It’s pretty obvious from this image what Dex is supposed to inspire. It is that genre of speculative fiction explored in works of William Gibson, where the future has been taken over by corporate conglomerates, and technology has gone wild, if not haywire. Dex, named after the main character in the game, is a really interesting mix of a game.

The game seems to be a side-scroller, and it feels a little more eighties than early nineties. However, that is just on the surface. While there is a lot of jumping and going to new locations, it isn’t on the vein of Mario.

In fact, once you get through the opening tutuorial, you will experience the game’s numerous RPG elements. The game requires you to take out some bad guys, and you can do it from the front or the back. The back is the easiest one that I found, when the game sets it up for you. Yeah, you can be a stealth killer and choke them from behind. When you have to face them ahead, it suddenly becomes a fighting game as you have to block punches as well as give them.

Taking care of enemies gives you experience points, and you can level up to increase skills. For example, you can become a skilled lock-picker by spending your experience points.

You are also able to get money in this game, often from the thugs that you pick up. Then there is also random junk like toilet paper that shows up. There are even things to increase your health and experience.

It is not often that you see a video game so full of so many elements, and this one has fighting, platforming, and RPG aspects all mixed together. There is even this augmented reality aspect that allows you to hack into things.

This is one of those games that you can pour a lot of time into, and that is a good thing. There is also more than one way to solve it, and multiple paths you can take.

I’m going to give this game a high recommendation, and there was only one thing I didn’t like about it: there is no autosave feature. You need to be saving as you go, otherwise you will find yourself at square one.

You should find Dex on the Steam Store for $19.99, and it can be purchased on Xbox and PS4 as well, and come to PlayStation Vita and Wii U too. More info about the game can be found here.