Grappledrome

My first honest reaction to Grappledrome was that the core idea is genuinely good, maybe even great: a first-person arena shooter where your primary mode of travel is a grappling arm that lets you swing, soar, and drop down on opponents from above. Add a jetpack for emergency escapes, open clutter-free maps designed specifically around airborne combat, and a weapon pickup system that rewards map knowledge, and you have a movement sandbox that stands up next to any twitch shooter concept from its era. The premise leans into a cyber-dystopia setting where uploaded human minds are forced to fight forever under an A.I. overlord called the Overlord, which is a perfectly silly hook that gives the art direction room to go weird and surreal. The movement mechanic is the one thing Grappledrome does exceptionally well. Chaining a grapple swing into a mid-air weapon pickup into a kill from above is exactly the kind of kinetic satisfaction the game promises, and when it clicks it clicks hard. The maps are built with vertical play in mind, and the jetpack gives you a third option when a swing goes wrong. For fans of old-school arena shooters who always wanted Spider-Man mobility grafted onto Unreal Tournament-style deathmatch, the design direction here is almost perfectly targeted. Here is where I have to be straight with you, though. Grappledrome launched into Steam Early Access in February 2017 and never completed that journey. The developers publicly acknowledged a significant development hiatus due to personal circumstances, and the purchase option was pulled from the Steam store page at one point. The Steam concurrent player count has sat at effectively zero for years. An offline Time Trial mode exists if you want to practice movement, and Steam leaderboards technically still work, but the multiplayer the whole game is built around is a ghost town. The small slice of community reviews that exist trend positive, suggesting the fundamentals are solid, but "solid fundamentals with nobody to play against" is a rough value proposition for a multiplayer-first game in 2025. If you are a collector of interesting movement shooters, want the Time Trial maps as a solo movement puzzle, or can organize a private session with friends who are in on the joke, there is a real and unusual game here worth your time. If you are looking for a live online shooter with matchmaking, lobbies, and a warm player pool, Grappledrome cannot offer that in any practical sense. Go in with eyes open.

Alex · Scout Team

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