Ruiner (video game)

Did You Know?

• Ruiner is a shoot 'em up played from an isometric perspective.
• The game was released for Linux, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox One on 26 September 2017.
• Omri Pettite of PC Gamer described the game as 'gorgeous, a sensory feast inspired by the works of cyberpunk's 1980s heyday'.

Plot

In the year 2091, the action of Ruiner unfolds across Rengkok and the nearby industrial sites owned by Heaven, a massive corporation run by a figure known only as the Boss. The player controls a silent character called "Puppy" by another person, who is initially guided by a rogue hacker named Wizard on a mission to kill the Boss. However, just before Puppy can reach the Boss's office, a different hacker, referred to only as Her, takes over the signal connecting them. Her informs Puppy that Wizard was hired by a different faction and that Puppy's brother has been taken, pushing him to pursue Wizard instead. She directs him into the territory of the Creeps, a violent gang of criminals led by a swordsman named Nerve. After battling through their domain, Nerve challenges Puppy to a one-on-one fight and loses, granting Puppy control over the Creeps. With their help, Puppy locates Wizard and kills him by hacking his brain, which then leads them to the Hanza Compound, a factory that produces machine components. Her picks up a signal pointing to Puppy's brother there.

Upon arrival, Puppy and his allies face armed guards and Mother, an angry artificial intelligence that oversees the compound. Puppy fights through the facility, encountering mercenaries hired by TrafficKing, a cyborg resembling a UFO-like craft piloted by a human head. TrafficKing runs the compound alongside Mother and is suspected of hiring Wizard. Following the signal toward his brother, Puppy defeats Mother and then TrafficKing, hacking the cyborg's brain to learn that his brother is being taken to the Imagination Farms. These farms use living humans as hosts to provide brainpower for Virtuality, a virtual reality device Heaven produces and sells to the public. Since TrafficKing has the necessary clearance, Puppy and Her kidnap him to enter the farms.

Film adaptation

On December 17, 2020, EuropaCorp announced their acquisition of rights to produce a television adaptation of the game. As of 2025, the project had not materialized. On August 20, 2024, it was announced that Universal Pictures had acquired the rights to develop a film adaptation of the game with Wes Ball directing and Michael Arlen Ross writing the screenplay. The film will be produced by Kelly McCormick and David Leitch of 87North Productions alongside Ball and Joe Hartwick Jr. of Oddball Entertainment and Dmitri M. Johnson and Michael Lawrence Goldberg of Story Kitchen. Reikon Games will serve as executive producers, with Ryan Jones and Jacqueline Garell overseeing the project on behalf of the studio.