Neon Giant, the studio behind The Ascent, has finally given us our first proper look at NO LAW gameplay, and I’m already intrigued. The first-person cyber-noir shooter is set in the lawless port city of Port Desire, where you play veteran Grey Harker and can apparently approach problems with stealth, shooting, hacking and a healthy disregard for other people’s property. The game is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
It’s giving Cyberpunk, Thief and Deus Ex — and I’m not complaining
The new footage makes the game’s influences pretty obvious. Cyberpunk 2077 is the most immediate comparison, from the neon-soaked city and futuristic technology to the overall aesthetic. Then there’s a little Thief in the sneaky movement and a definite Deus Ex flavour in the way you’re encouraged to use gadgets, hacking, exploration and dialogue instead of simply turning every problem into a shooting gallery. Neon Giant has also described NO LAW as a game built around player choice, with different approaches producing different reactions and outcomes.
And yes, I’ve already seen the inevitable “we have Cyberpunk 2077 at home” jokes. Honestly? I’m fine with it. Apparently, the future has two settings now: aggressively neon cyberpunk metropolis or dystopian desert where everyone has sand in their shoes. At least NO LAW is picking the more colourful option.
The game’s own description promises a cyber-noir world where every choice has consequences, and that’s the bit I’m most interested in. If those choices genuinely lead to different paths and outcomes, rather than simply changing which flavour of dialogue we get before the next gunfight, it could give NO LAW some proper replay value.
It looks gorgeous. Now let’s hope it runs like it
We’ve technically seen NO LAW’s visual ambitions before. Neon Giant showcased its dense Port Desire environment and Unreal Engine 5 technology at Unreal Fest Chicago in June, including Nanite, Lumen and MegaLights. But this is our first proper look at the actual gameplay loop, and that’s considerably more useful than another pretty tech demo.
And, at least on paper, the story looks promising. The combination of stealth, combat, hacking, exploration and meaningful choices is exactly the sort of immersive-sim formula I can get behind. I do have one tiny question mark, though. I’ve seen enough Unreal Engine games struggle with optimisation to know that spectacular lighting and dense environments can sometimes come with their own little performance gremlins. NO LAW leans heavily on lighting for its atmosphere, so I’m going to reserve judgment until we see how all this actually runs on real hardware.
For now, though, NO LAW is firmly on my radar. It may wear its Cyberpunk and immersive-sim influences pretty openly, but a game that lets me sneak through a neon city, hack some poor fool’s security system and then decide whether to negotiate or blow the whole place up sounds like a pretty good time. And if those promised alternate paths actually deliver, it might have something more interesting than just very pretty neon lights.