They Always Run

My first impression of They Always Run was that somebody had taken a Saturday morning cartoon, soaked it in pulp sci-fi noir, and then let a bounty hunter loose inside it. That first chase sequence, thrown into the action mid-pursuit with no warm-up cutscene, sets the pace perfectly: this game moves, and it expects you to keep up. At its core, this is a linear 2D action-platformer built around a single mechanical gimmick that actually works. Aidan carries three arms into every fight, which means he can attack enemies both in front and behind simultaneously, shoot three targets in one burst, and pull off instant-kill counters when enemies telegraph their attacks with a blue glow. Stimpacks are scarce, enemies tend to swarm and block your escape routes, and mastering the dodge, parry, and counter rhythm is the whole game. It earns the comparison to 16-bit brawlers in feel, not in fidelity, the hand-drawn animation is genuinely exceptional, with parallax layering and dynamic lighting that make almost every environment look like a painted film still in motion. The soundtrack, a synth-and-strings hybrid, fits the retro-futuristic junkyards and fringes-of-the-galaxy backdrops exactly as well as it should. Do not confuse this for a Metroidvania. There is no backtracking, no sprawling map. Aidan picks up upgrades as the story pushes forward, rocket boots for the double jump, a grappling hook for repositioning and wall-busting, a radar for sniffing out named bounties in the middle of regular combat encounters. The progression is compact and gear-focused rather than skill-tree deep, which suits the game's lean, linear structure. You can grab bonus bounties on random enemies mid-level, capture targets alive for bigger payouts at greater risk, or just kill everything that moves and sell the credits on upgrades. That flexibility feels good even inside a corridor. The cracks are real, though. Movement is on the heavier side, character momentum does not stop on a dime, and the absence of animation cancels can leave you taking hits you feel you should have dodged. The camera shifts and zooms restlessly in busier areas, and early at launch the game shipped with a meaningful number of bugs. Boss fights are the most uneven part of the package: a handful of them are genuinely well-constructed, but several are just wars of attrition with no real puzzle logic behind them. The story is a serviceable revenge plot that fans out into a galaxy-wide conspiracy involving crime cartels and a crime boss who happens to be a cat, it is lighter-hearted and funnier than it looks, but it is told mostly through text dialogue and never quite matches the quality of the visuals delivering it. For players who want a breezy, good-looking 2D action game with a distinct combat identity and a brisk pace, this is a confident recommendation. For anyone who needs tight, response-perfect platforming or a deep narrative, the rough edges will chafe. It does one thing, that scrappy, three-armed brawling, exceptionally well, and that carries it further than the sum of its flaws.

Alex · Scout Team

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