VLADiK BRUTAL

I see a lot of people in the reviews saying that this game is a "Indie Russian Half-Life" and after playing it, I can't think of a more fitting description. It is a few hour-long FPS, (apparently made by a single developer) that takes heavy inspiration from Valve's main franchise. It has fast gameplay, very "punchy" gunplay and is decently optimised (although it did crash twice on me during my playthrough).
Well worth the price IMO, I've played several FPS games that were of worse quality while being several times more expensive.

absolute old school spirit, with a lot of jank.
"Russian Half Life" is not really the worst descriptor for this game. i found myself woefully addicted to this though just from the gameplay and level design alone. the physics based puzzles were interesting, if a bit repetitive with the batteries, and the fights were all really well paced, bar one of the last ones which frankly had too many enemies that it becomes an overwhelming gauntlet that requires either RNG or cheats due to how item spawns work.
overall though, it feels like a game made by a guy with a vision and an idea of good game design. a lot of the encounters are well paced and don't overwhelm you too much, there are a lot of interestingly designed levels, some with unique gimmicks, and gameplay is the bombastic "play what you got" type shtick. it really leans into old school gameplay dynamics with each enemy playing differently, but not having counters be so riggid that dealing with them becomes annoying and unfulfilling. it's a kind of arcadey stupid fun that i wish more games dared to offer. most modern games seem to have to be designed with some deeper gameplay purpose or have to have a particularly engaged combat loop, but Vladik Brutal just gives you the toys and says "go half fun". if you're expecting each tool to be purpose built, you're going to be a bit disappointed.
honestly, i wasn't expecting much of anything out of this game. even watching gameplay, i only saw a janky indie shooter with bad enemy models. the more i played, the more i wanted to play. the more i wanted to dig deeper into the gameplay and experiment with it.
i got it on sale, but this is well worth more than even the basic price of admission. 12 bucks is definitely a good deal on this game, and though the story wasn't particularly riveting, i found it complementary enough to the carnage on screen, which is enough for me.
if you're apprehensive about this, and just want an old school dumb fun shooter that feels unbalanced in some of the best ways, please play this. the gameplay overall is tight but fun, very free form, but doesn't pigeonhole you into playing too specifically. the gunplay is punchy, the enemies are diverse and interesting in their own ways, and the level design, though somewhat basic, has some pretty good looking set pieces. it's also very lenient on resources, as the game offers dozens of caches that can pick you up any time your down.
what are you waiting for? get playin!

The aaa space ought to be ashamed of itself when people are making games like this. Buy it yesterday.

Awesome game! My Half Life 3 fix. Excellent ending. Thankyou Vladislav Meshcheryakov, you put those so called triple A developers to shame!

I love a game that wears its influences on its sleeve unapologetically Vladik Brutal does exactly that, dropping nods to its Half-Life roots in memorable ways. If you're craving that golden age of game design but paired with slick, modern shooting mechanics, this is your jam. The recoil takes a moment to get used to, but once you do, It’s so damn good.
The setting drips with atmosphere from dilapidated Soviet panel blocks to murky underground labs all drenched in a grim aesthetic that’s equal parts nostalgic and original. For one solo developer, the ambition here is staggering: expect 7 to 8 hours of action, puzzles, vehicle segments, platforming, and secrets galore.
Yes, it's rough sometimes. Voice acting and translation can feel early access, and level design occasionally leans toward routines like "press a button, open a door." Enemy AI can be brutal and punishing. Yet none of that undercuts the core fun: fast, visceral gunplay with ragdoll carnage that feels spectacular sometimes reminiscent of FEAR with all the gory flair. The last huge battle was a bit of a pain to get through and I had to cheese it.

This is the kind of game where you look back to the price before making a review.
Well, I can confirm - it's (very) good value for money, even full price. Is it perfect? No. It's not even always good. In fact it has every bit of the flaws you'd expect from a solo A game dev trying to look like an AA studio is trying to make an AAA game. And you know what? Close enough, if you're well disposed toward Half Life 2, slavic jank edition. The story is ass, but it has more charm than any pompous Far Cry drama. The tech is dated, but it's fast, crisp and stable in ways STALKER 2 can only ever dream to be. The gameplay is overseen and basic, but it's very basically satisfying. You click on things, they explode in gibs, it's quite nice. Sometimes there's a boss which doesn't bust your balls to much once you figure which weapon tickles their fancy. At the end you have to scumbag save like a mad man for the grand final, like an old call of duty. Cute.
And then (15h for me) the credit rolls.
So ok, it's just one Russian guy for the most part.
Then you see his top donors, in rouble. Oof.
Man, this game was made on nothing but slavic passion and probably a decent amount of smokes. It's hard not to love that.
Anyway. Vladik Brutal. Not a must play but if like me you'd rather play retro shooter that at least look visually modern and can stand ye old corridor shooter campaign, he's your guy.

This feels like a Russian Half Life 2 mod, with all the positives and the negatives that come with that.

When I first purchased the game, I didn’t realise that it was made mostly by a single developer. As such it’s rough around the edges, and the story is terrible. I wasn’t quite expecting this, though that’s on me for not doing my research, and I struggled to connect with the game.

I persevered after a while, and as the game progresses and gives you more tools and more interesting combat scenarios, it really worked for me.

It really feels like a Half Life 2 mod in many ways, there are some very obvious homages to it, the enemies literally feel like reskins for many of them, and the weapons follow the same pattern, eg pistol, revolver, shotgun, SMG style gun, longer range assault rifle. The story is terrible. It appears to basically just be Russia, there’s little context, and you as a prisoner are used as part of an experiment. Something goes wrong and there are mutants everywhere, and security forces try and kill you. Periodically you arrive in dingy apartments or other suitably terrible Russian locations to have the plot, such as it is, progressed by a Russian man mumbling dialogue at you. I can give a lot of leeway for amateur story telling if there is something interesting there, but there’s nothing really there. I got very bored in these sequences, though they are mercifully short for the most part and infrequent. The dialogue is all in Russian, though subtitled in English, though a lot of incidental dialogue isn’t.

The world is very atmospheric, both from the oppressive eastern bloc atmosphere, and the strange growths and pretty decent design of the monsters, but there isn’t a narrative direction behind it. To give an example, enemies in Half Life 2 can be put in several categories, Metro Cops, Overwatch, Nova Prospekt guards, Synths, Xen creatures etc. At each point in Half Life 2, it makes complete sense why you are fighting each group and why they are there, eg Metrocops chase you at the start of the game and then disappear because you go outside the city, they only reappear in the chaos of the City uprising. In the case of Vladik Brutal, it just seems to throw enemies at you in the order that it feels works for gameplay, with no real narrative or world building thought.

A lot of effort seems to have gone into references, memes and humour, but it’s all in Russian and aimed at Russians so it went over my head.

The game lacks the excellent pacing of games like Half Life 2, with some long underground sections that just drag. AI can also be dumb, often just charging in.

The game mostly runs very well for me, 120 FPS on max settings, 4k, though there was a single level in the middle which seemed terribly unoptimised and went down to 30FPS. After that level things returned to normal for the rest of the game. It’s not the best looking game, but as mentioned, it has a great atmosphere.

Despite my complaining that though, I really enjoyed most of my time with the game, because it nails the shooting. Every weapon is satisfying to use, and produces a fantastic gory result. Covering the walls, ceiling and yourself in gore while using the shotgun never gets old. So much work has gone into making sure every weapon has great feedback. The sound design is good, using them produces bullet holes and shell casings that stay in the world, and hitting an enemies results in limbs and heads being removed, or bloody bullet holes all over them. It is clear this is where the effort went, and it was clearly the right choice.

Though the pacing and the combat scenarios aren’t as good as Half Life 2, and can drag in parts, there are many areas that are still fun, including a great train station and then train level and it rewards sticking with the game through a rough opening hour or so with some really fun gameplay.

This game is solely built around having fun gunning down hordes of enemies in as brutal a fashion as possible, and if you go into it looking for that, you can have a great time.