I Am the Law! Review of the Russian Turn-Based Tactics Game Shift'n Slay

The game knows how to test your patience, as you have to repeat the same actions until you manage to reach the end—it's a tactical roguelike reminiscent of Pete Travis’s Dredd! And the need to think creatively and use the environment to your advantage keeps things interesting throughout the entire playthrough.

Death as an excuse to work on your mistakes

The game begins with an operative raid on a criminal organization. Armed with biting words and pathetic excuses for weapons, the criminal elements somehow managed to overcome the trained operatives. Slayer is the only attacker to survive—a tough-as-nails protagonist who spouts pompous one-liners. 

In the unequal struggle, Slayer perishes and returns to the moment before his death, without understanding how he ended up in a time loop. I won’t spoil too much, but I’ll hint at the nature of the paradox: the “time loop” has a lot in common with its counterpart in Katana Zero.

This unusual situation gives Slayer a breather. At a new base, he restocks his equipment: ammo, mines, grenades, medical supplies, and tactical shields. You have to spend all this gear wisely—you won’t get anything new until the end of the run. 

Using the environment to win

Each new run involves clearing floors of criminal elements. Enemies are divided into melee and ranged fighters, featuring unique movement ranges, damage, and health stats. Occasionally, there are exceptions in the form of armored brutes and robots that explode upon death. Armor is resistant to firearms, but offers no protection against melee attacks. 

During the clearing phase, you must think several steps ahead. On his turn, Slayer can move, shoot and strike, push an object or enemy, and use an item. Killing an enemy restores movement, shooting, striking, and object-moving points. 

The levels are designed in a way that makes it convenient to chain hits on enemies and slam them into objects. If a shot kills an enemy, the bullet penetrates through and damages their comrade. If the situation gets tough, you can use gear like mines and grenades. Special ammo that stuns or roots enemies also helps—yes, more nods to “Dredd”! 

Between levels, the protagonist receives one of three random upgrades. An upgrade can be useful, like increasing melee or ranged attack damage. Or terrible, like firing a shot at the first approaching enemy—if ammo remains in the magazine. It sounds cool, but in reality, Slayer expends precious ammo on enemies who could have been eliminated at no extra cost. 

If you miscalculate, enemies will quickly kill Slayer. If you still have faith in your abilities, each run provides three level restarts. Otherwise, the protagonist is sent back to base. 

The game’s trailer states that Slayer gets stronger after every death, but in practice, it does not work quite like you might think. The player receives general info about levels where enemies will be placed randomly. For killing enemies and bosses, you get a choice of perks: a slight increase in health or a damage bonus after the fifth melee attack. That is clearly not enough motivation for new runs! And you are only allowed to change your loadout after reaching the final boss. 

Mechanically, only the first boss is interesting—he has a large health pool and can only be damaged by luring him into traps. Fighting him requires playing cat and mouse while simultaneously dealing with his support squad. 

The final boss is the gang leader named Shifter. This scoundrel loves to corner himself and continuously summon combat robots. If Slayer hasn’t saved enough ammo by this point, the run can be considered over—he will simply be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. 

The game takes into account that it takes place in a time loop. Slayer remembers the events from boss battles, which leads to interesting changes in dialogue—by the end, he even begins to treat his opponents with respect. 

It is worth noting that character dialogue features profanity, and it is used effectively. It’s just a pity that the Russian voice actor, Mikhail Belyakovich, can’t swear properly. The situation is so lamentable that I had to switch the voice acting to English. 

The game also has simple graphics, but it boasts cyberpunk-styled visuals. If you look beyond the level bounds, you can enjoy the sight of skyscrapers with bright signs and flying cars. 

During my playthrough, I encountered a bug where destroying the last two robots simultaneously failed to trigger the level transition—I had to restart the level. 

Diagnosis 

The simplicity of Shift'n Slay is balanced by plenty of interesting ideas. The levels are engaging to tackle in ways that eliminate their inhabitants as efficiently as possible. Its short length prevents each new run from feeling like a chore. 

I spent 5 hours on my playthrough, and the challenges kept me engaged throughout the entire game. If the developers fine-tune the balance, it will make for solid entertainment for a couple of evenings with a reasonable price tag of 360 rubles.

I’d especially like to highlight the depth of the characters. They look and sound like typical heroes and villains from mid-tier action flicks. Yet the game smartly leverages the time anomaly setup, gradually developing the characters and making you warm up to them. 

Definitely recommended for all fans of the genre!

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Image rights belong to DREBOT game studio. Preview image taken from SteamDB