Among the many flavors of futurism that have been featured in games in this generation, cyberpunk seems to usually be a solid choice. Keylocker, whose world brings a mix of that vibe along with some dabs of musical flair and colorful characters, starts out feeling promising enough. With an oppressive regime looking to quash the populace by not allowing artistic expression and great music it’s up to your character, Bobo, to do some shredding and turn things around.

Once you’ve chosen what’s essentially your in-game class, dictating the general style you’ll be shooting for in combat, you’ll be dropped into the game and expected to shake things up. Battles tend to pop up pretty quickly, but considering some of its turn-based quirks that isn’t necessarily a good thing. While, when implemented well, timed button presses to enhance your offensive and defensive effectiveness are a plus, when they feel a bit off they can be terribly aggravating. 

Unfortunately, in Keylocker this never seems to come together properly and can feel incredibly finicky, to the point where it felt like I was most effective trying to be slightly ahead of the flash that would indicate the timing rather than right on it. Small mini game sequences that very primitively mimic rhythm games, with you pressing specific directions as they cross the timeline, also feel just slightly off, and since combat is so central this adds up to some frustration. Throw in the sometimes wonky overworld, where drones searching for trouble seem to find you too often and in a sloppy manner, and you can feel almost stuck in the not-so-great combat at times.

The thing is, there are aspects of the game that work. The world is interesting enough, even if the story can feel familiar, and the game’s art and characters at least feel pretty fresh overall. The occasional boss battles also feel like they break away from the issues of the base combat a bit, and that at least shows glimpses of promise if perhaps the game could get patched and working more effectively. Until then, it’s a bit more of a challenge to look past the game’s issues.