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G String is like Half-Life 2, except that I like itBach to the future

Bach to the future

A screenshot from G String showing the torso of a masculine, bald android, mounted on a wall. It is asking the protagonist to take it with them.

Scout Reportis an irregular series of indie game recommendations from Sin Vega, offered first to RPS supporters.

Today it’s time for some futuristic sci-fi action with (the terribly named)G String.

Old school shooters are still in vogue and that’s basically a good thing. But I wonder where it’ll lead.

G String might offer a clue. As well as having possibly the worst name in history, it’s a strange sort of throwback to the early/mid 2000s, an era you might, if you had to say these things for a living, call “middle school”. I’m surprised at how refreshing I found that.

A hallway in G String, the lighting yellowy green. Some kind of large piece of circular stained glass is propped against one wall. There is a patchwork of different coloured, patterned rugs on the floor

It also doesn’t have quite the motivation it really ought to in the opening hour or so. You’re a test subject in somewhere when… something happens. Then you escape because of reasons, climbing and running and jumping and fighting through filthy tenements and cramped urban infrastructure on your way to… somewhere. It’s not clear at all. But those environments are positively dripping with detail. The occasional loudspeaker adverts and propaganda broadcasts aren’t subtle but they sell the atmosphere along with the murky ambience, creepy robots, and fantastic graffiti, piles of art and debris and garbage.

An outdoor shot from G String. There’s a large ship in the sky, which is pink transitioning to orange and yellow. The floor is littered with different bits of circular scrap metal

It’s a shame that you don’t really get to run around the kind of open areas that, say, EYE Divine Cybermancy indulged in with the same engine. It makes sense that you’re crammed into tiny spaces most of the time though, with exceptions mostly being areas you’re harried across under fire. Itfeelslike the world around you is huge, but you mostly see it only vertically as you scrabble through the decaying hell city in the midst of an apparent revolution that might mean little better than what you’re running from. It’s a mood, innit. Do I miss that era? I didn’t think I did, but G String has got me rethinking that.