Sprawl Zero

The game contains 11 levels; they begin with a "mission debriefing" in which the player's objectives and plan of action are laid out. Sprawl Zero's controls are similar to other mid-2000s shooter games. In particular, the player can punch, grab, shoot, sprint, jump, slide, and dive. One weapon at a time may be held, but weapons cannot be reloaded; once its ammunition or equivalent is depleted, a new weapon must be picked up.

If no gun is carried, the player can fight with their Gravity Gloves, a pair of powerful gravity-controlling gloves. g. pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher) and an ascending tier, ranging from 1 to 5; higher tier weapons are more powerful but rarer. There are over 40 weapons.

As a prequel, the game is set in the universe of the previous game, SPRAWL. In a dense urban sprawl wracked by endless wars and power struggles, two central factions emerge: the authoritarian and technocratic Junta, and the rebellious and religious Imago-Dei. Players control Five, a cyborg soldier aligned with the Junta and commanded by Laeta, whose mission is to wipe out the weakened Imago-Dei and eliminate its leader, Silas, establishing total control of the Sprawl for them.

The Imago-Dei later acquire a nuclear bomb, which Five is instructed to recover the arming keys for from the figurehead priests, and then disarm it. Upon finding each key, the priests plead with Five, explaining the nuclear bomb is not an offensive tactic, but rather a deterrent against the Junta. When Five returns with the keys, Laeta changes the mission objective and now instructs Five to detonate the bomb in the city instead. Before he can do so, Silas appears and arms the bomb himself, leaving Five to die in the explosion.

Reviews of the game were positive, with some criticism directed at its story and level design. It received "generally favorable reviews" on the review aggregator site Metacritic, scoring a 76/100 based on 10 critic reviews. On OpenCritic, it scored "71% Critics Recommend" with 21 reviews.

Several reviewers focused on the game's weapon system. Zack Zwiezen of Kotaku wrote that the constant switching made each encounter more dynamic and tense, and that the combat and abilities differentiated it from the early-2000s shooters it is based on. Brendan Caldwell of Jank compared the design to the two-weapon limit in Halo: Combat Evolved and commended the decision. Aaron Bayne of Push Square found the weapon-swapping loop satisfying, and Zubi Khan of CGMagazine likewise described the cycle of taking enemies' weapons as addictive.