Quirky time-travelling nightclub-crawling tactical RPG All Walls Must Fall busts out of early access today
Drop the beat
We've covered All Walls Must Fall quite a bit over the past few months, and it's easy to understand why. Starting out veiled in mystery, this bizarre cyberpunk music-synced fusion of tactical gunfights and conversational infiltration does a lot to stand out. It has evolved to a surprising degree during its time in Early Access, with developers Inbetweengames bolting on major new features with practiced confidence.
Befitting the name, All Walls Must Fall has burst forth from its confines and into the dazzling moonlight, fresh from the dance-floor and ready to launch. Within, we've got the cheekily named 'coming out' launch trailer. While earlier marketing may have coyly weaved around the central environment type of the game (gay nightclubs heaving with scantily clad men), this one goes all-in, leaving very little to the imagination.
I've played around a little with the release version of the game (although less than I would have liked), and the most striking change is the increased story focus, with early missions having a strong linear narrative and no shortage of story dialogue. There also seemed to be some decisions to make which I'm sure branch out into additional outcomes in later missions. The fact that you're navigating scripted conversations instead of semi-random sequences makes the social 'conflicts' much more intuitive, too.
The difficulty ramp-up also seemed more intense than earlier builds, with time-warping foes introduced relatively early, turning firefights into a swirling, confusing vortex of bullets fired by people blinking back, forth and around time itself. If this was a squad tactics game it would be impossible to keep track of, but as you're only controlling the one character, it's surprisingly doable, and mesmerising to look at once the dust settles and you hit the button to drop the beat and review the entire fight scene to the music.
We'll be providing a full Wot I Think on All Walls Must Fall before too long, but we're currently swimming through an ocean of games. We'll hop back in time to tell you when we'll have that ready once we know when, but if you're feeling daring and itching to get your murder-groove on, All Walls Must Fall is out now on Steam for £7.19/$10, with a hefty 30% launch discount.