Cult immersive sim Cruelty Squad hits its lowest price ever with 90% Steam discount

Now is the best time ever to check out the cult immersive sim Cruelty Squad. The game is currently 90% off on Steam, and SteamDB's price tracker confirms this is the cheapest it has ever been. The deal runs only until August 10.

Released in 2021 by Consumer Softproducts, the game describes itself as an "immersive power fantasy simulator" set in a sewage-infused corporate dystopia. Behind the eye-searing colors, hostile interface, and low-poly body horror lies one of the most uncompromising immersive sims in recent memory.

A typical assassination can be approached as a conventional tactical shooter, but Cruelty Squad actively incentivizes players to start abusing its systems. Find another entrance. Blow a hole through something. Install equipment that fundamentally changes how you move through a level. Scale a wall with your intestines. Reverse gravity. Replace part of your brain with a gun. Or pick up a toilet and throw it into a room full of people.

These aren't isolated jokes, but legitimate gameplay mechanics that could help cheese your way through an otherwise daunting mission. Levels are built around giving players enough tools to devise increasingly ridiculous solutions, and the game actively encourages experimentation. Missions can be replayed for faster times and better rankings, while implants can be swapped between runs to produce radically different builds.

There is a lot more going on underneath the shooting. Cruelty Squad has functioning stock and organ markets, and events during missions can influence company valuations. Kill the right executive, and you can watch their stock collapse while competitors benefit. It effectively turns insider trading into another legitimate mechanic, making the grotesque corporate dystopia function as both setting and system.

That depth is one reason the game has inspired unusually obsessive analysis. YouTuber Pyrocynical devoted more than four hours to dissecting Cruelty Squad in 2023, covering everything from its weapons and implants to its economy, hidden areas, difficulty states, and remarkably dense worldbuilding.