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Set in a vigilante metropolis where you play as mercenary Grey Harker on a vengeance tour, No Law sets the perfect stage for a rollicking cyberpunk RPG. It might sound like an odd pivot for Arcade Berg and Tor Frick, co-founders of Swedish developer Neon Giant, which has become known for its top-down isometric games. But funnily enough, No Law marks something of a homecoming.
"This is actually what we're confident in doing," Berg tells me, referencing the dev duo's past work on games like Wolfenstein and Gears of War. "We're trying to take on some creative challenges outside of that [FPS] space, and for us, it's also very important that violence in this game is fun. It's the thing where you smirk and you can laugh a bit. We're not going for dark and angsty. That's not who we are. That's not how we write."
Town called malice
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Outlandish action is certainly nothing new to video games, but Neon Giant wants to amp up the ultra-violence for its gritty RPG. "We have loud, punchy weapons. It feels good to shoot somebody in the face," laughs Frick. "You also have very sturdy boots for kicking people off rooftops and similar. But at the same time, we also want to have more exotic devices. So we want to give the player a wide array of tools to play with"
With all these tools in your arsenal, it's important to Neon Giant that players feel able to "cause ultimate mayhem and destruction" in a veritable action playground. "Cyberpunk is such a friendly material to use for that kind of stuff," Berg interjects.
"We're still trying to do something new creatively, both for the players and the [genre] fans, but also for our own sake. We started this studio eight years ago because we wanted to make certain types of games and make them in a certain way. It's very important that it is both technologically but also creatively very challenging for us, because that's what makes it fun."
Beyond the blood lust, Frick describes No Law as "a game with a beginning and an end" – but what happens in between those goalposts and how you reach one of its multiple endings is completely your call. "You can shoot the main mission givers in the face in the beginning of the game, but you can still finish the game, so we don't really stop you from doing anything."
When I press for a little more clarity on what this narrative structure could look like – Atomfall seems similar, a story-driven RPG that lacks a traditional main and side mission structure – Berg clarifies that Neon Giant's aim is to "make a game for a lot of different types of players".
For those coming into No Law for the action, Berg says "It will always be fun to just shoot dudes in the face." And for those of you looking for a little more, No Law will provide it: "But if you're telling me, 'I'm the kind of player that really wants to dig into that stuff', there is so much story and character building and other things happening in the world, but it's always opt-in."
This feeds back to the unique vision Neon Giant has for the roleplaying elements of the RPG. Berg confirms that, yes, "dialog choices you can make that will have repercussions down the road, but we think it's cooler to look at how you actually played the game and how the current world responds in a way that makes sense." Theoretically speaking, he says, "if 100 players play the game, there should be 100 different user stories," since the game is always reflecting choices back at the player through world state and NPC reaction.
Suited and boooted
Ultimately, this comes down to how much of No Law hinges upon player exploration and agency, as well as inclusion of weighty choice and consequence.
It's important to the developers that "whatever we want to do in gameplay can be rooted in the fiction within the universe," Frick continues. "It is not magic, it's science, but it's very important that we explain it right."
As for other beloved RPG elements like romance, I have bad news. Merc hero Grey Harker is "a bit too busy kicking butt" for romantic dalliances in this game, Frick says neatly, but relationships are still integral to No Law. "We're really trying to build personal relationships between the characters – not only [Harker] and the characters he interacts with, but also between, for example, the bad guys."
Neon Giant takes that interpersonal worldbuilding seriously, whether or not you're invested in the domestic drama between renegade gangs. "We're trying to build a believable space with believable people. Like, we're still pulling everything very far, stretching everything very far, because we want an exciting world. We want spectacle. This is entertainment, right?"
In terms of No Law's map, Neon Giant tells us it's "more about density than scale." It's an "intimate" action adventure, and at times, you might even call Port Desire… cozy?
"We have sunshine. There's cozy courtyards with jazz playing. There's an old lady living there. Like, we want that cozy vibe. Sometimes it's not all about, you know, this grim dystopia taken over by youngsters. We want to have a very wide variety of emotions in the city."
This, perhaps, is the biggest thing that sets No Law's world apart from Night City. The game looks and sounds a lot more optimistic than I expected from this particular sci-fi subgenre, where moments of levity might be found more frequently in a city that's lush with greenery, filled with connections and occasional glimpses of human warmth. It's still a gritty cyberpunk narrative, but to Neon Giants, it's about a balance. "We need those two extremes to have some contrast in the world," says Berg.
No Law is yet to receive a firm release date, but that leaves 2026 wide open for the taking. I don't think I've heard of an RPG quite like this one; intimate yet expansive, narrative-heavy yet with so much "opt-in" content. It speaks to the growing level of agency players expect from the modern RPG, and by the sound of it, No Law will work its hardest to deliver on that promise.
