takes roughly half an hour, which makes it easy to fit a run into an evening, or to talk yourself into just one more. Beyond the main mode there are extra rituals to try: an endless mode, a run with no firearms, and a one-health-point mode that demands a flawless climb.
Is it only about shooting?
No, and the melee half is easy to miss. You can carry an axe or a chainsaw, and a melee weapon can parry bullets back at whoever fired them. Kicking enemies into each other, throwing a weapon down a hallway and finishing someone with your fists all feed into the same fast loop. The guns, from revolver to a lever rifle whose shots punch through enemies, are the safer bet in the later floors, but the close-range tools make the wild runs memorable.
What does it look and sound like?
Grimy retro, in a good way. Pixel-flavoured visuals give the apartment block a grimy, VHS-soaked feel, and the soundtrack is aggressive electronic music with relentless beats that push you to keep up the pace. The tone is dark and bloody but laced with dark humour; the game never takes itself too seriously, and neither should you.
Is it hard?
Yes, especially at first. Early floors can end abruptly, and enemies like crows and ghosts punish careless sprinting. It is hard but fair: learn the pace, ration your ammo, aim for heads, and runs that once ended on floor two start reaching floor five and beyond. If fast first-person cameras make you queasy, note that the movement is quick and constant.
