Consumer Softworks has conceded that Psycho Patrol R, the next game from the developer of Cruelty Squad will hit Early Access on March 31, 2025. That’s a “or ??I’ll b?e damned�sort of deadline.

The announcement came not long after creator Ville Kallio d?eclared on Twitter that he was considering March 31 as his deadline, adding, “I need to release something, or I’ll completely destroy my mental health.�Yeah, that sounds like the creative process? I’m familiar with. However, he’s now made it official and stamped it on the Steam store page.

Cruelty Squad is a tough act to follow. It reached the illusive peak of meaningful jank-pop, striking a chord with many despite its ironic aesthetic dissonance. It is just weird, depicting a horrible corporatocracy where you act as a hitman. The graphics were disgustingly garish and clashed horribly, while the soundtrack was discomforting. In my review, I referred to it as “a purposeful desecrati?on of the holy grounds of game design.??�It’s great! 

But despite how it looks, Kallio claims that the attention the game received was a surprise. In fact, contrary to what some might think, it’s not the product of an intricate and carefully considered design process. “I know what my problem is now. With Cruelty Squad, I was aiming for the esteemed "mixed" reviews Steam category. I simply need to aim for that again,�he Tweeted.

??Sometimes, that’s how raw genius manifests. Unshackled from expectations, it is free from the pressures that come from trying to attain perfection. Now that the bar for quality has been established, the stress and anguish from the extra attention should result in nothing but beauty crafted by the hands of Kallio.

“I think you should romanticize everything I do, especially ruining my mental health with game development,�he said. Done, good sir. As you command.

Psycho Patrol R doesn’t seem to be following the same formula as Cruelty Squad. You pilot a mech for much of it, though you can get out and walk if you’re willing to stoop to that level. Not long ago, Kallio released a long in-production gameplay video. Even with its substantial length, it’s hard to glean what the hell is going on. And if you’ve played Cruelty Squad, that is completely on brand.

Psycho Patrol R is set to la??unch on PC in Early Access on March 31, ??2025.

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Cruelty Squad’s aesthetic sure was a thing. It presents this tone evocative of a K-Mart bargain bin that has awoken with an appetite for human flesh. A lot of that was its insulting visuals, but it was backed by the most uncomfortably bizarre music. Well, you can just listen to that music if you want. If you want.

That’s because the Cruelty Squad soundtrack has penetrated streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. I’m listening to it right now and have been transported back to a particular pocket of Web 1.0 where teenagers attempted to recreate video game music while chewing on their grandmother’s prescription drugs. It haunts me. It’s both nostalgic and agonizing. I feel like I could end this article just by typing out the screams inside of me. But I won’t. Here’s what I said about it in my coronavirus-trapped 2021 review:

“It’s this mix of low-quality MIDI and uncomfortable sounds. Disturbing is probably the best way to describe it. Even at its most musical, it tends to clash with the murder on screen. Sounds just creep into the background, and it’s hard to be sure if they’re part of the music or something in the environment is about to jump you.�/p>

Does that sound like something your kids would listen to? Is this what passes for music these days? It’s 27 tracks and 49 minutes long. What’s the opposite of meditation? That’s what this is. Listen to such hits as, uh, “Combat Cocktail�which begins with what sounds like someone chewing on a live eel; a sound that bleeds into the background to support the percussion. It's the perfect way to let your guests know th??at it's time to leave.

Gosh, this is great. This is music to work to. I’m so glad that Consumer Softproducts sold out to Big Streaming. Now I can feel uncomfortable while cooking or organizing my collection of toenail clippings. Listen to the Cruelty Squad OST on Spotify, Apple Musi??c, Amazon Music, and maybe other places where? music is streamed.

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Consumer Softproducts has released a 9-minute-ish compilation of Psycho Patrol R gameplay snippets onto YouTube today. If you were wondering how much like Cruelty Squad the new game would be; it’s looking like a lot.

It’s really hard to tell if this is a rough cut from a still-in-development game or if this is actually what things are going to be like. It’s hard to tell after you’ve played Cruelty Squad.

It does show off things like swearing for some reason, as well as mech fights and mech customization. In Psycho Patrol R, you sometimes pilot your V-Stalker Mecha. Other times, you do not. But when you do, you can swap out th??e guns on its left and right arms, as well ??as its crotch.

The compilation also shows off rappelling down a building, which looks pretty neat. You’re also fol?lowed by a floating ball with stars around it (Bion?).

It looks enjoyable, but it’s really hard to describe why. Cruelty Squad was one of the most difficult games for me to review. I absolutely like the game, but trying to describe it makes it sound horrible. The graphics look like the sort of dream that ?Windows Me wakes up screaming from, and the music is like the game accidentally loaded the wrong sound file, was embarrassed, and spontaneously began remixing it instead of admitting to its mistake. The narrative and gameplay only sort of make sense. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to play, and it feels like it hates the player. But you should definitely play it.

Psycho Patrol R looks like it’s going to be the same. I look forward to when it releases, which could be anytime between tomorrow and 10 years from now. It’s really hard to tell ho?w close to completion it is based on the video.

Psycho Patrol R doesn’t have a set rele??ase?? window, but it is planned for PC.

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In case you’re not feeling adequately rewarded while playing 2021’s existentially devastating FPS Cruelty Squad, achievements have been added to Steam that will tell you what a good job you?’re doing.

If you’re unfamiliar, Cruelty Squad is jank pop royalty. It’s a grotesque and offensive-looking game where you play as a corporate mercenary carrying out assassinations in a world ruled by sinfully immoral rich people. What makes this different from real life, however, is that it’s maybe the future, and you can wear meat armor. Better yet, the meat armor works after a patch last March, b??ut it didn’t when I initially played it.

Now, achievements will be doled out for your insignificant progress. “I added achievements. You can suggest new ones to add here, I will not add them but you can do that,�said developer Consumer Softproducts on the Steam community page. 

Furthermore, the game’s overlord suggests that the achievements are only awarded “for completing each of the levels,�but if there’s one thing I know about the developer, it’s that you can’t entirely take what you say at fa?ce value. All the achievements are hidden, so I can’t tell yo??u if it’s true. Knowing Consumer Softproducts, there is probably one in there with an extremely painful or impossible objective. However, they say, “I honestly just couldn't be bothered figuring out how they work,�which, I don’t know, could be entirely true.

Adding achievements to a game is never a bad thing, but I dunno. When Cruelty Squad does it, it feels like it's insulting me.

Cruelty Squad is available for PC right now. It’s actually on sale right now, so you should buy it. As a reminder, the next game by Consumer Softproducts, Psycho Patrol R, is ready for your wishl??ist. I don't know if you shoul?d buy that yet, but my instincts tell me maybe.

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Consumer Softproducts�follow-up to 2021’s shared fever dream, Cruelty Squad, is now listed on Steam. Psycho Patrol R is now available for wishlisting, though there is no announced release window.

I had noticed Consumer Softproducts tinkering around with a mech game since the release of Cruelty Squad, but with such thin??gs, sometimes an end result is never seen. However, it’s lo??oking more likely with the official name and fancy store page.

Psycho Patrol R has you play as a federal police officer of the eponymous Psycho Patrol. You’re tasked with piloting a V-Stalker to solve “mental crime, among other things.�It bills itself as a “combination of high-intensity tactical FPS combat�and takes place in an open, non-linear world. You’re also able to customize the equipment on your stompy V-Stalker, which I think is an unwritten law in the world of mech games. It also appears that you will be spending some time outside of your robot womb and can engage in? thrilling conversations about cryptocurrency with executives.

Right now, it looks like Psycho Patrol R will tone down the garish and nauseatingly surreal colors of Cruelty Squad, but th??e game’s gr?aphics still scream jank-pop. I think I might have been disappointed if it didn’t.

I reviewed Cruelty Squad back in 2021. I called out its deliberately stilted gameplay, referring to it as “a purposeful desecration of the holy grounds of game design.�That was one of the first times I was quoted on Wikipedia, but the phrase was eventually expunged from the article to make room for more favorable acclamations. I meant it as a compliment. Cruelty Squad has been living in my brain ever since and is probably the source of tra??uma that has driven me into the arms of similar jank-pop titles.

Psycho Patrol R is?? currently set for release on PC, though no release window ha??s been stated.

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Protect your meat

Consumer Softproducts has announced the arrival of a patch for the deranged 2021 meatpunk title, Cruelty Squad. Unlike many late-arrival patches, this patch does more than just fix compatibility issues and squash minor bugs. It makes the armor in the game actually do something.

//twitter.com/CSoftproducts/status/16403?05766350430209?s=20

Because Consumer Softproducts gets by on deliberately mixed messages, and Cruelty Squad as a whole is possibly just one big sick joke, I was honestly not certain if this was real. And by that, I mean many things. I wasn’t sure if this was a real patch. I couldn’t tell if armor was actually non-functional before. And I’m still not certain if this really fix??es it.

So, thankfully, I was able to find this Steam forum thread from back in 2021, where users discuss non-functional armor as though it’s a commonly known thing and speculate that it seems to be a bug. Whether or n?ot the patch truly fixes it is still pending research by someone braver and smarter than me.

What’s really funny about this is that in my review of Cruelty Squad, I mentioned that my preferred way to play was to “wear heavy armor and mow through dudes like the T-800.�So, you’re telling me that the arm?or wasn’t doing a??nything? It was just, what, giving me the confidence I needed to blow people up without cover or subterfuge?

Vortex of bad design

You might be wondering how I wouldn’t have noticed something like that, but have you played Cruelty Squad? I described it as a “swirling vortex of bad design�and opined that it was nearly impossible to approach critically. It’s hard to separate t??he parts of it that are intentionally bad from the ones that are j?ust poorly designed. Or broken, in this case.

//youtu.be/CHm2d3wf8EU

It may sound like I’m being harsh on the game, but I absolutely love Cruelty Squad. It is a captivating experience and a stark-raving naked approach to game design whose influence is already being felt in the indie sphere. The self-immolation approach to design is so compelling, and few games do it with as much unapologetic pizazz as Cruelty Squad. It’s a tough game to recommend while simultaneously being one that I wish more people would try. I don’t think I can gush any more enthusiastically, so I must resort to just making a grunting noise to emphasize my point: Uurgh!

Cruelty Squad is currently contained on PC. It is curre??ntly unsupported by the Steam Deck.

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