It must suck to be the bad guys in this cyberpunk beat 'em up with cinematic gun fu

At some point you have to admit you've been outsmarted. And yet, none of the bad guys in the new PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted trailer for Spine, a cyberpunk gun fu beat 'em up, will give up.

Maybe it's because one of them actually managed to defeat Spine's street-artist-turned-John-Wick protagonist—temporarily. Despite getting bashed through a window by a riot shield (it's always the riot shield guys), she shows right back up again to fight these armed men in the most cinematic locations ever.

One guy has his arm broken at golden hour in some ritzy high-rise, another guy Wilhelm Screams as he is thrown off a city bridge at twilight, and the bravest member opts for a brawl on the roof of a train that immediately falls apart. Spine looks to be a game where the bad guys lose spectacularly, over and over again.

Developer Nekki describes the game as a "thrilling fusion of cinematic gunplay and beat 'em up," set in a near-future city under the control of a malevolent AI. The main character also happens to have an AI implanted in her, whispering sweet combat techniques in her ear. Surely nothing could go wrong with that.

Although the trailer isn't finalized gameplay, Nekki says Spine has "combat choreography set up by actual action movie specialists," and that the camera will swoop around you as if you were in a film.

Nekki has big plans for Spine, including more games, DLCs, and webcomics, one of which you can read by signing up for newsletters on its website.

Spine doesn't have a release date, but it's available for wishlisting on Steam.

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.