Story shooters are dead? No Law proves the opposite and shows us a cyberpunk world that we want to dive into right away.
In the trailer fireworks of the Game Awards 2025, one reveal almost got lost in the shuffle. And that would have been a shame, because this game is set to make the single-player dreams of many cyberpunk fans come true in Unreal Engine 5.
If you’ve missed the debut trailer so far, be sure to check it out for yourself:
We’re talking about No Law, an extremely ambitious open-world shooter from Swedish studio Neon Giant. And if that name rings a bell in the hippocampus of your cyberbrain: yes, these are the makers of The Ascent, a neon-drenched action RPG that can best be summed up as “Diablo with a cyberpunk setting.”
Instead of the eleven people who worked on No Law back then, there are now 24 developers – still a very manageable number for such an ambitious project. “We deliberately wanted to remain a small team and not do game development in the sense of large AAA studios. And we wanted this challenge,” explains Neon Giant founder Arcade Berg. And the challenge is immense, because No Law promises great things.
A new perspective from the past
First of all, there’s a whole new perspective: instead of the isometric camera of The Ascent, No Law is controlled as a true first-person shooter.
But the developers have several aces up their sleeves for this very purpose: Doom, Bulletstorm, Wolfenstein, and Far Cry are just a few of the shooter references the team can boast.
“We come from the first-person genre; that’s in our DNA. In that sense, The Ascent was more of an experiment. And because we were able to build on our old strengths in gunplay, movement, and so on this time around, we wanted to set new standards in world-building and immersion,” explains Creative Director Tor Frick. No Law wants to be more than just a shooting gallery. Much more, in fact. Storytelling and freedom of play should go hand in hand.
From different solutions and approaches for individual missions to different endings for the storyline, story and gameplay are closely intertwined. “Our game world reacts organically to how the player proceeds. There’s stealth, gun violence, and really everything in between,” says Tor Frick. But what kind of game world are we talking about anyway?
The full cyberpunk color palette
The city of No Law is called Port Desire and is a lawless port metropolis of the future – ruled by crime syndicates, gangs, and the militia of a corrupt mayor.
Unlike many other big cities in the genre, such as Night City from Cyberpunk 2077 or L.A. from Blade Runner, Port Desire is not just a concrete jungle – alongside shady bars, gloomy alleys, and claustrophobic laboratories, there are almost cozy and colorful squares with (brace yourselves) real trees. No Law is both nature and high-tech.
“We have day-night and weather changes, which creates different moods, but there are also places to relax in the city. They contrast with the dark, threatening, and futuristic locations,” explains Tor Frick. These contrasts are even reflected in the music, where jazz and acoustic sounds alternate with driving synth sounds.
Retired ex-elite soldier Grey Harker wanted to retire to Port Desire, but the city had other plans and draws him into a vortex of violence and intrigue. And Grey Harker is, of course, us.
This is not Night City
In Harker’s old military boots, we can explore the city completely freely. If you like, you can simply follow the plot, but then you’ll miss out on a lot of exciting side quests and information that may be linked to the main story.
“Exploration is very important to us and should be rewarding. For example, you might find a new weapon. Sometimes you’ll also find a narrative reward – for example, when you discover something new about the protagonist. We want it to feel understandable and coherent,” says Arcade Berg, explaining the concept.
No Law does not offer a gigantic open world like Cyberpunk 2077 or the GTA games – that would be far beyond the realistic possibilities of such a small studio.
The developers put it this way:
We want our city to feel dense and lively. It’s not a gigantic area, but rather a manageable one. But it’s full of life, almost intimate.
What we do and how we do it should have a concrete impact on Port Desire and its inhabitants. And even a lawless city has its limits: anyone who kills people indiscriminately will have to deal with a troop of peacekeepers. “They’re not the police, but they’ll stop you,” say the developers.
Warrior, hacker, detective
The developers of No Law follow a clear rule: a player can never play the game “wrong.” So there are no predetermined solutions or forced stealth passages. “We give you a set of tools and options. And then it’s up to you to solve the problem however you see fit,” says Arcade Berg.
So you can pull out your gun at any time and just start shooting. However, there are many other options:
- With the right tool, Harker can pick locks and open blocked paths, for example.
- Using a cyberdeck, Harker can immerse himself in the digital world and overcome certain security systems.
- Through detective work, Harker can obtain information that helps in dialogues, for example through bribery or blackmail.
Similar to Deus Ex, Prey, or Dishonored, No Law is an immersive sim in which players work out solutions independently through creativity and a combination of skills, weapons, dialogue options, and gadgets.
This is where the role-playing elements of No Law come into play: as Harker, we not only find weapons, upgrades, and tools, but also invest earned experience points in various talent trees and special abilities, which then enable a variety of approaches.
A world of consequences
No Law is a single-player game and, as such, deliberately avoids any multiplayer or co-op components. According to Tor Frick, this was the plan from the outset:
Our game is purely a story game; it has a beginning and an end. Actually, there are several endings. But the path between these two points can vary greatly depending on how you play.
This non-linear approach is a top priority for the developers: “There aren’t just multiple ways to solve a mission. Instead, these solutions also lead to different reactions in the world,” say the creators.
It is still unclear what these reactions will look like in detail and whether Neon Giant will succeed in combining an exciting single-player story with a truly vibrant open world and maximum sandbox freedom into a good overall package.
We’ll only find out when we can play it ourselves – and that could take a while: the team refused to reveal a release date or even a price. The target platforms are PC via Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. One thing is certain, though: No Law is a surprise that Cyberpunk fans should urgently put at the top of their watch list.
Editor’s conclusion
No Law came out of nowhere and really blew me away at the end of the year. No one could have expected such an extremely ambitious open-world shooter, right? On my personal scale, Neon Giant falls somewhere between megalomania and awe-inspiring determination.
This small Swedish studio definitely plans to box in a much higher weight class and is specifically picking elements from Cyberpunk 2077, Dishonored, Deus Ex, and shooters like Bulletstorm. And the decision to forego any multiplayer nonsense is music to my ears!
Sure, The Ascend had its minor and major issues, but the cyberpunk atmosphere and attention to detail were evident throughout. The fact that the developers are now returning to their first-person shooter roots is, in my opinion, a good sign for some really exciting battles.
