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Sprawl Zero Wants to Be a 2000s FPS, and It Hasn’t Shown the Part That Would Make That Work

Sprawl Zero review: a 2000s-style cyberpunk FPS from Maeth and Kwalee with Gravity-Gloves, augments and 40+ weapons. Out now on PS5, Xbox, Switch 2 and PC.

By mitch·3 min read
A solitary traveler wanders through a vast, glowing city of countless districts.

Sprawl Zero is a first-person shooter about a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier who follows orders until the city around her stops making sense. Maeth developed it. Kwalee published it. It is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC and PlayStation 5, and it wants you to remember 2004.

Trailer, via Kwalee Gaming.

FIVE and SILAS

You play as FIVE, a supersoldier controlled by the Junta. Your directive is simple: eliminate SILAS, the leader of IMAGO-DEI, a radical techno-religious group. The city is collapsing under military rule and cult fanaticism, and every faction wants the reins. The premise does not pretend to be more than that. It is a frame for shooting.

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Gravity-Gloves and 40 Weapons

The tools are the pitch. Gravity-Gloves let you move and throw in ways the genre forgot. Augments stack on top. The arsenal runs past 40 weapons, which is either a promise or a warning depending on how many of them feel distinct.

  • Gravity-Gloves for movement and force
  • Augments for stacking abilities
  • Over 40 weapons
  • Single-player, first-person, no multiplayer

The 2000s FPS It Wants To Be

Sprawl Zero names its inspiration outright: the Golden Age of 2000s FPS. That is a specific claim. It means speed, strafing, and levels that assume you are already good. The cyberpunk city and the Junta-versus-cult war are set dressing for that pace, not the other way around.

What the Story Asks of FIVE

The hook is “reconcile your truths or succumb to the SPRAWL.” That is the game’s one real idea: FIVE is property, and the orders may be wrong. How far Sprawl Zero pushes that idea is the question the marketing does not answer. A shooter can carry a theme or bury it under 40 guns.

Release Schedule

Platform Status
Xbox Series X S
Nintendo Switch 2 Out now
PC (Microsoft Windows) Out now
PlayStation 5 Out now

The Case Against the Arsenal

Forty-plus weapons is a red flag as much as a selling point. A 2000s-style shooter earns its speed through a handful of guns you learn cold. A pile that size usually means most of it is filler. Maeth has not shown how the augments and Gravity-Gloves interact with that many tools, and that interaction is the whole game.

Where This Lands

Sprawl Zero is a confident pitch with an unproven core. The cyberpunk setting and the IMAGO-DEI war give FIVE a reason to move, but the reason is thin next to the mechanics. Gravity-Gloves are the part worth watching. If they change how you fight, the 40 weapons become a toolkit. If they do not, they become a gimmick wrapped around nostalgia.

The genre has been mined hard since the 2000s, and most of it was mined badly. Sprawl Zero at least knows what it is copying. That is not the same as knowing why it worked.

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