Keylocker review

Our VerdictDespite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

Our Verdict

Despite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

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NEED TO KNOWWhat is it?Defeating authoritarianism with music on cyber-SaturnRelease dateSeptember 18, 2024Expect to pay$20DeveloperMoonanaPublisherSerenity ForgeReviewed onWindows 11, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16GB RAMMultiplayerNoSteam DeckYesLinkSteam

NEED TO KNOW

What is it?Defeating authoritarianism with music on cyber-SaturnRelease dateSeptember 18, 2024Expect to pay$20DeveloperMoonanaPublisherSerenity ForgeReviewed onWindows 11, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16GB RAMMultiplayerNoSteam DeckYesLinkSteam

None of that matters very much, because Keylocker is mostly a game about playing a sick guitar solo. Violently. Versus basically every other character you interact with. The revolution will only succeed once Bobo has beaten the shit out of the entire populace of Saturn with her sick guitar.

Image1of4(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)

Image1of4

(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

Frustratingly often I had to repeat minor combat encounters three or four times because of what seemed like bad luck, a pixel in the wrong direction chewing up the last of my LP when I swear my timing wasn’t a second different than a previous perfect dodge. Thankfully all battles can be restarted from the beginning, instead of having to load a save upon every death—otherwise the amount of retraced steps would have been genuinely insufferable.

Unfortunately that feeling echoes throughout most of the game. Hour after hour, Keylocker actively sabotaged itself. The stylish art, fun writing, and cheerfully off-beat humor were hard to enjoy when the world was laborious to navigate, the systems were complicated and obscure, and the combat—the centerpiece of the game!—just straight up wasn’t fun.

I became massively wealthy in the in-game currency and spent it almost exclusively on basic healing milkshakes; I collected key after key after key, which I invested in Bobo’s skill tree basically at random, as I couldn’t figure out why I would care about fractional micro adjustments to the dozen effects present on my Status page if I knew in every battle I’d just be charging up and hitting the guy with my axe. The amount of text on weapons and effects menus felt slightly ridiculous, especially when compared to the Quests screen, which updates so rarely and gives you so little information that I almost wonder why it was included at all.

Image1of6(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)

Image1of6

(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)(Image credit: Moonana)

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

(Image credit: Moonana)

Keylocker, cyberpunk RPG

It’s a shame, because past the frustration there’s a lot to love about Keylocker. The occasional boss fight is actually a respite from the dull grind of general combat—it’s refreshing to actually have to use tactics for once, to have to plan and be careful with your characters to get through a multi-enemy robot fight club or to break apart the Orbital Resonance between Satellites that prevents them from taking damage. Minigames scattered around like a shameless Guitar Hero ripoff or an arcade-style hacking sequence are a fun break from the rest of the routine, though a few of those also tend towards the finicky. The technicolor cyberpunk world looks gorgeous, the character sprites are cheeky and varied, and the writing is carelessly funny, never taking itself too seriously.

The Verdict47Read our review policyKeylockerDespite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

The Verdict

47Read our review policyKeylockerDespite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

47Read our review policy

KeylockerDespite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

Keylocker

Despite plenty of style and cheek, Keylocker can’t get past the repetitive grind of its battles.

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Our Verdict#

Our Verdict