Argentine Video Games: Rebel Engine Shatters the Oppressors' Chains with a Nonstop Combo

Working can always be humiliating, no matter the universe or timelines we inhabit. The asymmetrical power dynamics at every job may have shifted, we may have become our own bosses, alienation may take on a different hue, but the motto remains the same: to live, one must work. Or its subtle inversion: to work, one must live.

At some similar crossroads, we'll find Asimov, the protagonist of the video game Rebel Engine, developed by Seven Leaf Clover and published by Wandering Wizard in 2025. It turns out a robot is doomed to fight eternally in a sort of cybernetic Roman coliseum, while the circus owner watches everything from his dome and distributes bread among the humble spectators.

One day, Asimov breaks the cycle when visited by a virus named Salvador (make the literal or not-so-literal connections you can think of). Thanks to him, we can escape captivity and start a crusade against Concrete, the megacorporation that controls every space and life we see around us. How are we going to do it? Well, the revolution will be armed or it won't happen. I mean, we’ll literally do it with punches and bullets, in first person.

This won't be the first or last time we have action games with a strong emphasis on combat that dodge the classic third-person cameras to immerse us in a more "direct" experience with enemies. I remember the beloved Zeno Clash (ACE Team, 2009 and 2013), Elderborn (Hyperstrange, 2020), or the more recent Mortal Sin (Nikola Todorovic, 2025).

I can't recall other first-person games that allow me to perform juggling variations with different weapons that lift, push away, or crush almost any enemy I encounter.

However, Rebel Engine tries to stand out a bit. Of course, it draws, directly or indirectly, from the aforementioned waters and classics of the genre like Devil May Cry, even reviving the classic Stylish Rank, which measures how cool our combo is based on how we vary our attacks. The thing is, I don't remember other first-person games that let me perform juggling variations (keeping the enemy in the air) with different weapons that lift, push away, or crush almost any enemy I encounter.

Chains are broken through fighting, and Asimov's heavy artillery is complemented by pincher-like hand strikes that allow him to grab and toss enemies, launch them into the air, and knock them down; even his foot has a charming aerial attack we can perform by jumping twice. We'll also find other weapons along the way, like a whip capable of attacking multiple enemies at once or a chainsaw that lets us set traps that attack constantly.

We fight in small (and not-so-small) arenas or locations, with a strong emphasis on being more offensive than defensive: it turns out we fill a purple bar every time we attack, and we can consume that bar by performing melee attacks that generate armor. Plus, our combo system decays if we stop attacking, there's no reason to be passive in the face of Concrete's injustices.

Or maybe there is. It's striking how we traverse rooms, offices, and other settings, seeing dozens of workers going about their business as if nothing is happening. Occasionally, they might react to a general alarm or a major event, but if they're not there, they're "in their own world." In fact, some will say they “don’t want to get involved,” and we can hear various anecdotes about how they can't make ends meet, how it's becoming difficult to meet their work quotas, or how the system they’re trapped in treats them as disposable. Sound familiar?

Video games with social themes have existed almost since video games with complex narratives began, and we also have more and more (excellent) experiences that draw from Marxism and the class struggle. The irony that it’s literally robots and machines that are the gears driving this universe is not new. But Rebel Engine has charm.

I don’t say this necessarily because of the jokes (some good, others not so much) or the voice acting, which surprises me in how disparate and even bland Asimov and Salvador feel compared to the very solid supporting cast. It’s the situations, the different moments. We run around, creating spectacular chaos, and the statu quo remains unmoved. The workers don’t move unless you dare to hit them, to directly confront them. We find a secret press sector and hear how workers argue over plagiarism.

Some will say they “don’t want to get involved,” and we can hear various anecdotes about how they can't make ends meet, how it's becoming difficult to meet their work quotas, or how the system they’re trapped in treats them as disposable. Sound familiar?

The narrative escalates, and fortunately, it stops being the path of the “lone rebel,” capable of carrying out the naive idea of trying to overthrow the system by himself, and other players (or “comrades”) appear. The combat also escalates, and if there's one thing I really appreciate about Rebel Engine, it’s that it doesn’t fall into some of the unfortunate practices of our time: it doesn’t restrict us in our arsenal and agency.

Even though each firearm has limited ammunition and we have to wait for it to reload on its own, we are pushed towards the magic of combining our equipment and finding new ways. This is possible because each new weapon you acquire stays in your inventory permanently. We will never encounter a “Build your loadout” screen or anything like that. What you earned through your effort is truly yours, and there’s no arbitrary rule from an owner preventing you from using it.

The beauty of this type of game is being able to find avenues of expression in every combination of strikes, shots, and pauses, and Rebel Engine allows you to do that. The best in the genre present a blank canvas and give us ridiculous amounts of brushes and colors to fill it. I don’t know how much the combat can be broken to find the flexibility we see in videos like those craziness in the Devil May Cry saga. The couple of hours the campaign took didn’t give me enough time to become a master of anything, other than my own fun.

But I do believe that Rebel Engine manages to enter the same bar as the greats of the genre, and is greeted, perhaps even with a wink, by those with whom we grew up fighting.

You can find Rebel Engine on its Steam page and follow its accounts on X and Instagram.

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