Streets of Rogue

became thief, pickpocketed over $1,000 from poor people and the corpses of my enemies, used $500 of it to bribe the mafia to rig the election, used the other $500 on weapons and drugs to use on the rich scum and police of Uptown, reached the Mayor's floor, realized the mafia did absolutely nothing with my $500, broke into the Mayor's home, pickpocketed his hat, and then became mayor with my intellectual speech about thievery.

It seems like a simple rogue lite, and in some ways it is, but the really impressive thing is just how many different systems it balances to create one of the most enjoyable sandbox games I've ever played.
A lot depends on your character class. There are tons to choose from with crazy unique play styles. You can play as a cop and get rewarded extra XP for arresting enemies and following the law. The soldier archetype is all about the guns, so it's best to go for more aggressive traits and items that favor the use of firearms, and maybe you should give him the ability to be unaffected by his own explosions too. But then there are super crazy classes like the Shapeshifter, a naked little person that possesses people in a way I don't want to explain. It's extremely fun to manipulate the game world by swapping bodies without getting caught. Then there's the zombie, which can't use guns but will zombify every enemy you kill, and eventually you can turn an entire area into a zombie infested hell hole.
And the world itself is super complex. For instance, there are two rival gangs that parody the bloods and the crips, who will absolutely kill each other on sight. So maybe you can cause a distraction somehow by luring them into a fight and sneak into an area to steal the goods. There are tons of ways you can cause chaos. One of my favorite examples was when I played as a Gorilla. Scientists and Gorillas hate each other and attack on sight, so one time me and a gang of other gorillas I'd liberated from captivity were seen by some doctors who immediately started attacking us, and then someone hit a police officer who started shooting, hit someone else who joined the fray, and eventually there was a massive street brawl involving about 20 different NPCs that I escaped from and watched unfold. My gorilla bretheren were the last survivors, and it was glorious.
The humor in the game is honestly pretty hilarious. It is very Robocop esque, with an extremely snarky attitude towards its depiction of a capitalist dystopia. And it works so well because the satire is woven into the game itself. If you want, you can bribe most cops on the early floors. For 50 bucks they will turn a blind eye towards anything you do on the entire floor as long as you don't attack them. And the game quite brilliantly escalates the difficulty via the world building. Later floors that exist on the upper layers of the colonies are much more secure since there's far more money and affluence at stake, so if you commit crimes, entire blocks will be locked down, and you'll either have to avoid the cops, which now include killer robots, or you'll have to gun them down. It's cynical and dark, but the cartoonishness of the mayhem prevents it from feeling overwhelmingly bleak.
This is a seriously ambitious game, and one that's endlessly fun to replay due to how reactive the world is to the player. It all holds together remarkably well for something that I'm sure was complex and stressful to get right.

10/10 game I got to commit murder on the ugly ass mayor because he outlawed my dino nuggies.
moral of the story is if someone doesn't like dino nuggies, Become a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrorist and assassinate their entire bloodline

This has gotta be one of my favorite games of all time. Its the type of game you play when you feel like you're mistake away from imploding on everyone and need an outlet. I can't wait for the second game!!!

Streets of Rogue is one of those rare games where the chaos never gets old — I've lost count of how many times a routine mission spiraled into an all-out war between cops, mobsters, and gorillas that I somehow started by accident. The sheer variety of characters and playstyles means every run feels genuinely different, whether you're bribing your way to the top as a sleazy politician or zombifying an entire district. It can feel a bit repetitive once you've seen most of what it has to offer, and the melee combat is admittedly clunky, but the sandbox freedom more than makes up for it. If you enjoy games that reward creativity and let you cause delightful mayhem, this is absolutely worth picking up — especially on sale.

To be honest, I have a lot of issues with Streets of Rogue, but a lot of those gripes do just come down to personal preferences with regards to the game's meta-progression and level of complexity. It advertises itself as an immersive sim, but after maybe 4-5 runs, it does start to get very repetitive, which IME is a sign that perhaps the immersive sim is a bit too "simple" for me. There's not too much variation with the level design and the branches, and most enemies vary only by the strength of their weapons and inflated health pools.
So why in god's name did I bother getting every achievement in the game, and continued to play dozens and dozens of runs even after the core conceit of the game had already gotten somewhat old? Well, despite all of the above, Streets of Rogue remains a very visceral and flashy game, and the level of chaos and carnage you can often consistently achieve continues to feel immensely satisfying even long after you've discovered everything the game has to offer. It's the kind of arcade experience that draws you in and keeps you addicted irrespective of frustrating deaths or clunky mechanics. Just for that, I think when on sale this is a great game to pick up, even if for just a couple runs.
3.5/5 yes i played this game like it was a mass shooting and terrorism sim, but ONLY because it was optimal

Streets of Rouge is an insane rouge-lite with addicting game play and a chicken nugget shortage. Featuring randomly generated stages, and sandbox like play, do what you need to, how you want to. You complete given objectives on the random levels of the city trying to make your way to the Mayor at the top, and kill him. You gather a wild collection of items along the way, from using banana peels, to guns. Almost everything in a stage is able to be destroyed with the right tools, and blasting a wall might be better than beating your way to a safe. From the beginning you have access to game modifiers, that alter game play, and AI from making Everyone Hate You, to Cannibals starting out Neutral. Money is the root of all evil, and can buy nearly anything in the game, even some skills. Make the game even crazier and invite a friend to Co-Op play from Home Base, and cause twice the chaos! You can chose from 24 Characters each with their own stats, and starting gear, most of which do need to be unlock by completing tasks in the game. The game's not exactly easy, and event's can make an area, crazy to play, but this only seems to add to the fun of the game. Streets of Rouge is a good grab if you want some crazy sandbox antics, with a smooth retro feel.