Spine – This is Gun Fu is shaping up to be a high-octane John Wick simulator and a lot of fun, but it'll all hinge on how its team sands down the rough edges

I recently had the pleasure of attending Gamescom 2024 late last month—during which I got to sit down with two developers at Team Nekki and watch Spine – This is Gun Fu being played for a hands-off preview.

During the half-hour romp, I got to see Spine's cyborg protagonist practise her gun-fu against a bunch of mooks in a warehouse, race across rooftops, and engage in a bit of boss-battling with another implant user.

Spine is a third-person action game in the tradition of the Batman: Arkham Games, as well as evolutions of that system like Sifu. In it you play Redline, who is out on a vengeance spree after losing her brother to "the AI regime". To do so, she takes on a combat implant in her spine which augments her reflexes—but what ho, therein lies an AI as well! Its name is Spine. Does what it says on the tin.

The devs cite several important inspirations for the game's action: "It's a genre that originates from John Woo and Hong-Kong action cinema, and then forward to movies like The Matrix and Equilibrium—and of course everybody knows John Wick." To nail that feeling down, they've worked with several specialists—including one stuntman from 2015's Hardcore Henry—for references and motion capture.

What follows is—and I mean this as a compliment—what you'd come to expect from this sort of thing. The developer, bravely playing a test build live in front of my judgemental, note-taking eyes, shows off dodges, combos, and finishing moves—as well as the equivalent of Batman's cape attacks in the Arkham Games, as Redline dual-wields cans of spray paint to crowd control her foes. You can also nick your enemy's guns as a limited-use "I shoot you, you die" resource.

In terms of the missions, the devs at Nekki Games have about 20 planned: "We treat every one of them as a short movie in themselves," I'm told, with each designed to show a broad variety of cinematic locations. The combat animations are appropriately cinematic and contextual, too—Redline will dole out concussions by slamming your enemies into nearby crates, railings: The works.

At the end, there's also a boss battle against another Spine user—which ramps up their reflexes, making things considerably harder. Also, there are spider drones, which get basically everywhere, because of course the AI-generated future has to have robot creepy crawlies.

The objective here on behalf of Nekki Games seems to be a silky smooth cinematic experience—I mentioned Sifu, earlier, but the feeling I'm getting is a lot less precision, and a lot more style and flow. Mind, I am told about an optional no-hit mode wherein Redline starts with a pair of sunglasses on, and loses them if she gets slapped. I think this should be ported to every game with a combat system, regardless of genre or setting—I want to see old man Kratos in aviators.

My only issue, however, is that the game is clearly not quite there yet. This is to be expected—I saw quite an early build, and while the visuals were appropriately vivid and neon, it was emphasised that the combat is a work in progress. Even the voice lines were text-to-speech at this juncture—with plans to, naturally, bring proper voice actors in later. All this to say, this shouldn't be taken as a knock against the game.

However, because of the genre Spine occupies, I need to mention it because it's my job to give a critical opinion—and right now it's hard to judge. Spine is a game that will live or die based on how good it feels to play. As it stands, there are glimmers of potential that rattle and shake under the weight of an early build. One moment, the developer is drifting from foe to foe with some sick gun fu stylings. The next, they're awkwardly flipping and dipping while the animation system is flustered.

Part of this may also just be the pressure of a Gamescom floor, but the boss fight in particular never quite clicked from a visual or gameplay standpoint—though that brawl itself is still very much in the works.

This was a hands-off session, so I can't quite tell you whether Spine is going to be exactly my cup of tea or an overambitious and bumpy ride. What I will say is that its developers clearly have a deep and developed appreciation for the source material it invokes in its title—if Nekki Games can use that enthusiasm to sand down the rough edges, then Spine – This is Gun Fu should be a solid sci-fi action romp.