REVIEW / Kusan: City of Wolves (PC)

There is absolutely no hiding what Kusan: City of Wolves wants to be. From the first bloody hallway to the first brutally sudden death, the game wears its Hotline Miami influence like a leather jacket and sunglasses at midnight. You play Jin, a former soldier turned mercenary who gets tangled up in a conspiracy after taking responsibility for protecting a mysterious girl named Haru, whose body contains enough destructive power to make the whole city very nervous. The setup eventually grows into a story involving corruption, criminal organizations, Jin’s past, and some seriously questionable people with even more questionable plans. It may sound familiar on paper, but Kusan: City of Wolves adds enough personality to the formula that it rarely feels like a straight-up copycat.

The combat is where Kusan: City of Wolves makes its biggest argument for existing. Every level is essentially a tiny murder puzzle where hesitation gets you killed, and getting killed happens a ton. Jin can combine firearms, throwing knives, melee attacks, parries, and his mechanical destructive hand into ridiculous strings of violence that feel incredibly satisfying when everything clicks. The emphasis on melee gives the game a slightly different rhythm than its obvious inspiration, encouraging you to get up close and personal instead of simply treating every room like a shooting gallery. 

That feeling of mastery is helped considerably by the upgrade system. Kusan: City of Wolves gives you bolts to improve the warmachine hand while also unlocking firearms, blades, and other options that let you approach encounters in different ways. There are also 54 stages and S-rank challenges for players who enjoy squeezing every last drop of efficiency out of a level. This is important because simply reaching the end isn’t really the point; Kusan: City of Wolves wants you to replay levels and figure out how to do them faster, cleaner, and with considerably more style. The result is a gameplay loop that can turn a five-minute stage into a thirty-minute personal grudge match because you just know you can get a better score.

Of course, all that precision comes with one rather enormous catch: Kusan: City of Wolves is mean. Like, really  mean. Jin can be killed by a single hit, forcing you to restart the encounter, and some difficulty spikes can feel less like a test of skill and more like the game throwing a chair at your face. There are plenty of levels where the combination of limited ammunition and groups of ranged enemies can make approaching certain encounters frustratingly difficult. The hardcore design will absolutely appeal to players who enjoy learning enemy patterns through repeated failure, but anyone looking for a casual afternoon of cyberpunk animal violence should probably bring a healthy supply of patience.

Thankfully, the presentation makes all that suffering look ridiculously good. The rain-soaked cyberpunk city is filled with neon, grimy streets, industrial spaces, and plenty of visual personality, while the anthropomorphic cast gives the world a distinctive identity that separates it from the games it clearly admires. The hand-drawn, graphic-novel-inspired presentation also works nicely with the story, making the transitions between bloody action and narrative scenes feel cohesive rather than tacked on. Jin himself is an especially memorable protagonist, because apparently the only thing missing from a gritty neo-noir revenge thriller was a badass panther with a mechanical arm. The animations and environmental details have also received plenty of praise, and they give the combat an extra layer of visual punch.

The story itself is surprisingly ambitious for a game that spends so much time turning enemies into red confetti. Jin’s relationship with Haru gives the action an emotional anchor, while the conspiracy surrounding her gradually introduces competing factions, corruption, betrayal, and morally gray motivations. The graphic-novel presentation is a smart choice because it gives the story a pulpy crime-thriller flavor without constantly interrupting the gameplay with lengthy cinematic sequences. That said, the narrative isn’t quite as polished as the combat, and some twists were predictable or that the story could have done more to explain its ideas and mechanics clearly. There is good material here, but Kusan: City of Wolves sometimes feels like it has a really interesting story trapped inside a game that would rather get back to punching people through walls.

Where Kusan: City of Wolves starts to wobble is in its pacing and overall balance. The core mechanics are strong enough that the roughly several-hour campaign can feel like it ends just as you’re becoming dangerously comfortable with Jin’s abilities. Certain sections feel oddly balanced, with some encounters being brutally difficult while others don’t quite maintain that same intensity. The upside is that the game’s compact structure and S-ranking challenge system make replaying stages much more appealing, but if you’re expecting a huge campaign with endless content, this particular wolf isn’t going to give you that much meat.

Still, it’s hard to deny why this style of game works. Kusan: City of Wolves doesn’t merely borrow the top-down perspective and one-hit-kill formula; it understands that the real magic comes from creating a rhythm where failure teaches you something and success feels earned. The combination of melee combat, ranged weapons, upgrades, parries, environmental encounters, and score chasing gives the familiar formula enough extra seasoning to stand on its own. It isn’t the most original game you’ll play this year, and some rough edges in difficulty, narrative clarity, and pacing prevent it from becoming an instant classic. But when you’re sprinting through a room, parrying an attack, throwing a knife, blasting someone across the screen, and somehow surviving with one pixel’s worth of dignity, Kusan: City of Wolves absolutely rules.

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This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.