Conglomerate 451

Conglomerate 451
60
Metacritic
63
Steam
52.914
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
20 February 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
63 (138 votes)

Conglomerate 451 is a grid-based, dungeon crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world.

Show detailed description

Conglomerate 451 system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows: Vista SP1 (64-bit), 7 (64-bit), 8 (64-bit), 10 (64-bit)
  • Processor: 2.5 Ghz Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor or AMD equivalent
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 500 series 1GB video card or AMD equivalent
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 10 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
  • Additional Notes: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
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BigRowdy
BigRowdy

Well I like this game though some dont. But I am more of an immersion player and i actually stop and look up and down and all around to take in the beautiful cyberpunk atmosphere. Sure there are things that could be explained better, but I also like figuring stuff out on my own, so there's that. I will give a more detailed review later......

xxFionAxx
xxFionAxx

- So fun to play, rating 92/100

lomarcan77
lomarcan77

The game is good, my PC isn't so it lags and some minigame is not doable. Be sure to check the requisites

Doops
Doops

dope game !

My Video:
https://youtu.be/IIAJZI81jcc

bundito
bundito

I haven't played much, but I like what I see so far. It's Early Access (and Day One), so there are some things that need a bit of polish and explanation. The devs seems engaged in the discussions, which is a good sign.

The music is stellar - a heavy synth beat like Front 242 and others from that era. It fits the cyberpunk aesthetic very well.

The art looks very good. The environments are appropriately grimy and grungy, with a nice level of detail.

Combat is solid, in the Grimrock turn-based style that should feel familiar right away. There's no difficulty setting, but my crew of clones had no trouble with the enemies we encountered.

Missions/dungeons are of the drop-in/pull out variety - there's no roaming or much exploring to do. Not a bad thing; simply adjust your expectations a bit.

I recommend it as Early Access. There's a lot of potential here and it'll be interesting to watch the game evolve over time.

partymarty710
partymarty710

This game has immense potential for any dungeon crawling fan. Do yourself a favor a buy it now to support the devs. Can't wait to see what else is to come!

yveshohler
yveshohler

Really fun and addictive game!

Hydre
Hydre

10/10 would get motion sickness over quick 90° turns again

Sgt.H
Sgt.H

I guess after a couple of hours into this, it's time to leave my first review (being an Early Access, this is definitely not gonna be the last one).

First of all, I am enjoying the game. There is of course a lot of things missing, a bunch of minor bugs, and I think some missions might need further balancing (but well, that's what EA is for!).

Gameplay is undeniably FP dungeon crawler and in that it's pretty good, UIs and scenes between missions have a strong Xcom feeling that I really enjoy. The amosphere is well rendered, the visuals and music do contribute properly to that immersion.

Now in order to proper evaluate it as a an EA, I want to see how regular updates are, how present devs are, and of course how the game and its features do grow. There's a few things that teased me but are still not available, that I would really like too see done nicely. But for a start, I am absolutely satisfied. Keep up the good work guys!

Arexevyn
Arexevyn

+Very much worth it's current price point, IMO.
+I'm really enjoying the combat, which is difficult in a good way.
+Exploration of the grid based map is fun and visually engaging.
+Upgrading of my clones, every time they die off or become too traumatized to be of further use, is fun in a weird way.
-The game is a tiny bit grindy as you farm the resources needed to upgrade labs and tech and such, but I believe the maps are randomly generated, so it's not crazy repetitive.
-I'm only 90-ish minutes in at the moment, but the only story line I've seen so far was from the intro video. No NPC interaction YET. Maybe more to come later?

Lazero
Lazero

I quite like it even with the number of placeholder content right now, its pulling me in with designing a super group and agency somewhat like other town and dungeon games. x-com maybe.
The building of your squads is easy and straightforward. You make types of clones to work missions with, from a beginning with 3 different types to chose from, 2 that can be unlocked as you grow. You can also add more DNA strains for further mixes They will learn and get stronger during missions and you do get to choose skill paths, although those of the same type do follow same skill paths, but, since you cant take all the skills you can mix them up, or change them down the road, make some clones that are more aggressive in build or more team support. You will also be able to upgrade their weapons and defenses, as you increase you agency abilities.
Depending on the type of mission you choose, you have different end qualifiers, as in, find a certain item or kill certain numbers.
You move through visually enticing, punk color-full streets during a mission, usually first having to find an elevator to get to main mission, do it, finish and leave, or explore more, since you can come back to the area later if you want.
Injuries will happen, and it influences clones pain lvl during missions,(i think it adds negative to your clones reactions, moods etc,) some injuries are permanent, but most will be fixed with a fair bit of money and the place to do it, which you make at your agency as well as other upgrades to build once learned.
Main thing is I am having fun, havent started pulling hairs our, and if I lose a clone another will be in the tank right away, seems fair play.
l look forward to more time here.

Cyber Strider
Cyber Strider

I'm very much enjoying this title, and I can't wait for a full game to be available. This is a mix of Deus Ex, and Xcom game play in it's own way.
Lots of features are not available yet which makes this game a little barren.

Pros.
Great graphics
Wonderful cyberpunk setting
Very addictive
Lots of upgrades
Its a grind (If you like that kind of thing)
Decent difficulty

Cons.
Very repetitive
Frustrating controls

SigynX1
SigynX1

I am about 2 hours in and was pleasantly surprised at how much I like this game. The visuals and music are great. Combat gives me a challenge, and I am enjoying creating my teams and experimenting with different skills. I am really looking forward to seeing more as the developer updates it though I will continue enjoying playing it as is until then.

Karol13
Karol13

NOTE: Game is still in BETA (not all features are fully implemented yet)

Time played: 50+ hours

Quite well composed cyberpunk game, in dungeon-crawler style with unique RPG system.
As CEO you lead a business (Conglomerate) that specializes in covert actions.
You 'create' you employees via cloning technology.
Here comes first part of the RPG system :
- you research better cloning technology, making your new agents more potent
- you research newer and stronger implants, turning your existing agents into super cyborgs.
- you research new skill upgrades, healing pods (facilities, where you recover the most grievous injuries and negative statuses)

Second RPG system is the standard skill/stat/level-up as we know from RPG games:
- every agent picks 4 skills, she will use during combat (combat is turn based and takes place in the environment)
- Apart of skills, every agent has a shield, set of resistances, and extra knowledge (hacking, technology ...) that makes each of the agents special, allowing you to wave a strategy to both survive in the environment and in the combat.
- skills are split into two basic categories : ATTACK / DEFENSE, and as expected, every skill improves either by usage or by upgrades in your home facility.
- Already mentioned implants bear different attributes (usually followed up with debuffs, that mostly cover reduced EMP/SHOCK resistance, because human agents are slowly turning into cyborgs)

During agent customization, I have to distribute the specialization between defensive (HP, Shield power, Defense...) and offensive (Initiative, Attack, Vision = to-hit chance, damage...) both boostable with active skills. Sadly most of boons (luckily also debuffs) last only 3 turns, so the right timing and combination is critical.

There lies the beauty of the non-overcomplicated game. Despite the skill trees are not super branchy, you can combine the powers of multiple sources (implants, skills, shields, SPUs -> special chips that grant extra buffs to each implant or weapons/shield) and if you do it right, you can then survive missions on HARD difficulty (getting bigger rewards in form of Credits = currency, TECH = allowing you further research and lifeine = something like bitcoins, currency used during fishy deals)

Despite nearly everything in the game is unique and original, the learning curve is pretty exponencial, not even the embedded tutorial is really needed.

You start the game, clone your first three agents, pick up set of skills for each of them and there you go.
Every attribute of the game is well documented and explained, so you shall not encounter situations of "what the heck does this button do?" type.

Inside the 'dungeon' (futuristic city split into multiple regions) you 'crawl' via ASDF, turn with QE, use the mid-button to look around (what I use as the visuals are pretty impressive IMO, and no, I don't mean the cybergirls in miniskirts only)
Each mission starts on base level -> where you can occasionally find shady traders (here comes the lifeine in use) or local terminal you can hack and get extra benefit (I like "open all doors" or "disable tracking - allowing you to ambush enemies and get extra 1-2 turns in each battle, or for greedy hackers like me : boost the rewards )

All in all, for the 50 hours I had good fun and loads of enjoyment. And I am far from finished, especially as in the latest patch max level of agents was doubled (from 5 to 10) and perks can be chosen during level-up.
The fun I can immerse in reminds me of TOEE (Temple of Elemental Evil) when devs introduces much deeper skills system and the skills were much more various in and out of combat, so despite it was one of many RPG (D&D) games on the market, it also did offer much deeper and precise specialization of your party members. Same with Conglomerate, where the combinations give later in the games much wider variety of game styles and offer much more ways to dominate in combat.

Also the option to have many agents, allows you to pick the best three for each missions. There are three main types of enemies: Human, Cyborg, Anroid, each with her own weaknesses and strengths, so as you choose your mission, heed the description of the city area and pick the best 3 agents and don't be surprised your attacks do little damage if you mess it up :D )

Arixson
Arixson

Was way too buggy..., it has in a rather short amount of time exploded with goodness, much more choices in how you build your squad, the option to go straight to mission or explore for more resources is pretty amazing, a measure of the ability to be stealthy would be interesting, I.E. being able to sneak up on your opponents, more hacking is great!, more customization of your gear, squad, center is wonderful.

I personally LOVE the "characters" at each station in the center, some of the models are beautiful, the furthering of the Cyberpunk & Dystopian atmosphere is getting there :)

sh0uzama
sh0uzama

If you ever played and enjoyed cyberpunk 2020 (I'm talking about the tabletop role-playing game) and Eye of Beholder, you'll feel right at home with this title.

It mixes these two much-different genres into one, bringing the grid-based turn combat to a grim dystopic future.

Its two major selling points (for me) are the addictive gameplay, and the fact that the developers are listening to the community and improving the game constantly.

Quite frankly, a hidden indie gem.

Cylinder1024
Cylinder1024

If you're looking for a cyberpunk dungeon crawler, look no further.

lloobee_4
lloobee_4

Yes, it's early access. Yes, there are some rough edges. But there's also some very nice ideas in here. The "chip capture" subgame is nicely thought out., even if the "hack computer" one isn't. Some of the graphics / models have been created with a lot of care. The soundtrack is pretty good too.

And, even given it's early access, the developers are very quick to respond to customer questions and bug reports. Plus in the short time since I've bought it, I've also seen pretty impressive progress in filling out the content.

Phrieksho
Phrieksho

Do you like cyberpunk motifs? Do you like DRPGs like Etrian Odyssey and Legend of Grimrock, or semi-DRPG roguelikes like Darkest Dungeon?

If you said yes to one or more, I can safely recommend this title. It's a lot of what I love in a single player game, and is quite beautiful, to boot.

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VeNe6gRqvQ&t=476s

Macdallan
Macdallan

This is a decent tile and turn based rogue-like sci-fi rpg. It's still Early Access so I only expect it to get better.

Pretty decent graphics, relatively smooth gameplay, passable sound effects. Music that, from the forums, it seems a lot of people like. I didn't hate it but I always turn music down or off unless it's environmental only (from an in-game radio, for example) so didn't hear a lot of it. Controls and menu/gui seem okay overall but need a bit more fine tuning.

My biggest annoyance was the lack of a save game option in missions and this isn't mentioned anywhere. I found out the hard way when I had to quit because, you know, life happened as if often does. So if you have to leave the game while mid-mission you have no way to save and continue later.

The mouse free-look is a bit clunky, there is no toggle. In combat there is a slightly wonky aiming mechanic where sometimes it's a bit tricky to aim at certain body locations depending on how the enemy is standing or crouching. It works pretty well, though, and I like it.

Game mechanics in combat seem like they're still pretty rough and probably still subject to change. Some characters seem to do a lot of damage to everything while others do so little you're better off skipping their turn half the time. Some of the effects don't have proper descriptions but they do have mouse-over tool tips that explain each one, which is great, because I don't want to go to different screens to look them up. I can't seem to mouse-over the effects on enemies and get a tooltip popup and that would be a nice touch. I guess once you learn the icons it won't matter.

Some mini-games are decent, some aren't that great, but I like the fact that hacking things or extracting upgrade chips isn't just a click and random percentage chance to succeed. You actually have to do something within a time limit to succeed.

There are a lot of options in the game for research, training, cybernetics, and other upgrades. The interface is a bit clunky for some of these, though. You can't just click on different categories to change between research trees, you have to back out to the previous menu despite there being a list of categories on the left. This is an EA title, though, so perhaps they'll clean up some of these issues.

Overall the devs. seem very active and updates happen quite frequently, and the basic concept is solid. I think this has the makings of a good game so I recommend you take a look. I expect they will iron out some of the issues, and hopefully will add an in-mission save feature. Not having one won't kill the game, but I'm sure it's something most players would appreciate.

Blind Ryan
Blind Ryan

It needs a high contrast option for us low vision folks but the font is very readable otherwise.

Conglomerate 451 is like Darkest Dungeon in a cyberpunk Wizardry setting. The game feels very lived-in and, as such, is more immersive than I thought it would be. It's basically a turn-based dungeon crawler, has an endless mode, and I found it to be extremely fun, even in early access. My first impressions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2-MXCN30GU

Also, you play as cops. In a cyberpunk world. And you're the good guys. How wild is that?!?!

Tekvorian
Tekvorian

Very atmospheric. I'm very impressed.
I have played 3 missions so far and I will definitely play more. It is inspired by Legend of Grimrock. So if you like that game and you like cyberpunk, then you must buy this.

Braxt
Braxt

A very atmospheric grid-based RPG/Rogue-like. The ability to know where to click "Close" or "OK" on windows is a little tricky, but the game play is really doing it for me. :)

NormireX
NormireX

If you enjoy old school first person turn based Dungeon Crawlers and also happen to enjoy Cyberpunk then this game is for you.

The maps seem to be randomly generated and you will also get random loot drops from enemies that include chips to slot into weapons/armor/implants etc.

You start with only having 3 character classes to choose from but will unlock all classes after only playing a few missions. Classes have multiple skills to choose from and you can swap out skills anytime at the Quarters. This is also where you will be upgrading characters.

I could do a very long in depth review but I'll just say if you enjoy first person dungeon crawlers and cyberpunk setting then you can't go wrong with this game. It's a good game to pass the time since Cyberpunk 2077 got delayed.heh

Overall I would give the game in it's current state a solid 8/10. There is room for improvement for sure, like maybe different tile sets on map generation as each map seems to just use the same rehashed sets over and over so while the map is different the tiles are the same. Anywho a small complaint.

Elaclaire
Elaclaire

English review:

I stumbled upon this game quite by accident a couple of days before its release, when I was looking for something interesting in the cyberpunk genre. At first I was very confused by the fact that the game went to EA. But I was instantly hooked by a soundtrack that fit perfectly on the advertising trailer and I decided to give the game a chance. And at the moment I do not regret for a second about the time or money spent on it.

Of the positive points I note:

Turn based dungeon crawler, which are recently released quite rarely, but high-quality ones are even less common.
Excellent transmitted cyberpunk atmosphere, great design of locations and characters.
A large number of game mechanics, making a noticeable variety in the gameplay, starting with the selection of operatives in your squad and ending with the tuning of microchips to enhance equipment and implants.
A good balance of characters, allowing you to freely experiment with your team, and not play all the time with the same bunch.
Great soundtrack which is replenished with each major update of the game.
The gameplay is quite peppy, albeit repetitive (but do not forget about the genre of the game). Missions are not time-consuming, so it’s nice to spend an hour playing in the evening, completing a couple of tasks.

Separately I want to highlight the fact that developers freely come in contact with the community, always respond to messages about bugs or problems encountered by players. You can hardly find a topic in discussions in which at least one person from the developers did not unsubscribe. For me it was a very pleasant surprise.

Most of the minuses of the game are quite typical for projects in EA. Various bugs can periodically occur, some game mechanics may not fit well into the comfortable gameplay.
Personally, I am not quite happy with the solution with the mechanics of the view during missions. It’s quite inconvenient to clamp the mouse wheel to rotate the camera, and even try to indicate with the cursor the right part of the opponent’s body for attack.

Various technical problems are not left unattended by developers, small fixes are constantly coming out. And the game itself is constantly growing with new mechanics and content with each major update - the game at the time of release and in the current state are two different games.

I really hope for further active development of the game.
Conglomerate 451 already has enough content for an early-access product to have fun and enjoy the game. Therefore for all lovers of such genres as cyberpunk and dungeon crawler,I definitely recommend a closer look at this game.

Рускоязычный обзор:

На эту игру я наткнулся совершенно случайно за пару дней до ее релиза, когда искал для себя что-нибудь интересное в жанре киберпанка. Сначала очень смутил тот факт, что игра выходила в ЕА. Но меня моментально зацепил саундтрек, который идеально ложился на рекламный трейлер и я решил игре дать шанс. На данный момент я ни на секунду не жалею ни о потраченных на нее времени, ни деньгах.

Из положительных моментов я отмечу:

Пошаговый dungeon crawler, которые в последнее время выпускаются достаточно редко, а качественные так еще реже.
Отлино переданная атмосфера киберпанка, прекрасный дизайн локаций и персонажей.
Большое количество игровых механик, вносящих заметное разнообразие в игровой процесс, начиная с подбора оперативников в свой отряд и заканчивая настройкой микрочипов для усиления экипировки и имплантов.
Хороший баланс персонажей, позволяющий свободно экспериментировать с составом своей команды, а не играть все время одной и той же связкой.
Великолепный саундтрек, который пополняется с каждым крупным обновлением игры.
Геймплей достаточно бодрый, хоть и репитативный (но не забываем про жанр игры). Миссии не затянуты по времени, поэтому приятно скоротать вечером часок за игрой, выполняя пару-тройку заданий.

Отдельно хочу выделить то, что разрабочики свободно идут на контакт с сообществом, всегда реагируют на сообщения о найденых багах или возникших проблемах у игроков. Едва ли в обсуждениях можно найти тему, в которой не отписался хоть один человек из разработчиков. Для меня это стало очень приятным сюрпризом.

Большинство минусов игры достаточно типичны для проектов, находящихся в ЕА. Периодически могут встречаться различные баги, некоторые игровые механики могут не совсем хорошо вписываться в комфротный геймплей.
Лично меня не совсем устраивает решение с механикой обзора во время миссий. Довольно таки неудобно зажимать колесо мыши для вращения камеры, да еще и курсором пытаться указать нужную часть тела противника для атаки.

Различные технические проблемы не остаются без внимания разработчиками, постоянно выходят небольшие фиксы. А сама игра егулярно обростает новыми механиками и контентом с каждым крупным обновлением - игра на момент релиза и в текущем ее состоянии это две разных игры.

Очень надеюсь на дальнейшее активное развитие игры.
Для продукта в раннем доступе Conglomerate 451 уже имеет достаточно контента, чтобы приятно проводить за игрой время и получать от нее удовольствие. Поэтому всем любителям таких жанров как киберпанк и dungeon crawler однозначно рекомендую присмотреться к этой игре.

Maximus Clusterius
Maximus Clusterius

I liked this game a lot in the beginning. However as it opens up harder and harder missions for your teams, you do not have the ability to select what level or which specific mission you want to engage, which is a major flaw from my perspective.

/|l13n
/|l13n

if u like cyberpunk games like Syndicate (Amiga), Satellite Reign, Shadowrun, or just dungeon crawlers genre, RPG's, u will like Conglomerate 451 ! and there is gamepad support ! Recommended ;)

Strykerx88
Strykerx88

UPDATE: Tried the most recent update after the dev reached out saying you could customize your characters' appearance. Unless I'm doing it wrong, it looks like the only thing you can customize is tattoos. You can't customize gender, eyes, race, etc.

Cool idea, cool combat system, but both the lack of interactivity with environments and the lack of party customization (can't adjust appearance, race, gender, portraits... anything) in a genre that thrives on such options puts me off and I do not recommend it to those who care about such things. The UI is also pretty basic and lacks polish which clashes with the environments, because although you can't really interact with the environments (from what little I played), they look great. It's strange having such a basic "programmer art" style UI over top good environments and character models.

The lack of interactivity in the environments is a bummer, but not quite enough to cause me to not recommend the game. However the lack of party customization pushes me over the edge to the "do not recommend" category.

If/when that is fixed, my vote will likely change.

Sarklor
Sarklor

Edit: Like I hoped, the first update has addressed some of the issues I mention. That's a good sign that the developers are paying attention to people, and bodes well for the future.

The game has been officially released for all of 24 hours as I write this. No doubt patches will make a lot of my gripes obsolete before too long.

I think the easiest way to describe Conglomerate 451 would be "What if Bullfrog classic Syndicate Wars, but Grimrock/Star Crawlers exploration and turn based combat, with a little X-Com base management between missions?"

You run some government agency which has just set up in the city of Conglomerate, which is wholly owned by corporations and utterly infested with corruption and crime, with the mission to restore order by using massive amounts of firepower, immediately letting us know we're in present-day America and you're basically flinging clones of dangerously unhinged and over-armed police at the problems until they go away.

Ok, it's a *little* more nuanced than that, but the game essentially boils down to sending cloned operatives out on missions, securing resources, and using the time between missions to develop your agency's training, research and development departments. Research new technologies, agent skills, weapons, character classes, DNA enhancements, cybernetics, and more. Your clones can develop physical and mental injuries during play, so do you put a valued agent into a healing tank for a week to fix that dislocated shoulder or do you keep them in the field and risk the damage becoming permanent?

There's a week of downtime between missions, and you have 75 weeks in total to take down all the main corporations. You get to unlock new areas of the city as you progress, which keeps the environments from getting stale. Missions vary from "find the maguffin" to assassinations requiring a mix of combat and multiple hacking minigames, which can be as simple as a timed button press, or as complicated as a timed word search in a constantly scrolling sea of similar phrases. They break up the exploration and combat quite nicely, and can offer some very nice loot to upgrade your agents' equipment.

Combat is a simple turn-based affair, very much like Star Crawlers, but where Star Crawlers cuts away to a separate, static map for each encounter, here it happens in situ, very much like Legend of Grimrock, but turn-based. You can initiate combat at range which is a good idea when attacking melee enemies as you'll get some free shots in. And if you manage to flank the group before starting the fight you can ambush them. Various abilities cause damage, buff and debuff and mess with the initiative order, and some attacks cause bonus damage or effects if the target has one or more status effects active. There's lots of potential for setting up some massive damage moves, but the enemies can do the same. It all works quite nicely, and I've nothing really to complain about.

That's not to say the game doesn't have issues, it's definitely a little rough around the edges; the cityscapes look great while some character models can look very uncanny valley or cartoonish in texture; Voice acting varies from good to quite poor; The dialogue and text (for the English, anyway) need more proofreading for typos, general grammar and some really odd mistakes (as a microbiologist I cringed so very hard at the thought of a virus being used as a "bacteriological weapon". Viruses make virological weapons, bacteria make bacteriological ones! They're completely different in almost every way!); The repetitive quips from your little floating robot guide get old very quickly; And there are a couple of small annoyances such as the glitch animations and sounds being rather... unpleasant on the ears. I get that glitches are *supposed* to be unpleasant but perhaps sacrificing realism for the sake of less nails-across-the-blackboard effects would have been a better choice.

But.

But the game gets a lot more right than wrong. Apart from the above problems, the graphics and sound are excellent. The mechanics are straightforward enough, but offer quite a bit of depth in terms of skill and research trees. The imposed time limit of 75 weeks will keep the story more focused than Star Crawlers' "here's infinity missions you can do between plot sections" approach, while the "Endless" mode does away with the plot and lets you clean up Conglomerate forever in a state of perpetual war, just like US police forces have always dreamed.

So. I think it's a good game, and if the studio takes on feedback and sorts out these niggling issues, it can end up being a great game. Whether you want to wait for a patch or two to come out before buying is up to you, but there's a good solid game here, no mistake.

Hobbes
Hobbes

Need your Cyberpunk fix whilst CDPR are busy putting the finishing touches to the game that will eat your life? Ever wondered what Satellite Reign would be like as a turn based RPG? Well, you can scratch that itch. Thoroughly.

This is a rare beast. Meet an example of Early Access done correctly. The game started off somewhat basic but with a good core concept. A cyberpunk version of Legend of Grimrock but with Turn Based Combat and with stellar music and graphics. That concept then got refined and added to over several months with the introduction of narcotics, with better hacking, with the ability to delve into a mini cyberspace layer, with a timed campaign where you need to complete your objectives within a fixed number of weeks (thankfully Endless mode was retained for people like me who just like farming and blowing stuff up).

Polish was layered on, bugs were fixed and new classes were added until eventually the 1.0 version stands before us now. With a solid tutorial and intro that drops you into the game and gives you a thorough idea of how the game works, but not quite so hand-holdy that you feel like you're being spoon fed everything.

The game still expects you to do some legwork and learn how to minmax your team, there's still some QoL refinements that could be worked on, but by and large where we've got to now is worlds ahead of where we began. This is a very full blooded dungeon crawler with brilliant surroundings, enemies that will punish you if you get too cocky, and a suite of upgrades that force you to often make tradeoffs as to what kind of build you'll be gunning (literally) for with your teams.

Syndicate meets Starcrawlers meets Cyberpunk, and the result is an effective and addictive dose of dystopia.

Your missions start out in the overworld city level (EDIT: You can optionally skip this now at least in endless mode, but I'd really recommend you do not), where your meat and veg is discovery of transit that takes you to your mission zone as well as accessing randomly generated vendors and dealing with, or avoiding street thugs who act as attrition encounters (as well as sources of credits, tech, and mods).

Once through them you enter your target mission zone via elevator, and enter one of several brilliantly detailed and featured areas, the graphics here are genuinely high quality, and the enemies are well designed and in keeping with the theme. Praise really does need to be heaped on the art design team, the level geometry is some of the best I've seen in a dungeon crawler, you're not going to get bored of these environments even after several hours farming the same places over and over.

The music, similarly, works well, and the menus in the corp screens where you manage your merry little band of misfits along with the combat beats are solid, well delivered and make sure you're always "in the environment", whilst the sound effects themselves vary a bit in quality this is forgivable on account of the soundtrack being -really- good. Again, it's not something you're going to get tired of even after extensive farming runs.

Any downsides?

There's a -few- but we're into "Nice to haves", things which probably were limited by the constraints of Early Access. Being able to insert more than one DNA mutation into new clones at an exponentially increasing cost would be useful, since some mutations are strictly more useful and others more situational.

Cyberhacking in combat still needs too many clicks right now, this could be rectified by adding them as additional skills as a second row in the combat skill palette. The Research tree could be cleaned up (It's still very much about passive gains, many of which could be rolled into more important nodes), and one or two of the classes could do with some extra love.

That's about it. Everything else is great. Oh, and possibly the ability to have permanent upgrades for the drone. But that one has been on my dream wish list ever since we could tinker with the thing.

Closing thoughts

Do you like dungeon crawlers? If so, this one is an easy win. At this price point, you'd be nuts not to get involved.
Do you like the idea of a cyberpunk dungeon crawler? Ditto.
This game set out with a very definite design goal. It's pretty much -nailed- that and done quite a bit more on top. For an Early Access triumph, I'm quite happy to see that it turned out pretty much as hoped.

Verdict: Highly recommended, especially to fans of Dungeon Crawlers who fancy a change of pace

Written for Balance Patch, if you'd like to see more of their work, follow the link in the italics

Space Dad
Space Dad

Based on my first few hours with the game, here's what I can say:

Premise / setup is pretty good. Game is a good mix of grid RPG, follows an XCOM esque formula, and allows for some pretty deep customization of character builds.

I highly recommend you disable the "Glitch effect" in game options to remove a super annoying sound effect.
I also wish I could disable Ego. I feel like the amount of chatter that stupid robot does is inane for being some sort of assistant to a military commander. The lines repeat constantly and I very much dislike having to hear the quips at every turn. Go for the eyes Boo was cute the first time, not the 15th.

Game has some visual rigidity, but environments are pretty and the mood is on point. I wish maps were larger, but I've only tapped the surface of the available play areas, and have not gone on any missions above a difficulty 1 yet.

I am hoping the difficulty scales up pretty rapidly, as my starter team is rolling over everything at the moment on normal.

That's my 2 cents.

Edgewalker
Edgewalker

It does not save your progress if you need to exit the game in the middle of the mission. No, thank you.

nakedPlumber
nakedPlumber

Monitor disconnects when the game is trying to go to fullscreen.
Well, maybe it's cyberpunk that I deserve

etherseraph
etherseraph

another low quality dungeon crawl with trappings of being "cyberpunk"

combat is slow and tedious with "range" weapons that have a range shorter then a baseball bat. weapons feel like your running around playing with airsoft guns for heavy weapons, and special skills just seem lack luster and pointless. Not to mention the noxious stupid ai drone following you around making "lol randum" comments constantly.

danspiral
danspiral

*** this Review has been updated after the developer addressed some of the issues. It's good to see that they are listening to feedback and including suggestions in their process****

This game. . . First off, I haven't played as much as it shows. I leave games on overnight etc. so. . . I've played a little over four hours. . . too long to get my money back and just long enough for this game's deep flaws to become unbearable for me. I can't recommend this game to picky gamers. Here's how it broke down for me:

Pros:
Graphics - amazing for the genre and generally fun designs.
UI - fairly intuitive
Controls - nearly flawless
Core Concept - Brilliant - this really is the headline thing I hope. Making an FPS orthogonal RPG into rogue-like is ingenious. This game proves that. Unfortunately ...

Cons:
Your level of annoyance will vary but :
1. Game Balancing - after the first few combats it became obvious to me that characters that do the most damage at the greatest range are simply the best at living. Since the only way to loose is to die, characters who are good at combat are just better. So I wound up with 3 of the same class (snipers) that just shot everyone in the head at maximum range and never really had any issues with difficulty. This means I could pretty much ignore 90% of the content. If you want to roleplay and like using other classes that's cool, but the game itself, as a game, felt really broken in this way. Perhaps in the later game it makes sense to bring other classes. Maybe shooting all the enemies in the head has some consequence that isn't obvious to me yet. . . probably not.
To clarify what I mean here: When I (rarely) failed hacks it didn't matter since I wasn't loosing combat anyways and so simply didn't need the combat enhancements that I didn't get.

Every RPG does this a bit, allowing players to choose their play style. Ideally it allows the player to feel they have more agency. But this game is unbalanced making it feel plain stupid to field non-ranged offensive agents. I encourage you to try it to see what I mean. just 3 ranged agents (the black lady - I forget it's name). It also speeds up the game dramatically as combat (even against 6 opponents) rarely lasts more than three rounds.

Nerding out on this topic: Imagine you're in an fps that takes place in long hallways, with no cover and you get three shots per turn. You can bring any mix of ranged weapons. I'm simply saying that anyone who doesn't bring the longest possible ranged weapons is making an obvious tactical mistake. In a mathematical/tactical sense I don't feel like this is really even a subjective issue.

update 2/25 *** No reason seen to change this critisism. The combat puzzle isn't much of a puzzle if I can just melt everything with headshots. It gets really boring really fast. I'll try it on hard mode to see if this is a difficulty level issue.

2. The credit and inventory system is riddled with time wasting. I realize that this may be part of the genre or something but its a bad part. I am, personally, annoyed by frivolously large numbers in games like this. It's just insulting when devs add zeroes to impress me. This game does that - you can just ignore 3 zeroes completely, they are there to waste your time. So is every gray item. When you sell gray items, you must sell them one at a time. Eventually you realize that because of problem number 1, you can ignore your entire inventory anyway, making this less of a problem in the worst way possible.

3. The music, during combat specifically, felt inappropriately energetic and aggressive. Metal is awesome during Mortal Kombat or Racing, but during slow strategic turn based combat? For me it was jarring. Turning the music level down massively improved the experience. (please note that I'm no audiophile, I can't think of the last time this was an issue for me)
I turned the music way down after about 20 minutes.

4. The AI dialogue - which you can now turn off after an update- is totally unforgivable. It manages to capture nearly every form of bad writing I can think of. It cites flawed conceptions, "I used to have a circuit like that" (the writers don't know what circuits are) , references it's own badness, "you want me to make another epic comment? Can't I just remain silent for once?" (yes, please god STFU), uses broken English, repeats itself back to back, doesn't have enough variety, isn't funny (ever), has inappropriate emotional reactions (wrong emotion at wrong time). OMFG add to this that it's just an annoying voice (or filter I don't feel this is the actor's fault) and ya. . . Audio has to be totally shut off. (The dev has promised this will become optional)

So ya, there you go - that's how I feel about this game. There's a lot to like, but it's full of razor blades. Actually I feel like it could be fixed:
- by making the AI voice optional
- increasing the range of all ranged attacks to 15m, the range differences added nothing I could tell to the strategy except making the already arguably useless classes into silly choices.
- Adding a sell all button.

If those things can change I can totally imagine seeing this game through but as it stands there are simply less nerve-gratingly annoying games I can be playing.

tango
tango

Game is ugly as f in a pretty mediocre rpg package... meh

YummerTV @twitch
YummerTV @twitch

Seems like this could be a very decent title with a few QoL changes.
Just to name a few things that I think would help a lot:

- Let us turn off the god damn android voice, please.
- Why are we forced to go into the city, facing the same boring enemies EVERY TIME to sell stuff? It's actually such a silly "feature" and it just makes the player hate his life.
- HEAVILY tone down the disorder/trauma system. I did ONE mission and each of my 3 units got 5-7 disorders and traumas. IN ONE MISSION.

On a side note, just adressing what I think is a massive issue in the game:
- Balance is really just fucked, you go from the easiest missions on the planet, to random boss battles that are near impossible. Some of the unit classes are just straight up worthless (bodyguard, techie just to name 2)
The normal missions just running around exploring, killing dudes or looking for stuff works fine, they're a little repetitive, but that's fine.

Also a MASSIVELY missed opportunity to have a cyberpunk/dystopian future themed game but not using any of the fantastic music artists out there. This game could've been absolutely MINT condition with some Pertubator, Carpenter Brut, Toxic Avenger, The Midnight.. Just to name a few.

tl;dr I like the game, it's fairly fun, but there are some really annoying features and RNG elements that heavily detract from the game experience. Is it worth 16.99€?(At the time of writing this review) Maybe.

(If the game gets some love from the devs, I'll revisit the game in the future, and hopefully give it a nice recommendation)

JasonPlaysGames
JasonPlaysGames

I wanted, very much, to like this game. I really, really did. The premise was really cool and the concept of clones and the imprecise science of creating clones seemed like it would make for a very intriguing bit of gameplay, and character creation was... well, alright. At best.

The game starts to look less and less appealing as you start playing, though. There's almost no point to exploration at all-- there's nothing clickable, nothing interactible, nothing to reward you for really looking around. The game, despite being a dungeon crawler, feels terribly linear, and that's not a good feeling for what it touts itself as.

And then there's the crashes. I've had a few times in my short time playing the game where the game would crash after a mission ended, and I'd lose my progress. This is not fun. This is not enjoyable.

Maybe in future updates the game will be better, but... I can't in good conscience recommend this game, as much as I really, REALLY wanted to like it.

KAL
KAL

Games a bit boring after a few missions, feels a bit repetitive. got a laugh out of the mecha Dora the explorer assistant. Maybe make a spanish setting for her? lol.

heffay1122
heffay1122

The games story line is actually pretty decent for the genre but when you tie in the atmosphere and the audio, it kind of brings it to life. A refreshing take in today's market.

The combat is where I have a personal bias. I completely require the ability to see my own units during combat.
This game does not have that. With this being said, this is the only negative part of my review and it's completely preferential. If you don't mind that- you need to buy this game.

The skills work in tandem and as such you can really get creative with your character builds. When I played, the enemy could not even pick a booger without talking DoT damage. Enemies can be very strong so watching them melt was so satisfying.

Equipment adds a bit of element to your character design but it's randomized so it may take more or less time to find things that you want. You can use all of it but if you're looking for very specific stats it may take some time.

You can research a lot of things to help in multiple ways. There's a lot of detail in the research so I'll just leave it at: it also helps to specialize your squad or help cover weaknesses.

All in all, this game is made with quality and care that you will both see and feel throughout your experience. It's worth the release price and I recommend purchasing it. Great job, devs!

Cogneter
Cogneter

I'm a big fan of sci-fi and cyberpunk games, so this one was right up my alley. I also like RPG elements, which this game has plenty of.

Instead of a free first person view it has a grid, which gives this game a retro feel, but in a good way. Kinda reminded me about the first Might and Magic and Lands of Lore games.

The game is still a bit rough around the edges - it has a few bugs and problems, but it's only been a week since the release. The robot companion has too few voice lines which it repeats too often, and the game itself can get repetitive if you play it for too long. I will unlikely go for a second playthrough, but I find the first one enjoyable so far (playing on Hard difficulty).

It's also worth noting that the game developers are very active on the forum (I got a response from them within an hour on a Saturday), which shows how much they care about their game and community.

So, all in all, I definitely recommend giving this game a try.

Alia Halfleaf
Alia Halfleaf

In my opinion this game is a little gem! It combines resource management with strategy and casts all this in a retro-style-game set in a cyberpunk environment. 9/10 from me for the game and 10/10 for the amazingly fast response from the developer! It literally takes less then 30 min to get a reply. and that way faster then any of my other 100+ games ever managed to do!!!

Fibulator
Fibulator

The game is borderline. The one thing that pushes me over the fence to recommend: I want more games in the cyberpunk genre.

Game is beautiful.
There's 6 zones... with what seems to be 1 map per zone.
You don't learn new skills, and the best chars are the first 3 you get. You use the exact same 3 skills every single fight. It's repetitive to the *extreme*.
The walk speed of the enemy during combat is absurdly slow. 4X and you'd be getting "close" to right.

One thing that pissed me off... my best char died... from installing an implant. No game does this... and it's not something that's mentioned beforehand.... at 70% humanity. I'm sorry... but WTF?!? Permadeath? From an implant?

There's no different between difficult 1, 2, and 3 missions, as far as I can tell... (except bosses) Diff 1 boss was brain-dead easy, Diff 2 killed my entire team before I got my first attack.

AMG
AMG

TLDR: boring combat, unbalanced skills, tab out= pause and clunky UI elements.

Bought the game. Played 4 in-game weeks. Got bored. Uninstalled. I don't know if the game will ever be interesting... maybe? But right now it's unbalanced af. I recruited 4 guys. 1 of them can one shot almost anyone, the rest of them might as well be shooting bb guns or sling shots. It's just repetitive combat, and the combat isn't that interesting, especially when it's just one guy killing everyone and the rest of them doing mostly nothing. There are a lot of buff\debuff skills, most of which don't work. (resist! resist! resist!) There's a large tech tree so that's cool. The game isn't a lot of story, it's just a lot of combat.

My critical feedback: If you tab out of the game, it pauses. This is about the worst game decision I've ever seen. It's a turn based game, it's not like I miss anything by being tabbed out. When selling items at a vendor, every item requires three clicks. Click the item, click to sell, click to confirm. But you're going to end up with a boatload of items and you can't multi-select or select all of a certain rarity. The UI is also super clunky. It's not obvious how a lot of things work or why. Getting to different upgrade screens isn't obvious and going back and forth is counter intuitive.

vluud
vluud

-uninteresting combat
-models leave much to be desired
-randomized dungeons make dungeoneering uninteresting
-cringy assistant
Impulse bought because cyberpunk. wasted money.

erampen
erampen

I love this game. I really like first person RPG:s with turn based combat. This game has beautiful colurful cyberpunk style graphics and a great soundtrack.

If I could ask for one thing it would be to have them record more comments from the bot that follows you around all the times. Or that the bot quits talking when you played for a while and heard all the comments.

ThunfischGott
ThunfischGott

A very vapid and unpolished experience.

I have played quite a lot of dungeon crawlers, and Conglomerate is far from the worst one. It has a good setting and some interesting ideas in the customisation and the combat hacking. That is however where the good parts end. Animations and models are awfull. All attacks lack punch. This combined with horrible balance that makes some classes useless and unfun makes combat more of a chore than anything else. Apart from combat this game does not have anything to offer since dungeons are randomised with small tilesets and without interesting layouts. The straw that broke the camels back for me however was the lack of customisation. All units from the same class look the same. This completely kills any XCOM style affection you could have for your cannon fodder units. Furthermore the dev has announced optical customisation is not a priority. Overall just boring, I refunded.

CAMELION
CAMELION

2 hours gameplay... great game in crawler style well made...grafics, zillion of upgrades trees,, costumizations, 8 research labs, good music. Nice game to use a lil bit of brains and chill. There is still some good story and cut scenes. As i said still a noob review.

ThePCGamer
ThePCGamer

DISCLAIMER: This is a first impressions review, and NOT a full review

Conglomerate 451 is a game developed by RuneHeads and published by 1C Entertainment

The game offers some nice graphics, although some ugly glitches here and there, it is pleasant all the same

Conglomerate 451 overall, however, is a fun game to play, and it does get boring if being played for a long time, but is an okay-ish RPG game and to play in short bursts!

RECOMMENDED :)

REVIEW SOURCES:
[list]
• None

Wolf
Wolf

Hey guys,

TLDR: If you like dungeon crawlers, especially futuristic (ala Starcrawlers) there is a good chance you will like this game too.

Conglomerate 451 is set in and under (water) a cyberpunk style city. Actually my favourite map is the 'entry' cityscape. I love the look and the rain/water effects are pretty nice. Would liked to have had missions based in an offshoot of the outdoor area but currently all missions are enclosed. After the tutorial mission you can skip this part and head straight to the mission, which i do not recommend as buffs and map hacks and shopping can be done in the city and can make the mission itself more rewarding and easier.

You as the Director of your corporation are in charge of recruiting agents to perform the main missions of the game. This is done by creating your own clones. They each have a class, four skills to pick out of a small list (which you can swap out later if you wish - losing any advancement in them though) and a select dna trait. You do not start with any but with research you can unlock more. So essentially the clones that come later will have a bit of an advantage in this matter.

The initial classes you can pick are the Soldier (DPS/Tank), Infiltrator (Sniper) and drifter (support) but others unlock as you progress. These are the Splicer (healer), the Bodyguard (Tank/support), the Techie (Hacker/support), the Juicer (Nutjob... i mean someone who gets much stronger when abusing drugs but will suffer for it) and finally the Binary (mini DPS/Support).

You can go through the game with no problems with just the initial three but i prefer the Soldier/Infiltrator + either Bodyguard/Binary. Credits and tech (Tech essentially a crafting/training resource needed for pretty much everything except unlocking memories (more on that later)) are the resources you need to advance.

Aside from the usual shield/hit points you have two smaller bars for Pain (combat damage) and intoxication (drug use and some enemy attacks). As these build up you can end up with negative trauma/disorders which if not treated in healing/detox tanks within a certain amount of weeks these problems become permanent. You are given a percentage chance of how successful treatment for each issue can be resolved per week in the tanks.

Between missions you spend time at your Headquarters where you can clone more troops, heal and detox your agents. try to unlock memories, research the various trees (Clone/health/training/Military and Cyber), view the agent graveyard where your failures go, Directors office (overview), train and manage agent skills and slot mods into weapons, shields, cyberdeck (for hacking - doors, containers and people) and even cyborg parts you can unlock via research. Careful though add too many new body parts in a short time can cause the agent to die of cardiac arrest as i found out :) though you are given a heart rate que which of course ignored first time!

There is a background pre-story which i wont spoil and to find out about it you must find and unlock (hack) memories of the past. You find on occasion these pulsing orbs on a level which you can hack and if successful you end up with one of the 20 memories that need decrypting at H.Q. To do so you decide how much money you are going to throw at the problem with a min of 5k. Essentially you are buying a better percentage to unlock but RNG being what it can be i have spent fortunes before finally managing it.

The main goal is to take out the Leaders of four rival factions to make allegedly the city district safer. There is no story that runs concurrently with the present.

Wow review getting to long (you can probably tell i dont usually write them :) ), so i will sum up in the usual fashion.

Pros +

Cyberpunk (for me anyway).
Stable - not one crash in 87 hours or so.
Pretty decent looking for what it is on max settings and fluid gameplay.
Decent controller support.
Lots of customisation.
Good price. I certainly got my moneys worth!
Trauma/disorder mechanic that feels Darkest Dungeon esq.

Cons -

Cannot customise agent other than tattoos with a change of portrait direction.
The five biomes (random gen) other than the city could use more variation in my opinion but is ok.
Once you take out the 4 bosses which you can do fairly early (20-30 weeks), even on hard you are left with just random content to finish the game at 75 weeks. Some achievements do not unlock till you do this. So if you are an achievement whore you must grind for it.
Endings are to the point but compared to the intro upon starting a new game seems rushed and VERY abrupt, though hints of a sequel maybe in the offing :)

Im sure there are more things to say both positive and negative but i do recommend the game, it is addictive and im planning my third replay to get the third ending.

Cheers!

CHOO CHOO
CHOO CHOO

The game does a poor job explaining itself, has very bad English localization, and the voice acting is so annoying I wonder who thought that a good idea.

There might be a good game in there, but I bounced off in the early minutes. Refunded.
I might retry it one day, when I have more patience.

w1nt3rmut3
w1nt3rmut3

If you are an older gamer and like Cyberpunk, give this one a try. It's like cyberpunk Eye of the Beholder with turn-based combat. I have played a lot of trash cyberpunk games on Steam. This is not one of them.

Xaubun
Xaubun

I have mixed feelings about this game.

Pros-
Neat atmosphere, randomly generated dungeons, interesting combat system
Cons-
Feels a little unpolished, Confusing disorder/ trauma system, repetitive enemies

It has really nice atmosphere and feels thoroughly cyberpunk environmentally, however the animations sometimes feel a little janky and the models feel a little low res compared to the lighting and environments. Sometimes an enemy wont even move for their turn despite their actions happening mechanically.

The story is simple, pretty standard for a cyberpunk setting. Some of the dialogue writing is a little confusing and feels like an odd translation, but this is more for a select few lines through the game rather than a massive problem. It's not a dialogue heavy game so overall this isn't super important.

The mechanics are neat where you need to treat your agents sometimes after a mission, but it felt somewhat unexplained so I had to figure it out on my own leaving some of my agents with a laundry list of disorders I didn't realize.

Once you've seen every enemy they start to feel a little repetitive, with the only special "new" enemies being late game bosses you fight only once. Harder levels only change the stats of the enemies instead of adding new ones.

Overall it's a game worth getting on sale and if you're craving something to mindlessly play to sate a cyberpunk craving, but it overall feels like it needs a little more polish. I feel like the system could be expanded upon and turned into something really cool if given the chance. It's nothing to write home about, but nothing to avoid either.

jpr64
jpr64

I finally completely abandonned the game after spending more than 24 hours in endless mode... Permanent trauma on one of my character even after healing him right away is a no go.

This game is a slow game and the investment in any character takes times... It's not like you're able to create a replacement with the same level in 15 minutes : it takes hours...

I have other games to play or replay with a cyberpunk vibe.

JPR out!

Bear
Bear

Hi,

this game tickles so many cyberpunk itches, it's insane!
After having played "Shadowrun" games many times this world feels exactly like that.
The atmosphere is so deep and immersive that I don't want to quit the game after a mission (or more)...

And I don't have to: In the game's "story mode" are (I guess) 75 missions.
After that or instead you can play open end.

There are so many good things to say about this game,
like when you exlore, you don't have to move to every single spot on the map (like in "Grimrock"),
you explore everything at a distance of 2 blocks.

I encountered a bug twice (not gamebreaking):
when extracting "SPU"s sometimes you can't click;
you will have to hit ESC - which works well.

In short:
Buy it!!!
(not only if you are a cyberpunkt fan ;-)

CoolImmatureNatureBoy
CoolImmatureNa…

( not my final review so ) Its alright so far.

Its cool to see Dungeon Crawler type game sets in Cyberpunk world...

But small thing i dont like about this , it has that weird censorship during Cloning cutscene which i dont understand why they need to cover that ...

kiario
kiario

Sorry, but I cant reccomend this game. Its a far weaker variant of star crawlers.
Goal is to defeat 4 bosses before week/turn 75.
I did it on hard week 45. SO I had just to speedrun missions after that to wait for week 75.
There is very little challenge. Even on hard.
I did not upgrade my team to the fullest, far from it.
Graphics are ok.
Gameplay very weak. Same thing over and over again. Exact same attack order.
So, sorry to the devs who made it that I did not like it. Its far too shallow.

Djtooth
Djtooth

This game has great visual design, and some good ideas behind bodypart targeting and hacking, choosing DNA for cloning. Even some interesting hacking mini games. But the core gameplay just is not fun. I really wanted to see what would happen with the story and the rest of the features this game had to offer, but the combat was boring, and the music is just uninteresting. I found myself just wishing I was doing something that I enjoyed.

Silt
Silt

Blobbers are my favorite type of game, so I'll play any of them I can get my hands on, have been since the 80s. This game is just....boring and bad. First of all, there is no manual(manual link on Steam doesn't go to a manual) and no in-game help to tell you about many gameplay mechanics. As such, some of the skills make no sense when you hover over them. Decided I was done with this game when I used a skill in combat that stunned the character that used it for 3 turns...and nothing in the pop-up explains why.

Combat is slow and boring...same ole same ole. Levels look pretty, but so far they all look the same and have basically the same layout. Played a few missions and never found a single secret passage, secret lever, or anything...a hallmark of blobbers is missing here. During combat you can get pain and disorders, game does nothing to explain how to address those, figure it yourself I guess. You can start combat from a distance, but you can't move to close on mobs. Somehow the mobs can close on you from a far distance and then get to attack. None of this is explained. Silly.

UI is as un-inuitive as it comes. Hold right click to see your characters? Hold right click to hack? Hacking mini-game is timing pressing the enter key or read "code lines" and clues and click the right ones. Boring.

Honestly not much positive to write about this game other than it's pretty I guess. Avoid this one.

tabu_niw
tabu_niw

I got this game for only 4,99€, so I actually have a bit of a bad conscience for this rather negative review.

Anyway, Conglomerate 451 is in many aspects a typical 1C games: an interesting premise for a game, but a flawed execution.
For example these things stod out for me after around 3 hours
:

    • the UI is messy and tedious to use
    • the wound system is needlessly complicated (just like other things in this game)
    • the character 3-d models look like the imported directly from the Unity asset store
    • the game GFX overall look uninspired and very much like the standard low-budget unity game
    • the core game-loop starts very quickly to become repetitive
    • can't save during missions

There are a lot of little things like these that quickly add up and make the game much less an enjoyable experience.

For all these problems I mostly blame the publishing company 1C. I'm convinced that with a bit of helpful criticism from 1C during the development, this could have become a much better game.

Finally, I don't regret buying it for 4,99€. But even if I'm a big Cyberpunk fan, that's all I'm willing to pay for this game.

Aikido
Aikido

Summary

A cyberpunk themed first person party-based dungeon crawler (e.g. The Bard's Tale, Legend of Grimrock, etc.) featuring turn based combat within procedurally generated mission maps, headquarters and party upgrades between missions (ala X-COM,) with both story and endless modes to choose from.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2192656854

What exactly is it?

The player controls a group of cloned and augmented paramilitary law enforcement agents, tasked with ridding Conglomerate City of corporate-controlled gangs. You do this by creating new clones, upgrading your headquarters, and dispatching said clones on various missions. Successfully carrying out missions reduces faction influence over given areas of Conglomerate City by a certain percentage amount.

During missions you control a squad of three clones in turn based exploration and combat viewed from the first person perspective. Movement takes place in a step-wise manner from grid to grid. You can turn left and right, look around, and interact with certain objects or NPCs. These include vendors of mods and drugs (which affect clones in various ways,) terminals which can be used to apply certain risk vs reward effects to the current mission (i.e. stronger enemies in exchange for more XP,) or log files and locked doors you may hack or find keys to open.

In combat, you select from clones' skills to attack or debuff enemies, and buff or heal your agents. Combat is turn based and uses an initiative system to determine when you can act. There are shield and health bars which can be depleted, as well as a "pain" meter which, if it increases, can lead to trauma and debuffs. You can equip various mods to weapons, shields, and hacking systems, as well as choose between a raft of skills for each class, allowing customization and specialization.

Clones fit into a series of archetypes (in the game's lore, they are all based on specific now deceased antecedents) which correspond to traditional RPG roles (healers, ranged, tanks, DPS dealers, support, etc.) Although they are all based on the same original persons, mutation during cloning ensures they are all slightly different. This lends recruitment a sense of unpredictability as one iteration of a class of clone won't be statistically identical to another. You can also choose from a series of face and outfit color options.

Choosing a synergistic combination of clone types can lead to some useful effects. For example, using a clone with the Mark ability together with another who has the Kill Shot skill can allow enhanced damage, often leading to one hit kills or at least placing enemies into the "dying" status (which leads to death when failing a saving throw.) Adding a healer or support class as the third agent in a squad can round out such a trio. You are free to experiment with different combinations, which I found gratifying.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2194892199

Mission types range from exploration, to defeating all enemies in an area, to achieving more specific objectives like finding or destroying a given object. While maps are procedurally generated, they all take place within clearly defined regions of Conglomerate City, and as a result they can vary aesthetically and in terms of thematic design. Completing or failing missions advances time in week-based increments. In Story Mode you have 75 weeks to complete the game before events result in failure, creating a sense of time pressure.

Back at your headquarters, you have a variety of options to strategically manage how you progress through those weeks and try to achieve victory. Firstly, you can clone new agents, which is essential due to the fact that no matter how careful or successful you are during missions, clones will eventually require medical attention due to pain, drug intoxication, or trauma. You can also spend resources gained from missions to upgrade various parts of your headquarters and clones. Upgrading the healing system will permit you to heal more clones at a time, improve the effects of healing, and heal different kinds of maladies (such as detoxifying from drug overuse.) Unlocking new gene mutations will allow you to create stronger and more capable versions of clones. You can also unlock weapon, shield, and skill upgrades.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2194891835

Finally, you can decrypt log files you've found during missions which reveal the history and lore of Conglomerate City, which ends up being more intriguing and deceptive than you might initially expect. Decrypting log files requires a risk vs reward assessment, as you must pay credits to raise your chance of success, and failure means loss of those credits with no benefit.

The entire game's design seems to hinge on this sort of cost-benefit analysis. Every decision you make means fewer resources to spend on something else. If you decrypt a log file, you have fewer credits to spend on upgrading tech. If you upgrade tech, you may not have enough resources to create new clones, etc.

Missions are similarly tense decision making affairs. Suppose your shields are depleted, but your HP is in good shape. If you've already completed the main mission objective, do you take on remaining enemies in hopes of gaining access to loot, while risking death? Or do you call it a day and return to base, leaving behind the XP and items, but ensuring mission success and survival? I found that this coupled with the relative mission brevity contributed to a feeling of, "Just one more mission!"

Story Mode offers some plot, albeit one more concerned with worldbuilding and lore exposition than a personal or character-driven narrative. The world's history and dynamics are sufficiently interesting to drive progression. The optional Endless Mode contains the same core gameplay, but never ends.

PROS:

    • Fun translation of first person dungeon crawlers into a cyberpunk setting.
    • Interesting lore.
    • Texture work, art, lighting, and design are strong and atmospheric.
    • Amusing quips from an AI NPC who accompanies you.
    • Addictive "just one more turn mission" gameplay loop.
    • Great sense of tension and cost vs reward decision making in everything you do, in a way similar to the X-Com games.
    EXCELLENT customer support and developer engagement! Bug reports are directly responded to in the forum. I had a specific issue with low fps due to a display not being supported, which they went the extra mile by emailing me a proprietary diagnostic tool to address. Great developer!

CONS:

    • Enemy types, missions, and combat can become repetitive after a while. (But this is more or less true of every dungeon crawler I've ever played.)
    • There is currently a minor floor texture issue in some junctions between modules which the devs are aware of and addressing.
    • Some sub-menus initially feel confusing.
    • No ability to save & quit during missions without abandoning mission.
    • Significant line aliasing/shimmer despite in-game or externally forced/injected settings.

Technical considerations

1) If you have a 240Hz display and encounter a low fps issue, navigate to the installation folder (C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\LocalLow\RuneHeads\Conglomerate 451) and in the setting.cfg file, change the refresh setting to 240, and exclusive fullscreen mode to true. Save as cfg, not txt.

2) Significant issues with line/edge shimmer regardless of settings, even at close distances. Best result for me was 4K DSR + enabling in-game AA + 8x MSAA + 8x supersampling + clamped negative LOD bias + 16xAF + injected additional SMAA & FXAA via ReShade. Shimmer still persists when moving, but this was the best solution for me. (Sparse grid supersampling + MSAA did nothing.)

Conclusion

Recommended for fans of straightforward turn-based dungeon crawlers craving cyberpunk vibes and settings.

Midnight Exotica
Midnight Exotica

Definitely not a deep, Tactical RPG, like a Might & Magic experience, but fun and gorgeously rendered.

I would pay a single lincoln for the game, not a penny more or you may be let down.

Dallas
Dallas

Fun game for the price. Has an X Com vibe.

empirecity
empirecity

The Story Mode for this game lasts 75 weeks. You are asked to kill the bosses of four corporations.

Each week is a procedurally generated map, with one of three missions. Kill a guy, Kill all the guys, or find items.

After about 20 weeks, you'll have seen as much of this as you would ever want to.

You have a base where you can upgrade your technology, agents, etc. You can get to a point where the difficulty (on hard) becomes pretty trivial around week 40. Have two agents spec for 100% crit chance and 80+% defense. Have a third agent that can spam shield healing, and 80+% defense. Done and done.

So by week 40, you'll be ready to finish the game.

There are four boss stages. They aren't much harder than ordinary stages if you have a decent build.

Ok, so it's week 45 of 75 and you're done. That's fine, actually, and if the game ended at this point I would say get it on sale for $5-10.

The problem is that the game doesn't end. You get to keep doing the procedural stages which I was tired of at week 20, for another 30 stages. Finally I just failed a bunch of missions to move things along.

Also, it turns out the endings are brief text walls, which was disappointing considering the beginning had some graphical sequences to introduce things.

I think the developers had a good concept but failed on the execution. Pass.

Fyrscha
Fyrscha

I had high hopes for this one, but I am going to refund it. The theme, core visuals, and game mechanics structure are all sound, but in execution it fails to be a fun game. The interface is rough and not enjoyable to use, the sound design is C+ at best, the music is repetitive and forgettable, the equipment/upgrades are uninteresting and forgettable... that's pretty much my problem with this game.

It's a great idea and theme with some good visuals... but then it feels like everything else was made in a hurry or by people who didn't care. Finally, the agent customization is trash, practically non-existent, you can't even choose hair/eye/skin color options, let alone outfits. Sadly, thumbs down + a refund.

Juan_B
Juan_B

It's a fun, if not overly complex game. There are many options, though the balance means most of them won't be used more than as a 'lets try it'. Same goes for many of the upgrade options. The hacking is functional and useful, except it's heavily restricted in your quantity per mission. So it becomes near useless, then later completely useless as one of the most powerful upgrades requires you to save your battery power - using only tiny amounts for collecting loot. The inability to swap out gear means many of the specialized upgrades, only for certain enemies, is rendered a poor choice. None of this stops it from being fun. Nice graphics, each area has it's own theme. The boss fights would have been a challenge, but the game gives you the option to pay extra on a per mission basis for little boosts, some of which are not so little. Replay value is limited by what you learn about optimizing from your first playthrough.

JJ Black
JJ Black

The basic combat is completely broken. Temporary buffs (like defense, damage, crit and so forth) DELETE your passive bonuses gained from equipment upgrades.

For example you reach 100% crit on your Infiltrator which is cool and all. but when you use the buff to increase her accuracy, crit and damage it REMOVES the same percentage of crit gained though the buff from your passive gear bonuses UNTIL THE END OF THE MISSION.

This happens WITH ALL STATS (Damage, Crit, Accuracy, Defense) so you have to actively avoid picking up upgrades and perks which do ANYTHING TEMPORARILY. Unless you want to run around with nothing but your base stats to keep you company

Damage vs Cyborgs, Androids and Humans (Racial damage buff) and Damage vs Radiated, Stunned etc just picks the lowest percentage so it seems. Having your soldier deal 65% more damage to irradiated enemies is pretty cool until you plop in an upgrade to fürther increase that by 10%...now your cool anti Radiated dudes shot only deals 10% bonus damage. FUN

I love finding out combat mechanics in these games but THIS........its madness

TheGnashing70x7
TheGnashing70x7

A good game with fantastic visuals.
Gameplay-wise it's a little slow paced and gets repetitive (a little more enemy variety would be nice), but overall this is solid stuff.
If the words "cyberpunk dungeon-crawler" get ya going, then you should definitely check this out!
At the discounted price you can't go wrong.

tilde.d
tilde.d

The game got very repetitive for me. The concept was nice and the visuals look fun but the gameplay couldn't hold up for me.

machinedgod
machinedgod

I almost didn't get this game because of the reviews. In reality, this game probably has everything I hoped I'd get from it, and a whole lot more. I paid about 6$ for this game, and its worth much, much, much more! If I knew it was this good, I'd pay 20-25$ for it, easily.

To start with, it is a mashup of Syndicate, XCom and old-school grid RPGs.

The XCom/Syndicate part is in your base management: between missions, you get to clone new agents, setup research, heal/detox your agents or manage them. You don't get to build base rooms, like in XCom, but you do get many more things to do and stuff to spend money on, than Syndicate gave.
Researching costs two main game currencies, and sometimes it takes multiple in game turns ("weeks") to complete, and it gives you unlocks towards agents or base upgrades.
Heal/Detox mechanics are similar to XCom's, but more complex. Most of damage is dealt to shields (which can be recharged), but damage to HP has to be healed by putting an agent in the tank for an amount of turns. You can also get negative effects, which can become permanent within few turns, unless you successfully heal them (RNG) by leaving the agent in the tank.
Lastly, in agents management - you get to upgrade their weapons, upgrade their shields, upgrade their cyberdecks, install cybernetics, change their skillset (you can only bring 4 skills to mission) or promote those who collected enough XP for extra perks.
You can install boost items into each piece of equipment, and you collect these on missions, either by looting defeated enemies, via minigames, or via trader. These boosts can be installed in a different place for different effect (ie. if installed into weapon, you get + to attack, but if installed into cybernetic legs, you get + to initiative).
Cyberdeck on the other hand takes 'plugins' instead, which are your special offensive/defensive abilities during combat.
There's a _lot_ of tinkering here, and its fun to min/max your abilities to specialize each agent into a specific role.

Missions are how you pass turns. There are 7-8 different zones, each one with its own specific art style, and you unlock new zones as your reputation grows. Every map is procedurally generated, and in 4 hours I played, they're different enough to not feel like you're always doing the same thing. In addition, every zone feels very different. You are always offered few missions to choose from, and they vary in rewards and difficulty. Some missions are special and have a time limit (in turns) within which they have to be finished. These usually give you permanent boosts such as - extra currencies per mission, cheaper research, etc.

Combat is the meat of the game, and its a standard turn-based thing. Initiative decides turn order, there are synergies between skills, you get to hack enemies to drastically change some of their stats, etc. This last one costs you 'battery' life, which is a resource you use to engage your cyberdeck, whenever you hack something. Aside hacking enemies, you can also hack doors (if you can't find the key), hack some of the devices to extract boost items, or hack special encrypted items, which then you need to decrypt (for a lot of cash) in your base.

It seems there's enough content in there -given with how many upgrades, research and other unlocks you have- to keep one entertained for over 30h.

If you like turn-based combat, and you liked Syndicate/XCom base management - this is the best mashup of both I've ever seen. Can't recommend this game high enough!

N71
N71

Game is actually nice. But not great. It is funny, well-done art, etc. I enjoyed to play a first half. But then I got tired a bit. I speed up the fight animation in settings, but I'd like to spped it up more, honestly. Then I killed all the bosses and, since it was a 50 week of 75, I thought why not finish it? Yes, you can finish it only on 75 week, no matter what you do. So, after the 60 week in became extremely annoying, I skipped everything I could just to reach the end faster. And the ending was disappoining.

Comparing this to Cyberpunk, as it was in ad company, is just ridiculous. But art is very inspiring and it's a good thing to enter, make a few fights and leave. Of course, you need to finish the mission before leaving. Buy on sale, have some fun from time to time.

Austin<3
Austin<3

Cool aesthetics undermined by monotonous gameplay. Every class basically just does debuffs, buffs, and a handful of vaguely useful attacks. There are better blobbers out there.

Codelizard
Codelizard

It's Starcrawlers, but Cyberpunk.

And without the charm, the enemy variety, the plot, the character building, the consistent theme...

It's kind of a mess because the concept is neat, and the game makes a strong impression at the start. But then it falls off hard when you find there are only six locations and you will see all the enemies you're ever going to see on the first visit. Your agents gain levels, but the bonuses are very minor and don't make the agent much stronger; most of your power comes from your gear and skills. And the skills can be numerically improved but the ones you start the game with are all you get. Since there's so very little plot (and the plot missions are basically just normal missions) you'll see all the content in the game early.

...which wouldn't be so bad... except that even if you complete the game's central objective of "kill all the corp bosses", you still have to play out 75 weeks of the game to finish it up. Screw that.

It's also got some major balance problems. A lot of the bonuses you can get are irrelevantly small; +2% HP (when your base is 50-ish. Oh boy, one hit point!), or +2% damage, for example. But on the other end of the scale you can, quite easily, push an agent to a 100% crit rate very, very early on in the game, and then just curbstomp everything you come across. If you take the soldier (who can recharge shields), the infiltrator (for damage), and any sort of support character, you're basically invincible and combats are over almost as soon as they begin. And you can ignore all the defensive upgrades and just take the "If you have X% of your battery left, get 50% damage reduction" upgrades to make things even less of a threat.

All the game's written lore comes in 20 'echoes' that serve as a money sink and, all added together, make up about one single note's worth of lore from most other games.

In summary, great concept, but incredibly disappointing once you get past the beginning.

Special mention to the drone that follows you around and makes witty remarks that get old very quickly. It's completely out of place in the tone of an otherwise very serious Cyberpunk game and has a pool of lines way too small for the number of times you'll hear it speak. But the devs must have known, because they gave the drone's voice its very own volume slider.

cobosdan
cobosdan

** FINAL SCORE **, played the game (maxed out my team, defeated all enemies, etc)

This game is a veritable hidden gem !
Great cyberpunk ambience, brilliant ideas, fine combat and progression, in this rogue grid crawler.
Take the time, read 2 guides in the Community Hub and be surprised.
Highly recommended, loved the story.

RuneHeads is very on my radar now, 2 fine games, what are they doing next ?

Now, enjoy this beautiful game !

-------- Previous considerations

( Have changed to positive, because of playing the, for me, totally brilliant "Fall Of Light", another game by this studio.
So good, that I must give Conglomerate 451 part of that respect gained. )

------------
Would really, really love to play Conglomerate 451.
Love the graphics, the story, everything !

But, found **no saving while in missions**.
I consider my time valuable, and losing it if I must stop play, or simply decide to stop, makes me pause.
I know I can make savegames myself (winrar the relevant files in C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\LocalLow\RuneHeads\Conglomerate 451)

Or maybe will wait **TILL and IF they implement saves (the devs talked about it after so many asked for it, let's see).

BUT frankly, seeing how fun is the other game by them, Fall of Light, I'm sorely tempted to try Conglomerate 451 anyway.

Alexander Mirdzveli
Alexander Mirdzveli

What made me refund the game during the very first mission :
- You cannot save the game during the mission
- The first fight was laughably simple : all three bandits were eliminated by my first AOE attack
- SPU (yes, S) extraction minigame is a mindless reflex clicker (and yes, you cannot save before it and try again)
- The boss fight had 9 turn time limit (and I failed it).
Who needs fancy graphics when there's no game fun behind it?

Tadeash
Tadeash

Relaxing colorful game. The combat and mission objectives are simple but there is complexity in researching various areas that enable you to gradually make your clone soldiers into unstoppable super-cyborg killing machines. Fun!

lobstermadness
lobstermadness

Some very good ideas and nice cyberpunk graphics held up by a sometimes clunky interface and a repetitive gameplay loop. It gets a thumbs up because it is clear what the gameplay is from the start so people should not be expecting a AAA game. The lack of variety in the enemies is the biggest drawback and the devs should have done something about that. It is a C+ game that could have been a memorable B+ game with some more effort.

Old Raver
Old Raver

The game has a beautifully cyberpunk surrounding and some interesting cloning. A bit of a mix of Grimrock or Starcrawlers with a turn base battle system
there are two way you can play the game Story witch you got complete in so many weeks or Endless Mode
you can also research technology , health , special skills etc

If you like dungeon crawlers, especially futuristic (Starcrawlers) there is a good chance you will like this game too.