Dex

Dex is an enjoyable game with multiple shortcomings. It has some promising features—like RPG elements, quests, melee and ranged combat, AR, and Metroidvania elements—but most of them are only skin-deep.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the game a full-blown Metroidvania, but it does incorporate a few elements of the genre through body augmentation. For example, you can acquire a higher jump or protection from environmental hazards, which opens the door to previously inaccessible areas. Here’s the funny part—you gain the ability to augment your body during the main questline. I was initially worried it might have negative consequences (probably some residual trauma from Deus Ex: Human Revolution), so I kept putting off the operation. But as it turns out, there are no downsides whatsoever. In fact, one of the augmentations gives you health regeneration. While certainly a welcome feature, it’s so overpowered it borders on cheating.

Back to the Metroidvania aspects: the abilities gained through augmentation are optional for the main plot but are key to unlocking certain side quests.

Overall, the quests are decent. Having them at all is a plus, as they give you more incentive to explore the game world. That said, there are two major issues. First, they feel a little too cookie-cutter for the cyberpunk genre. Both the main plot and side quests are exactly what you'd expect from a cyberpunk setting—nothing that breaks the mold. The second issue is that quests are overly linear. Branching outcomes are few and far between; most of the time, they follow a straightforward sequence of steps. On the bright side, leveling up your dialogue skills can unlock alternative solutions in some quests, which is a nice touch.

Speaking of skills, the RPG system is surprisingly solid. It covers all aspects of gameplay: exploration (lockpicking), AR, and combat. You can’t max out everything, but you’ll earn enough points to build a well-rounded character by the end. I also noticed a real impact when upgrading specific skills—leveling up melee combat, for instance, turns you into a one-person wrecking crew. The downside is that, in most cases, skills don’t change the way you play; they just tweak the numbers under the hood.

Melee combat is a case in point. At the beginning of the game, even a single enemy can be a serious threat, and two can spell trouble. But as you level up, you start dishing out more damage and can knock enemies down. However, there’s no real depth added to the system—button mashing still wins the day. Fighting multiple enemies takes some effort, but it boils down to rolling between them and taking them out one by one. A lone enemy doesn't stand a chance. For example, there's a side quest where you face off against an augmented mercenary described as an absolute killing machine. You even have the option to weaken him beforehand. Maybe he really was a beast, but I’d never know—he didn’t land a single hit.

Augmented Reality is another example of shallow execution. The mini-game doesn’t evolve at all beyond the tutorial. Leveling up the skill just makes you faster and boosts your damage output, but the core gameplay remains unchanged. Dex never really pushes your skills—even at a basic level, you can coast through without much effort. I suppose it’s designed that way so the game remains beatable regardless of your build.

I’ve got another bone to pick with the AR system. The objective when hacking a computer is to reach a data point, but the game doesn’t explain what that data point actually does—even when you reach it. Sometimes you’ll hack a system, activate the data point, and nothing seems to happen: no update in your journal, no new item in your inventory. Later on, you might receive a side quest that finally explains why that hack was important, and then it all clicks. But until that point, it’s just confusing. It would’ve made more sense if the game triggered the side quest right after acquiring the data, to give players a clearer sense of progression.

One last major gripe: the lack of bosses—or at least memorable, challenging ones—in both AR and the real world. It’s a missed opportunity, as those fights could’ve added much-needed variety and tension. There are also bugs here and there, though thankfully, I didn’t encounter anything game-breaking.

All in all, Dex was fun to play, but it’s a diamond in the rough. There’s plenty of potential here, but the game needs more polish and depth to go from "just okay" to truly great.

I want to open this review by saying I am not the target audience for this game, and you should take that into consideration while you read.

Dex promises an open world, multiple outcomes for quests based on your choices, and a focus on exploration and non-linear gameplay. In my experience none of this was shown during the first few hours, which I've played on several occasions hoping to find out why people seem to love this game before ultimately giving up. I think the game might open up a little more later on though, to be fair. I checked a guide and it looks like quests actually do start providing the player with options.

My first "choice" in my play time was to do an NPC's request and reach the objective in a slightly easier manner, or refuse and have a little more combat. Doesn't really change the outcome, unless it comes into effect way down the line. My second choice was how I finished a side quest. I had to convince a character to do something for me, and had three options. I tried the one I liked the most, it failed. I reloaded the save and tried another option. It failed. I reloaded the save and tried the third option, this time it worked. I couldn't see why it worked when I should've been able to succeed with another of my options based on my character skills, so I looked it up and learned that particular side quest had only one acceptable answer. Lovely. Not much of a choice, is it?

The story up to the point I kept quitting at was similarly railroaded, which makes a bit more sense considering the presumably low budget this game had but also left a sour taste in my mouth. Being forced to do something I'd have refused if I were really in that situation is a great way to ruin immersion for me.

The last straw is completely unforgivable in my opinion, and it's that idiotic hacking minigame. What kind of sense does that make, do you think real hackers are playing space invaders or asteroid or whatever to get into a company's dirty little secrets? I know this is just a game, and I know the inspiration for the gameplay seems to be 80's and 90's era games, but that's just ridiculous in addition to being frustrating and not at all fun. The other gameplay aspects I could get on board with, but that's just too much.

I really don't understand why this game has as many positive reviews as it does, but again: I am not the target audience. If you think you are, wait for a sale. I've seen it as low as 90% off before.

Garbage.

Good cyberpunk game, interesting.

Even though this game is nearly 10 years old and I am only reviewing this game now, I hope they make more cyberpunk games like this and polish them more.

A longer game and story, more characters with back stories, side quests and more interactable objects in the city.
Some nice synthwave, psychill, vaporwave, industrial and trance music soundtracks would be great for immersion.

I have to give this a thumbs down and say its cheap and trash. I've been wanting and hurting for good cyberpunk games and gave this one a go. The starter combat is straight trash. They just take advantage of pause in your animation to hit you and then other stupid things like they can power up and attack but if you roll or any of the avoidance stuff you still get hit. Same for normal hits and blocks. I feel like maybe this game was made for controller but the keyboard and mouse did not seem responsive enough to make it a non issue.

Some of the leveling and dialogue and exploration seemed cool but whenever it came to combat it was just straight ass. Kept bringing me out of the experience continuously. Since theres a lot of combat - this affects a lot. do not recommend.

Tedious resource management.

I was intrigued at first and bought on sale. Unfortunately played too long to get a refund.

I noticed that once I killed enemies in an area they never respawned. Went to do some reading and discovered nothing respawns. There is a finite amount of EXP, money and items in game. Maybe this is for you. If so that's awesome.

Not for me. Dex requires you to manage the limited resources you have and if you make the wrong choices you could end up late game having to restart because you got locked out. It's not for me.

Dex is a great, if short, cyberpunk beat-em-up RPG. I think I paid $2.99 and got 20-ish hours out of it for 100%. I'm slow so I tried to do everything and go everywhere. I expect a typical person would complete it in 15 hours or less.

✅Controls are easy to learn.
✅Melee combat is mostly about timing blocks and dodges, so pretty forgiving.
✅Cyberpunk setting and atmosphere are great.
✅A lot of voice acting for a small game. Character quality varies but all feel unique.
😐No way to respec your attribute points. I had 40 points by the end of the my run, but still....would be nice.
😐Typical cyberpunk story. Big corps are bad, you're the special/chosen-one, nothing new here.
😐Guns are in the game, but I never felt the need to use them.
😐There are two (pretty short; maybe 60-90 seconds) endings and it basically comes down to a binary choice at the end, so most of your actions during the game don't matter.
😐This game is really more about the story. I didn't find the combat all that difficult. I didn't mind, but some folks might be put off by ease of combat and abundance of healing items.
😐Enemies don't respawn, so once you clear an area it stays clear.
❌You keep climbing past the top of the ladder...for all ladders. Not a game breaker, but strange.
❌It's short; Not much in the way of replay value.

Overall, I think I got out of Dex exactly what was on the tin and I wasn't disappointed. Big thumbs-up for cyberpunk fans.

Czech astonishing dubbing performance, amazing story, hard yet great mechanics and fighting system, unforgettable characters, simply brilliant, an easy 10/10. I hope the creators will make something awesome as this is in the future.

Dex

Let me start by saying I’m a huge fan of the cyberpunk genre, so when I stumbled upon Dex, I was instantly interested. After completing 100% of the game, I can confidently say it’s a solid experience, though it isn't groundbreaking. That said, I’d still recommend it to fans of the genre looking for a fun, shorter adventure.

Let’s jack in and expand a bit upon some points of the game:

1. The Gameplay

Dex gives you a few ways to tackle situations, but none of them feel particularly deep. Combat boils down to three main approaches: brawling (which is mostly button mashing), ranged combat (which lacks weapon variety), and hacking (which stuns enemies or is used for interacting with the environment). While all of these are viable, they don’t evolve much over the course of the game and by the end, you’ll feel overpowered no matter which path you choose, and enemies stop being a real challenge.

There’s also a stealth option, but it feels even less developed compared to the other systems. You don’t get many tools to enhance stealth beyond a single implant and after a point, it gets pointless to sneak about.

I wish the game had leaned more into specialization, letting you build a character that feels cool and actually evolves as the game goes on. Instead, the skill upgrades are pretty basic and don’t significantly change how you approach the game.

2. Story

The premise is classic cyberpunk: you’re up against a powerful, evil megacorporation, but this time, you’re the “chosen one” with a special role to play. While it sounds generic, the story is actually decent but it just moves too fast. There are a lot of characters the game tries to make you care about, but you don’t spend enough time with them to form a real connection. Events unfold at a rapid pace, and while there’s potential here, it feels like the story could have used more room to unfold itself.
 
To give you an idea of how fast things move, I 100% the game, including all side quests, secrets, and achievements, in about 10 hours. You start as a nobody and end up as someone capable of taking down a megacorp, but the progression feels rushed. I think the game could have benefited from an extra 3-4 hours to flesh out character relationships and make the story’s pacing feel more natural.

3. Visuals

The game nails the cyberpunk atmosphere, from the gritty slums to the sleek, high-rise skyscrapers of the rich. Each area has its own distinct personality and theme, and they’re all well-designed. The visuals do a great job of immersing you in the world.

That said, the final sections of the game feel a bit rushed and uninspired compared to the rest. Some areas are reused, and it feels like the developers were running out of time or ideas. Still, overall, Dex delivers a visually appealing and atmospheric experience.

TLDR:

Dex is a good game for anyone looking for a short, straightforward cyberpunk adventure. It does a lot of things decently, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. If you’re a fan of the genre and don’t mind a simpler, more compact experience, it’s worth checking out.

For the first time in my life I was upset that a game ended. It's very sad to part with this story. A great game. Thanks for the fun (and the tears)!

It's aight. I don't think I got far enough to experience what makes this game good but I didn't dislike the time I played it.

Awesome cyberpunk story with competent writing, in-depth worldbuilding and interconnected questlines. The only downsides are slow elevators and somewhat boring combat.

highly enjoyable game, the combat is somewhat simple (but not necessarily easy), exploring is fun and rewarding, and the quests range from the simple "go here do this" to more complex situations with different possible approaches. the game is also kind of short for its price, but when on sale it's totally worth it

I found Dex to be too infuriating a game for me to recommend. Dex follows the titular character as she aims to bring down a shadowy organization hunting her down, but the game just isn't one that stands out from the crowd in a good way. Neither the typical cyberpunk dystopia setting nor the uninspired chosen one plot bring anything new to the table, and the characters, while pretty decent voice acted, are all just kind of uninteresting. The combat, both in the overworld and in cyberspace, feels like garbage, and no matter how you decide to spec your character, you're going to have do quite a bit of both. There's also a myriad of bugs - small graphical glitches like enemy sprites sometimes teleporting about if you choke them from behind, technical glitches like being unable to move during a fight, or quests sometimes not updating properly. I sincerely don't believe that Dex is worth your time or money when there are better RPGs out there.

a game wanting to be requested for labor of love and it doesnt even support the most absolute basic features. lets get cloud support before any awards ar given. i have 1000 titles in my library and i want to say less then 10 are this outdated with base features. even fallout 3 added last year 🤣

A very enjoyable game for a reasonable price, and with a nice cyberpunk story to boot.

I don't hate the game. It's certainly nice to look at, but for all the time they spent drawing nice backgrounds they didn't do much of interest in them. The game's combat, while featuring a great deal of enemies throughout the course of the game, re-uses the same foes who, even when optimizing a character for combat take a great deal of time to beat. The game's soundtrack is extremely limited for the game's runtime. They really needed more enemy variety, or less enemies overall. The hacking sequences have the same issue.

The game's writing is not terrible, but the premise certainly isn't for me as a cyberpunk story. The protagonist is simultaneously too important, and too irrelevant with all of the worst aspects of both. The characters lampshading chosen one narrative, and the general issue of a cast that chews the scenery both in the lines, and delivery isn't ideal.

The progression is actually quite good, going from just scraping by to having wild electrified high kicks to bully the street thugs that were a massive threat prior. Then getting that new tier of enemies in the last level to bring the difficulty back.

I give a tepid thumbs up for those craving cyberpunk games.

The combat is boring, and the game wants you to do a lot of it

They need to make a sequel. We need DEX 2.

Surprisingly, this is actually a really good game.

I enjoyed the game. The combat was a bit awkward, but you'll get used to it. The voice acting made it more immersive.
The controls don't really work with the controller, so you'll have to get use to the keyboard controls.

It usually goes on sale for $1.99. Pick it up and give it a shot.

A great game, especially for the price it is being sold at the moment. Here in my country it went for less than a dolar in exchange for 15 hours of gameplay, doing pretty much everything that could be done. (Did two of the three endings. In any case, you should give a try. Also, try to survive the first two hours, as the game seems a little... not your cup of tea... at first. But it does get very good.

I feel like a criminal for buying this game on sale

Wasn't sure what to think at first, namely because of the gamepad controls, but once I got into it, I really liked this one. Good music, great art (though they should have cut the lip-syncing, as some of that is nightmare fuel). Story was fairly interesting but SHORT (most of the game is sidequests), and the majority of the voice acting helped sell it. Gameplay wasn't as hard as I expected at first; I ended up with tons of healing packs at the end, because I spent too much time saving and reloading early to mid areas. It's a bit janky, but there's a flow in there I just didn't see at first. I wish I had heard of this game a decade ago, and I'm sad there doesn't seem to be any action from the developers on here. I would've gotten a sequel. I'll probably play it again, too, so I definitely got my money's worth.

The combat is so bad that I couldn't even last an hour.

bad ass progression in a cyber punk setting with good hand to hand combat, silent take downs, guns if you prefer more action than stealth the upgrades are something to look forward too. the story keeps you wanting to find out whats next and the actors do a great job, not a single silly dialog and i was waiting for it... overall a very enjoyable game and the only game i have gone out my way to purchase on steam, love this game :) .

Fantastic game with an interesting story. I enjoyed the combat and stealth elements regardless of the games minor flaws.

8/10

Rough around the edges, but not a bad Cyberpunk RPG. Personally, I'd pick it up on sale, $20 is a little steep to me, but I can understand the price tag on release considering the amazing voice acting that Dreadlocks probably paid a pretty penny for.

craptastic.

Great game! I haven't been able to get very far in it but i'm curious to see where the story is going... if i can ever get there.

Cool concept, but gets really boring real quick.
I want to give props for the idea of the game & the voice acting is absolutely the best I've seen in a budget rpg like this.

So if you're tired of text based rpgs only, this game actually managed to do this to perfection.
Good job on that part.

A fairly short and sweet game. a little rough around the edges combat wise, especially at the beginning of the game. I barely used guns throughout the game honestly. I even 100% this game, but sadly 2 of my achievements got bugged and wouldn't register, even though I did what the game wanted...
Overall, for the heavily discounted price I paid, this was a fun little game that kept me hooked to completion.

If you want an easier start with this game, I highly recommend you put a point into AR as soon as possible. Hacking most bad guys will will stun them, allowing you to go right behind them and perform a takedown. This allows you trivialize most encounters in the game until you start coming up against heavier combatants; but by then, you should have a decent inventory and level-ups to compensate. After which, definitely try to get at least 1 point in Lockpicking near immediately, with maxing it out being a priority after the 1 point in charisma. Speaking of Charisma, get at least 1 point in Charisma as early as possible (it was my very first or second spent skill point spent). I also highly recommend a minimum of Hacking level 4 sooner than later. After which, you should have a good foundation for the rest of your playthrough.

Game is okay but the developers are power abusive assholes. One reports a bug and workaround and gets banned. What a piece of shits, bunch of little script kiddies who can't even programm a bug free game and admit that they suck at it.

8/10
Bought this when it released, but got cold feet and kept putting it off. Wow! What a great RPG! Perfect? No, but leagues better than most. Great story (felt a little rushed in the last act). ABSOLUTELY STELLAR atmosphere and art. OOZING with dystopian cyberpunk style.

Great quests. Great combat (difficulty curve is a bit quirky: REALLY hard at the beginning, trivial midgame when you get leveled and equipped up, and then REALLY hard at the end again when there start to be a lot of enemies thrown at you). Multiple ways to come at many quests. Alternative endings for many quests. Choices matter... somewhat. The hacking minigame gets stale by the end, but it's not torture. Great level up perks.

I accidentally made the right choice at the end, though. It wasn't quite clear in the gameplay which choice was which. I may have missed a context popup though. I had been so trained to hit Y that I did so on the first data node I came to, but got the ending I wanted, so, at least I wasn't mad about it. It did make the ending cinematic feel a bit anticlimactic though, especially because right before, you're in the sick-of-it-already hacking minigame and then, BOOM, ending and roll credits.

It has good reviews, so I can't call it criminally underrated, but I've never heard anybody talk about it, so it DOES seem criminally underpublicised.

A bit clunky but entertaining 2d cyberpunk game for those who grave for new Deus Ex.

story is somewhat interesting, mechanics are somewhat interesting, combat is buggy and awkward, checkpoint system is AWFUL.

A good cyberpunk story, a fun character and decent gameplay.

Its worth the couple of bucks I spent on it.

A stand out for me is the soundtrack which is very good.