KIBORG Review: Does This Cybernetic Beat-'Em-Up Deliver Thrills?

I grew up on sci-fi classics such as the Terminator franchise, Ghost in the Shell, Alita: Battle Angel, and yes, RoboCop. So, saying that I love a good cyborg would be a bit of an understatement. Cyborgs are no strangers to video games either—heck, many of the franchises I listed have been adapted into games. There’s Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid 2 franchise, who might have been the first man I ever saw naked (still remember those butt cheeks). Or how about Adam from the Deus Ex series? Now, those were some good-ass games.

Anyway, I’m going off about cyborgs because today we are reviewing KIBORG! But wait—according to the trailer, it’s pronounced KEY-BORG! Seems like a missed opportunity to me. But is KIBORG a great little roguelite beat-'em-up? Or is it the equivalent of playing Final Fight: Streetwise? Nothing can be that bad, but let’s find out in our full review!

KIBORG comes to us from Sobaka Studio, who are perhaps best known for their last indie effort, REMEDIUM. I say that, but sadly, it seems that the game only has 54 reviews on Steam, so it appears to have mostly gone unnoticed. Anyway, in KIBORG, you have been sentenced to a bizarre prison system for the next one-thousand-plus years! That’s a lot of rice, beans, and ramen noodles, if you’re lucky. Not only are the sentences long, but this prison also hosts some sort of sick and twisted reality TV show—and yes, you’re the player! Should you win, you might be set free. But let’s be honest... probably not.

You take on the role of Morgan Lee in what is essentially an arcade roguelite beat-'em-up, where your ultimate goal is to survive wave after wave of enemies, horde-mode style, and ascend to the top of the game’s tower. You’ll encounter robots, thugs, and even demons, as you battle your way to victory with kicks, punches, and gunfire. Kick, punch—it’s all in the mind! To help tip the scales further in your favor, Morgan can equip various cybernetic implants that enhance his abilities. The game also introduces optional mutations, each bringing their own unique advantages and disadvantages.

KIBORG is fairly simple to pick up and play, offering players a solid set of tutorials in its main hub area. Here, you can learn the basics of combat, which include an assortment of light and heavy attacks, a spin attack for breaking away from groups, the ability to slide, block, and, of course, parry. Players can also acquire a main weapon to bring into battles, as well as a secondary gun that can be fired with the press of a button. Your AI friend, who strangely doesn’t animate when talking to you, will occasionally spout useful hints—and honestly, she’s pretty handy.

The hub area also allows players to see how many weapons have been acquired throughout runs, track achievement progress, and, most importantly, perform upgrades. Through each unsuccessful run, Morgan earns currency that can be spent to bolster his many abilities and stats. Much like any other game with rogue elements, progression is slow, but eventually, you’ll be strong enough to climb further and further up the tower. Yup, it’s another one of those.

After learning the basics and whatnot, Morgan must head up an elevator, and from there, the real fun begins. Typically, you will need to choose between one of two directions, marked by signs. A skull on the sign represents a battle, while other symbols may represent areas of rest—or, as the game calls them, meditation areas—bonus rooms where health can be earned by avoiding spikes, a bar for restoring health and buying potions, or new weapons to bring into the next battle. These rooms seem random in nature, but eventually, you’ll have to go into battle and face a wave of foes.

Combat in KIBORG clearly draws inspiration from the Batman Arkham series. And for the first couple of hours, the gameplay felt a bit disjointed, lacking the seamless flow state I experienced with Batman back in the day. However, it became clear that targeting enemies by holding down the left bumper—assuming you're using an Xbox controller—is key to improving your performance. Once I adjusted, I found myself leaping between foes, striking with a range of combos, and finishing them off with special attacks with relative ease.

While the combat never quite hits the heights of the Arkham games, it’s functional and offers a variety of moves to experiment with, and mixing in some gunplay is admittedly pretty rad. Mastering the parry mechanic is particularly vital, requiring precise timing as the enemy's alert meter flashes above their head. Though the process of getting comfortable with the controls demands patience, achieving a solid rhythm and flow state is definitely possible.

Where the game does stand out a bit from the crowd is with its implants, which are earned after each successful completion of an arena. Typically, it will be necessary to choose between one of three upgrades, each offering fun new abilities to aid you, such as adding burning flames to your dodge ability or enabling you to teleport entirely. It becomes important to carefully read what each implant does, and the same applies to optional mutations, which always come with a downside. I appreciated the element of strategy that both systems brought to the game. Other abilities such as a more powerful metallic punch and healing require energy which can be restored through dishing out damage. Refilling ammo, interestingly enough, works in a similar fashion where the more you beat on foes, the more bullets you can get back.

The core gameplay loop of KIBORG is fun—at least for a while. It gets relatively old after, say, 5–6 runs. Progression is slow, and the first few battles start feeling too easy to go through repeatedly. While the combat attempts to introduce some interesting variations, there’s not much to break up the monotony of constant battles.

In an arcade-style beat-'em-up, you're often treated to fresh scenery, engaging story beats, and the ability to enjoy the game with a friend. In KIBORG, it’s single-player only, the story never gets much more compelling than being barked at by the host of the "game show." And, although the game introduces new enemies as you progress—some requiring different strategies—I felt pretty burnt out by the time I reached them. You’ll see the same tired streets and laboratories ad nauseam. Of course, your experience may vary depending on your tolerance for rogue elements in games, but ultimately, despite making small strides, I found myself bored with the game after a while and not all that compelled to go for that one more run. 

Visually, KIBORG looks okay. The arenas aren’t the most detailed I’ve seen, but the enemy designs, animations, and some of the effects all look reasonably modern. My favorite visual touch is how your character model changes with each new upgrade, turning him into more of a cyborg as you progress. The game does cut some corners, as I alluded to earlier, with certain character artwork not animating at all when it feels like it should. However, it ran very nicely on my 4070 without any major performance issues, aside from the occasional small bug here or there with enemy AI.

Sound design is decent too, with no standout musical compositions but some pretty nice sound effects. Booming explosions will rattle your subwoofer, and steel-on-flesh sounds are delightfully satisfying. Voice performances are a bit campy but fun enough, especially the game’s host, VOLKOV, who endlessly badgers you throughout. Factoring everything, KIBORG looks and sounds solid.

There’s plenty of game here, but whether players will endure far enough to unlock everything is unclear. For me, while I appreciate the assortment of weapons, the different difficulty options that can be unlocked, and the many types of upgrades available, KIBORG burned me out sooner than I would have liked. There’s some fun to be had with the combat, but it’s not quite compelling or refined enough to carry the entirety of a game. If you’re looking for something to mess around with sporadically, you could do worse by a mile, but it’s also nowhere near the best of its genre. Even still, KIBORG doesn’t completely malfunction and does provide some entertainment value to the right kind of player.

GOOD