Cyberforce Alliance

Cyberforce Alliance is a 2024 action role-playing video game developed by Mad Man Ninja Studios and published by Activision for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Samsung Zeo and Microsoft Windows. It is the second installment in the Image Comics gaming series following Image Comics All Stars, and the first Image game published with Activision (due to licensing renewed in 2014 and 2016).

The story, set in the Top Cow Universe, follows a team of superheroes coming together to retrieve the big data clusters related to their origin before the great megacorporation CYBERdata can, facing opposition from several other villainous forces along the way.

Upon release, the game received good reviews from critics, who generally found the gameplay and storyline fun. As of December 2024, Cyberforce Alliance has sold over 2.1 million copies worldwide.

Plot
Many aspects of the game are exposed using the cyberpunk term, in a world featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order, tending to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech".

The setting is a post-industrial dystopias with extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original inventors ("the street finds its own uses for things"). Much of the game atmosphere echoes film noir, and often uses techniques from detective fiction.

Gameplay
The gameplay is reminiscent of a top-down dungeon crawler with an emphasis on cooperative play. Up to three players can play the game cooperatively locally either on the same screen or online with friends or random player lobbies. Players choose three characters to traverse linear stages, fight enemies, and defeat bosses, after being able to explore the world - the city of Angeles-Kyoto. Certain passive buffs are acquired with particular character combinations. Each character's controls are fundamentally identical; each has a jump, light attack, heavy attack, dodge, block, and four special abilities. Special abilities can be synced with the other three members for a synergy boost, with an especially powerful attack unleashed if all four party members sync up simultaneously.

Character progression is handled in a similar manner to traditional role-playing games, with party members leveling up by defeating enemies and bosses. In addition to stat increases, passive buffs can be attached to characters by equipping cybernetic upgrades, obtained during exploration. A sprawling skill tree is also present, which allows characters to gain permanent stat increases by acquiring and spending in-game currency.