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Conglomerate 451 Review – A Cyberpunk Dungeon Crawler!

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Conglomerate 451 is a grid-based, dungeon-crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world. The year is 2099, (so I guess we’re getting flying cars in 79 years, guys!) and you are the CEO of a Special Agency, instructed to restore order to sector 451 of the city of Conglomerate, where corrupt corporations have embedded their influence! You are authorised to create human clones, called ‘Agents’ to eradicate crime and restore order at any cost. You have 75 weeks to complete your objective or it’s game over!

Conglomerate 451 – Great Combat, Weird Movement

In Conglomerate 451, most of your time will be spent in ‘Combat Mode’ where you will have three agents under your control. Your ‘Agents’ have four different abilities. These can be attack, defence or support-based skills. In addition, the game features a unique targeting system where you can focus on certain parts of enemies such as the head, left arm, chest, right leg; the choice is yours! How you target your opponent’s body parts could sway the course of combat.

Additionally, the enemies you face can be hacked! Your Agents have ‘battery life’. Using some of this power can give you information on your opponents or weaken and disable them. But be careful, as your Agents are at risk of sustaining permanent traumas that will follow them between missions. Moreover, if your Agents die in battle, they will remain dead. They’re clones, after all, so you can technically recreate them from scratch, but they will lose all upgrades and skills that you have added to them.

Conglomerate 451When in combat, the game uses a hit chance system similar to the X-COM games. However, just like X-COM, Conglomerate 451 has the good old issue of attacks frequently missing despite a 99% chance of hitting! Now, whilst combat is engaging and entertaining, I did find the UI to be too small and confusing. I frequently struggled to tell how much damage my attacks were inflicting and what buffs or debuffs were affecting my enemies.

When not in combat, Conglomerate 451 uses a grid-based movement system. I wasn’t a fan of this style. To me, it makes the game feel clunky and stiff. The grid-based system can also make combat awkward with battles starting at odd angles, leaving enemies stuck on the bottom or sides of your screen. Throughout your journey, numerous hacking mini-games can be played during missions in order to gain knowledge, unlock hidden areas and collect valuable resources, such as new weapons and upgrades.

Home Base – Clone, Research and Develop 

Upon completing missions, you gain Reputation, Credits and Tech. Reputation is needed to unlock more research opportunities, areas to explore and types of clones for you to create. Upon reaching the desired reputation, you can use your credits and tech to research upgrades and improvements for your Agents such as additional health, stronger shields and advanced weaponry.

If you have played an X-COM game before, the home base will feel extremely familiar. The station also includes the Cloning Center where you will create your squad of Agents. When designing your clones, you will need to decide on their backgrounds (classes), their memory blocks (abilities) and mutations (passive abilities). With such a huge variety of options to choose from, you can create completely unique teams that can drastically switch up your combat playstyle!

Conglomerate 451In Conclusion: 

Conglomerate 451 successfully merges the Dungeon Crawler and Roguelike genres together to create a highly enjoyable cyberpunk experience! For those wanting a taste of what Cyberpunk 2077 will be bringing later this year, it’s likely that Conglomerate 451 will satisfy your itches. Nevertheless, while the game doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, I can’t say it does anything amazing, either. 

With the game priced at £16.99, I would say there’s a lot of value to be had here, especially if you are a fan of Dungeon Crawlers! Conglomerate 451 is currently available on the Steam Store. If you are interested in purchasing the game you can do so HERE!

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