The Cruelty Squad Sequel is weirder than we could have imagined

Had anyone showed me Cruelty Squad just a few years back and told me it would be one of the best ImSim titles ever, I'd have laughed in their face. Today, I get it. It just clicked. Thing is, Cruelty Squad's getting an Early Access sequel, and it's even weirder. Putting Cruelty Squad into sensible terms is impossible. It's an objectively ugly game. Often disturbing on a level that's hard to put into words, it's a celebration of all the mechanics of a true Immersive Sim, albeit one that's actively hostile to the player on every single conceivable level. It's a phenomenal game, too, if you can believe that, and Zoey Handley covered the topic much better than I ever could. No, I'm not here today to guff about the wild, abstract awesomeness of Cruelty Squad. I'm here to let you know that its sequel, Psycho Patrol R, is coming out in Early Access today, on March 24, and it promises an even stranger and more compelling experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qJzBYTU3c Psycho Patrol R is out in Early Access on March 24 Though Psycho Patrol R appears to be a standalone title, it is an honest-to-goodness sequel to Cruelty Squad in all the ways that matter. It is due to cook in Early Access for about a year, according to the developer Consumer Softproducts, and the goal is for it to follow the rough production outline established by its predecessor a while back. The pitch for Psycho Patrol R is appropriately ridiculous. The game is a "mecha FPS hybrid policing and punishment simulator set in the decaying state of Pan-Europa." Players step into the shoes of a V-Stalker mech pilot operating with the purview of the titular Psycho Patrol, which the developer explains is a "special unit tasked with counter-psychohazard operations and neural meltdown prevention using cutting-edge criminological frameworks." Look, I'm not saying this game is a trip, but it should be plainly obvious that it's a trip. On that note, the bit I'm particularly excited about is that Psycho Patrol R is somehow both easier and more difficult to parse on a purely visual level. Specifically, PPR's level assets and character designs (the ones we've seen so far, at least) are obviously those of our own world, as opposed to Cruelty Squad's incredibly abstract designs and texture work. This helps ground the action, only for all the wacky weirdness of the meat-mecha, the UI, and the weird psycho-tech to make it nonsensical once again. It's Weird at its best, or so I hope. In summary, then, if you've been eager to play something at least about as weird as Cruelty Squad was a few years back, now's the time to jump into Psycho Patrol R. Just keep all the usual Early Access caveats in mind. The post The Cruelty Squad Sequel is weirder than we could have imagined appeared first on Destructoid.

Mar 24, 2025 - 12:03

The Cruelty Squad Sequel is weirder than we could have imagined

Had anyone showed me Cruelty Squad just a few years back and told me it would be one of the best ImSim titles ever, I'd have laughed in their face. Today, I get it. It just clicked. Thing is, Cruelty Squad's getting an Early Access sequel, and it's even weirder.

Putting Cruelty Squad into sensible terms is impossible. It's an objectively ugly game. Often disturbing on a level that's hard to put into words, it's a celebration of all the mechanics of a true Immersive Sim, albeit one that's actively hostile to the player on every single conceivable level. It's a phenomenal game, too, if you can believe that, and Zoey Handley covered the topic much better than I ever could. No, I'm not here today to guff about the wild, abstract awesomeness of Cruelty Squad. I'm here to let you know that its sequel, Psycho Patrol R, is coming out in Early Access today, on March 24, and it promises an even stranger and more compelling experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qJzBYTU3c

Psycho Patrol R is out in Early Access on March 24

Though Psycho Patrol R appears to be a standalone title, it is an honest-to-goodness sequel to Cruelty Squad in all the ways that matter. It is due to cook in Early Access for about a year, according to the developer Consumer Softproducts, and the goal is for it to follow the rough production outline established by its predecessor a while back.

The pitch for Psycho Patrol R is appropriately ridiculous. The game is a "mecha FPS hybrid policing and punishment simulator set in the decaying state of Pan-Europa." Players step into the shoes of a V-Stalker mech pilot operating with the purview of the titular Psycho Patrol, which the developer explains is a "special unit tasked with counter-psychohazard operations and neural meltdown prevention using cutting-edge criminological frameworks." Look, I'm not saying this game is a trip, but it should be plainly obvious that it's a trip.

On that note, the bit I'm particularly excited about is that Psycho Patrol R is somehow both easier and more difficult to parse on a purely visual level. Specifically, PPR's level assets and character designs (the ones we've seen so far, at least) are obviously those of our own world, as opposed to Cruelty Squad's incredibly abstract designs and texture work. This helps ground the action, only for all the wacky weirdness of the meat-mecha, the UI, and the weird psycho-tech to make it nonsensical once again. It's Weird at its best, or so I hope.

In summary, then, if you've been eager to play something at least about as weird as Cruelty Squad was a few years back, now's the time to jump into Psycho Patrol R. Just keep all the usual Early Access caveats in mind.

The post The Cruelty Squad Sequel is weirder than we could have imagined appeared first on Destructoid.