Ludography
75/100
Players6 ratings
76/100
Metacritic5 critic reviews
More scores
Metacritic usersuser score
65/100
GameFAQsJust Right
3/5
Player reviews
81% positive1,659 reviews
Steam Deck
Unsupported
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$11.99

Where to get it

Budget Cuts cover

2018 · Neat Corporation · Action · Adventure

Budget Cuts

PlayStation console exclusive

Budget Cuts is a VR stealth game about evading enemies and searching levels using a teleportation gun.

Released
14 June 2018
Platforms
Oculus VRPlayStation VRSteamVRWindows
Genres
ActionAdventureIndieShooter
Developers
Neat Corporation
Publishers
Neat Corporation
Series
Budget Cuts
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Virtual Reality
Themes
ActionStealth
Country
Sweden
Age ratings
PEGI 12ESRB T
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian and 1 more
Time to beat
5hmain story8hcompletionist

About

Budget Cuts is an independent virtual reality stealth game developed and published by Swedish studio Neat Corporation. The player is tasked with escaping an office building using a portal device while evading detection from robotic managers. Neat Corporation made a demo in 2016 for a showcase with Valve Software with an initial release date the same year, and eventually released on Steam in 2018.

The sequel, Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency, released in 2019. A collection containing both the original and sequel game and the DLC was released as Budget Cuts Ultimate on September 20, 2023.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Budget Cuts has the player move around the office building using a portal gun. This device, when activated, shoots a projectile in the direction it is facing and bounces off walls to land on a movable position. Once landed, it creates a small and movable heads-up display which can be used to view the area where the ball landed to scope out the next location. The player can then teleport to the new location if desired.

A core mechanic of the game is throwing knives and scissors at enemies. The weapons were made to hit the target with the sharp edge so to always cause harm with an accurate aim by the player.

Story

Budget Cuts is set in a company called "TransCorp," filled with human-like robotic office workers and security guards. There are no other people to be found, except for a voice over the phone, Winta. Winta informs the player that people have been disappearing, and the protagonist is the next target of an unspecified group. The player must escape the office buildings of TransCorp, while hiding from supervisors, walking security guards with guns.

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. IGN writer Mitch Dyer said that it "might be the best, most interesting VR game I’ve played." Jeuxvideo.com criticized it for having a repetitive game pattern, and praised by Rock Paper Shotgun for integrating the locomotion as a gameplay feature.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
SteamVR31 May 2018Worldwide
Windows31 May 2018Worldwide · North America 14 June 2018
Oculus VR31 May 2018Worldwide
PlayStation VR25 September 2020Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Ported as
Budget Cuts Ultimate
Built on it
Budget Cuts Ultimate

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.