Disjunction

Disjunction’s gameplay is quite repetitive and there are some annoying flaws, but if you like tech noir and remember the Amiga days fondly, there’s a significant chance you’ll have fun. [04/2021, p.39]

Disjunction is a fun, cyberpunk stealth game, with beautiful pixel art and great sound that is more than worth its price tag. Be prepared for some difficult levels and many moments of frustration, but enjoy basking in the glory of your successes at the end, whilst you enjoy an intriguing story in a dystopian world.

As a debut from a team of just three people, Disjunction does so much right, and offers up way more narrative than anyone should expect from a team this size. The gameplay it does it have can be frustrating at times, but it’s solid. There’s a good foundation here. They just need to expand on it.

Disjunction is a fun stealth action game with great art and music, but there aren't enough interesting elements to keep the gameplay from eventually growing stale. It is held back by a lack of interesting development in both gameplay and story, however, and overstays its welcome. This is a good first outing from a small development team that can’t quite live up to its legendary predecessors.

Disjunction offers a solid, fun take on the stealth action genre. While it stumbles at times with the feel of its stealth mechanics, it is still satisfying and fun to play, aside from the one time my game progress mysteriously got deleted and I had to start over (though it hasn’t happened again). If you enjoy action stealth experiences like those found in the early Metal Gear games and games like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (except being 2-D) and you like new retro-styled games in the modern era, chances are good you can enjoy this game, even if it doesn’t have the most realistic stealth mechanics.

Slick, intuitive stealth gameplay serves as Disjunction’s backbone, though the supporting systems and level design could do more to lighten its burden.

Oversimplification is the real joykiller in Disjunction. Its story feels like a rough outline, levels are made out of copy/pasted prefabs, stealth and character progression are just as simplistic, as is everything else.

Disjunction deconstructs the stealth genre and boils it down to its simplest and most readable mechanics. Mix in a cool cyberpunk aesthetic and interesting if optional gadgets, and it’s a winning formula. Unfortunately, the game stops well short of fully mining either its trope-heavy story or stealth formula, leading to an experience that ultimately feels repetitive.