This is SPINE, a new single player action game that looks to take every iconic gun fight from every action movie going and blend them into one cyberpunk fuelled adventure. Is SPINE something to get excited about, or is it landing with a wet thud? After playing it at Summer Game Fest, I have some thoughts! This is our SPINE hands-on preview.
In SPINE, you play as Redline, a ‘rebellious’ street artist. She has, through plot reasons not yet known, been paired with a sentient combat implant – SPINE. Together, they’re taking out a evil mega-corporation named Tensor – and getting to know each other along the way.
The demo I tried is early alpha, so there were some bugs and hiccups, but it communicated what the developers were going for really well. The demo has us a little way into the story, as Redline seeks information in a seedy looking bar. Her attempt at diplomacy goes awry, and it’s not long before we’re kicking ass – and shooting bad guys in the face.
Developed in Unreal Engine 5, SPINE focuses on what the developers aptly refer to as freeflowing ‘Gun Fu’, with a host of motion captured ass-kicking moves, usually featuring guns. From a gameplay perspective, think Sloclap’s SIFU mixed in with the Batman Arkham games, and you’d probably be on the right tracks.
Redline always has a pistol by default, and according to the developer I spoke with from Nekki, this is something that will be upgradable as you progress through the story. You can always utilise your gun in a typical 3rd person shooter sort of way, but it’s the mixture of hand to hand combat with guns that is more effective (and looks way cooler too!)
The demo takes us through multiple fights against a variety of foes, and every time I felt the game was in danger of perhaps becoming a tad repetitive, it did something to surprise me. One standout moment was a smart riff on John Wick, where the camera went to a more birds-eye view and I received a shotgun, emulating the incendiary shotgun house scene. While ammo on these larger weapons is finite, disarming opponents and stealing their guns looked and felt awesome – it was a nice homage to a great cinematic set-piece.
The final stage of the demo had me facing off against Edda Kopp, another bad guy who also had a version of the cybernetic SPINE installed. As I understand it, she had become far more in tune with the device, which allowed her to dodge and standard gunfire, and on occasion, turn invisible entirely. As I wore her down through successive counters, she started to send tonnes of creepy spider bots in my direction.
Being an alpha, things weren’t perfect, and there’s a lot of work to do between now and release to get the game into a super polished state. That being send, I came away impressed with how SPINE felt to play, and I absolutely look forward to seeing more – at some point in 2026.
SPINE is being developed and published by Nekki, and is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026
