DISORDER Review (PS5) – We Have Stellar Blade At Home

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway – quality localisation is important. If you want your game to perform well in a market other than your native language, getting a good translation as well an accurate interpretation of the script and user interface into other languages is imperative. Even before I booted up DISORDER, the roguelike action slasher from Grumpy, I suspected that poor localisation into English was going to be a problem. The PlayStation Store’s description of the game is littered with awkward sentences and a lack of punctuation.

It took a matter of seconds with DISORDER to confirm my suspicions about the localisation. The game’s script is packed with mistranslations, stilted sentences, and jarring inflections where they shouldn’t be. This is all delivered by a cast that sound like they’re doing an impression of Tommy Wiseau in The Room; confused yet devoid of emotion, working with a script that makes little sense.

Punch, Kick, It’s All In The Mind

It’s a shame because DISORDER has an enticing premise. In the game, you play as a young woman (clad in scantily sci-fi leather) that finds themselves in a shopping mall with no knowledge of how she got there or why she’s suddenly such a bad ass. She awakens on the rooftop level and is tasked to make it to ground level and escape. Preventing her from her escape are a host of faceless hostiles and monsters, broken down into stage dungeons she must tackle one after another. As she battles her way through each floor of this mall, she’ll unlock her memories about how she got there and what happened to her.

Unfortunately, because of the issues with the localisation, any weight or poignancy that the narrative tries to deliver in DISORDER is undermined. New nuggets of the story that should be met with intrigue are more likely to be met by a furrowed brow or a chuckle. I’d also say that the way that DISORDER handles the topic of mental health might be a bit off putting to some.

Death Before DISORDER

Of course, you don’t come to a roguelike primarily for the story, and excellent action can often overcome a shallow narrative. Unfortunately, things don’t improve a great deal here either.

If you’ve played any of the modern day roguelite games launched in the past few years, you’ll immediately feel familiar with DISORDER’s structure. The game is broken down into 9 levels throughout the shopping mall. On each level, you’ll have to battle your way through a few challenge rooms before taking on the level boss. After each challenge room, you’ll get the choice to pick from an upgrade or item as a reward, and occasionally challenges which temporarily debuff the heroine in some way. Defeat the level boss and you can descend further towards the exit. Fall in battle at any time however, and you’ll be transported back to the rooftop, and you’ll have to start the whole descent again. Any skills, upgrades or items you’ve accumulated are lost after death, so you’re starting almost from scratch.

During each run, you’ll collect a few different currencies that you retain after death however. These can be spent at the ‘Gift Desk’ at the start of each run on permanent upgrades. These upgrades can alter a few dozen aspects of play, including the amount of health the heroine has, whether she can resurrect herself after death and how powerful the upgrades she can collect will be. Upgrade, and the next run will be mildly easier. Rinse. Repeat.

The systems employed within DISORDER are the basic standard for roguelites these days, and you won’t find any innovation here. If you’re up for a grind, eking out improvements over runs until you can can dispatch the more difficult foes, then this game has that in spades. It does mean that you’ll be swatting through the same easier enemies of Floor 9 over, and over, and over again. If you’re averse to repetitive game play, you’ll get bored quickly with the first few floors long before you hit ground level. I know I did.

A Stiff Kick To The Chest

That boredom sets in quickly because of how stilted and ‘sticky’ the combat in DISORDER is. Attacks don’t feel quite strung together, and mixing light and heavy attacks feels like you’re constantly over committing in a certain direction. Despite how flashy and exciting the attacks look, there’s very little fluidity in most of the attacks outside of using the quickest, least damaging sword.

The awkward feeling during combat isn’t helped by the camera. Usually floating out in a decent third person perspective, the camera zooms in and out during attack combos. It certainly makes the action on screen look more exciting, but it also restricts your view of the battlefield. Go in hard on an enemy and you’ll then have to swing your camera around the find your next target. It would have probably been more effective to have the camera zoom out just a little to allow combat to flow a little more fluidly.

The rogues gallery you’ll be facing are a mixed bag too. Aside from the bosses, the vast majority of enemies offer little in terms of actual challenge. They’re often little more than damage sponges that can be wiped out with a simple button mashing. Some enemies can poison or block your attacks, but they don’t require a tactical approach to overcome. Just bash them some more.

The bosses are the only highlight of DISORDER’s combat. Each is different, can do massive damage, and some require some strategy to overcome them. An example of this is the third boss you’ll come across. A trio of coloured samurai, these tricky sword wielders are only vulnerable when the light of the area matches their armour.

Some (Un)Real Shiny Locations

The other area in which DISORDER deserves praise is its visuals. While there are some tell tale Unreal Engine artefacts here are there, like funky looking reflections and some dodgy lighting, this game is otherwise quite pleasing to look at. The art style, blending typical shopping mall locations with sci-fi, urban decay and the supernatural, creates an interesting place to do battle.

It’s plainly obvious that the lead character of DISORDER has been created with titillation in mind, and if that’s your bag, you won’t be disappointed here. The games camera angles spend an inordinate amount of time focused on the leather clad buttocks of the heroine. There’s also jiggle effects on her chest too. Because of course there is.

Unfortunately, the pros of DISORDER don’t come close to outweighing its many cons. Particularly the localised English version. To give developers GRUMPY some credit, DISORDER is an ambitious game that has clearly had a lot of effort poured into its visuals. That effort has paid off. With time to tweak the combat, narrative and localisation, DISORDER might be a good, even great, game in the future. Right now though, it’s a pale imitation of Stella Blade that would have benefited from a period in Early Access.

DISORDER is available now on PS5 (review version), Xbox and PC via Steam.

Developer: GRUMPY
Publisher: GRUMPY

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels –Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.