Esse Proxy Preview: Dastardly Deaths

The last of the ‘never heard of’ demos is Esse Proxy. Have you heard of it? Is this a game that’s built up a fair amount of hype and I’ve only just stumbled across it? It doesn’t matter. What matters is this upcoming game by FromSouthGames is superb.

Jumping straight into it, I find that I’m in a dystopian cyberpunk city. It’s a top-down twin-stick shooter like Hotline Miami, but with Ruiner-like visuals. Your hero in the game can do a little stealth melee or fly in fast with ranged attacks but beware: it’s a one-hit-kill setup.

The difficulty in the game was brutal: one hit and you’re dead, restarting from the beginning. However, that works both ways as enemies can be offed in the same manner. To say that you have to be accurate in Esse Proxy is a massive understatement as that one bullet will decide if you live or not, as the AI in the game was pretty decent.

Just to level with you, I didn’t finish the demo due to time and skill, but that didn’t stop me from wishlisting it and fast-tracking it to the top – this game is impressive. Several characters are available, but I was a Major-like character in my playthrough, as seen in Ghost in the Shell. Like her counterpart, she could use a special where she becomes invisible, and though that may seem like God Mode, I still fudged it up and got killed by an enemy.

Esse Proxy gives the impression that there are multiple ways to do a level as if there’s no one set way. In one attempt, I’d melee everyone (pretty damn hard, and it’s not a case of button mashing – you need to time your rolls). Another go would involve barging through a room, shooting one enemy, then hoping whoever else was in the room would follow me out. Usually, they’d hit me on my way out.

I can’t really say that much else about the demo as I didn’t finish it, but it’s just so cool, I can’t recommend it enough if you like top-down shooters with high stakes. Later in the game, there are vehicles you can ride, a deeper dystopian narrative, and other characters, each with their respective skills. 

Go to the Steam page now, have a look-see, then wishlist it (unless the demo is still up). It’s brutal but absolutely worth your time.