Neon Struct Critic Reviews

Deus Ex and Thief reimagined by an one-man team. Neon Struct may have blocky visuals and barren levels, but it's also a highly enjoyable old-school stealth game. A hidden gem.

Neon Struct isn’t a perfect game, and technically its main gameplay focus of stealth is fairly simplistic. Enemies aren’t that smart, darkness is overpowered and once you’ve learned its rhythms it’s very easy to remain undiscovered, or at least not get caught if you’re seen. It makes up for this by being excellent in many other ways, most notably in the level design and world building.

An elegant, pared-down stealth game with echoes of the original Deus Ex, driven by a compelling story of paranoia and betrayal.

It's an unexpected dichotomy—tranquility isn't the sort of evocation expected of extremely topical police-state paranoia—but one that Neon Struct dispenses with plausible seeds of insurrection. Colorful symmetry is the expected outcome, but Neon Struct surprises with plenty of shades of grey, too.

The story here acts as little more than the cellophane frames old-schoolers had to paste over their TVs to create a new background for the tiny lights that darted across the screen. Both do their jobs sufficiently, but we no longer have to simply dream of more.

Weak story is the worst thing in Neon Struct, complete with two-dimensional characters, huge plot holes, and bad writing.

There are some outstanding stealth games like Metal Gear Solid 2. There are some very good ones like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There are some decent ones like the new Thief. There are some weak ones like The Dark. And then there’s Neon Struck.