Remember when the FPS genre had a slight tinge of yellow, came with a bit of an attitude, and we had finally moved on from calling everything a “Doom clone” to affectionately dubbing every promising shooter a “Halo killer”? Developer MAETH and publisher Kwalee certainly do, and they’re more than happy to remind players of that particular era of first person shooters. Ladies and gentlemen, grab your guns. It’s time for SPRAWL Zero.

SPRAWL Zero is a prequel to SPRAWL. Believe it or not, you control a genetically modified super soldier called FIVE, tasked with taking down a cult that is slowly gaining control of the megacity in which both games are set. For the first half, you’re essentially a very quiet version of Judge Dredd, blindly following orders and acting as a puppet of justice. Around the halfway mark, as you might expect, things begin to change, and you gradually start seeing the city and its governing body for the seedy leeches they truly are.

There are plenty of CODEX files scattered throughout the city, providing additional context about the setting, FIVE and his colleagues, and exactly what the hell is going on. They’re useful for newcomers and returning fans alike, but especially helpful considering the Nintendo Switch unfortunately missed out on the original release of SPRAWL. We reviewed that game back in 2023, where it earned a respectable 8.5.

The story is interesting, and one I personally enjoyed more than the original’s. It is a little predictable, though. The big halfway point plot twist has been done to death, and while there’s nothing particularly wrong with how it’s handled here, it doesn’t exactly move the needle in terms of narrative. Overall, the story is perfectly serviceable, benefiting from prior knowledge of the original while still working well enough as a standalone experience.

SPRAWL Zero feels like a love letter to the first person shooters of the mid 2000s, like a warm, nostalgic hug from games such as Quake 4, Killzone, and Half-Life. Unlike the original SPRAWL, SPRAWL Zero isn’t a movement shooter emulating the genre’s more recent trends. Instead, it’s a bullet to the face reminder of the era when shooters were going through their angsty, pre-Modern Warfare teenage years.

There is movement in SPRAWL Zero, but you won’t be double jumping around arenas or swinging about with grappling hooks. You’re essentially a human tank, so movement is much slower and more deliberate. The main “hook,” as it were, comes from your Gravity Glove, which lets you pull everything from scenery to enemies’ weapons towards you before sending them straight back with first class, signed for postage.

FIVE doesn’t have time to collect guns, reload them, or lovingly maintain an arsenal. Every weapon is essentially usable for the duration of its magazine, after which it’s time to yeet it across the room, preferably into someone’s face, in exchange for their weapon. You’ll find everything from pistols and shotguns to miniguns and giant hammers that make a lovely mess of anything they touch. The real deadly ballet, however, comes from tossing guns around like bouncy balls and simply watching the chaos unfold.

This isn’t FIVE’s only trick. Later in the game, you gain access to a gravity shield that stops bullets in midair, much like Neo in The Matrix. Suspend enough of these offending projectiles and you can kindly return them to their owners, just in case they happen to have misplaced them. It’s an especially useful tactic against the many pesky turrets and airborne drones you’ll encounter throughout the streets of SPRAWL Zero.

Another of FIVE’s techniques is Bullet Time. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it: time slows down, you dodge bullets, and dish out death like it’s going out of fashion. If you needed any further proof that SPRAWL Zero is firmly rooted in the 2000s, it gives you everything you need to reenact a cyberpunk version of Hard Boiled. These abilities are essential, too. You might be a dealer of death, but my God, are you squishy. Ignore these tools and you’ll be seeing the Game Over screen even more often than I did.

The levels start off quite basic, but it isn’t long before they become, pardon the pun, sprawling areas with multiple objectives that can be tackled in any order. I loved the freedom these stages offered, even if their visuals eventually started to bleed into one another. The objectives themselves are fairly basic, usually something along the lines of “kill X person” or “hold X area,” but they work. I never once found myself bored with what I was being asked to do, mostly because it usually involved killing things, and the combat in SPRAWL Zero is just complete chef’s kiss.

SPRAWL Zero clocked in at around six hours on my first playthrough. You can also find relics scattered throughout the game, which unlock special abilities and modifiers that change the rules, much like Skulls in Halo. They add plenty of replayability, encouraging me to hunt down whatever I missed while also experimenting with the modifiers I’d already unlocked. Catch me booting up Big Head Mode with Randomiser!

Visually, SPRAWL Zero absolutely captures the distinct look of those 2000s “Halo killer” shooters. You’ve got chunky guns, steam billowing out of seemingly everything, and that constant tinge of yellow permeating the entire game. The levels themselves initially give off strong cyberpunk and Judge Dredd megacity vibes, before gradually introducing a bit of Warhammer 40,000 into the mix as the cult becomes more prominent.

It works surprisingly well, especially thanks to the contrast between the cold, metallic city and the increasingly religious architecture you encounter along the way. Naturally, there are also plenty of skulls scattered everywhere, because it’s a cult, after all!

Performance on the Switch 2 was solid for the most part, with SPRAWL Zero hitting 60 frames per second throughout the majority of my playtime. There was one section involving a church a few hours into the game that absolutely tanked the framerate, but thankfully, this seemed to be an isolated issue. Outside of that particular area, I was impressed not only by how smoothly the game ran, but also by how good it looked while doing so. For the vast majority of the experience, SPRAWL Zero delivers a slick and visually impressive showing on the Switch 2.

As someone who prides himself on loving boomer shooters, I wanted to love the original SPRAWL, but it just didn’t hit the right notes for me personally. SPRAWL Zero, on the other hand, was such a pleasant surprise. It hit every note, invented a few new ones, and then cranked the volume all the way up to 11, delivering a heavy metal opera of death in the process. More importantly, it serves as a welcome reminder that the FPS genre is much broader than Modern Warfare and movement shooters like Doom Eternal. I have no idea where SPRAWL is going to go from here, but after SPRAWL Zero, I for one cannot wait to see what comes next.