One of the most interesting game reveals at The Game Awards 2025, at least in my opinion, was Neon Giant’s NO LAW. The new game from the makers of The Ascent is a first person open world shooter that was easy to compare to Cyberpunk 2077, although its developers were quick to address that, clarifying that it’s “a lot more intimate” in comparison to CD Projekt RED’s game.

In a new interview with EDGE magazine (issue 421, April 2026), Neon Giant co-founder and creative director Arcade Berg revealed the true inspiration: immersive simulations.

We feel really good about putting this out into the world, because we’re confident that we’re going to appeal to all the imsim fans, and we know we’re going to appeal to a lot of the open-world, shooter and narrative guys, the cyberpunk fans — maybe a lot of people coming from The Ascent. There are a lot of players out there that ought to be our players. Welcome to Port Desire.

Berg then outlined the kind of systemic approach that is typical of immersive sims. For example, NO LAW will let you kill any character, but you’ll have to live with the consequences, which may be detrimental for your character, the so-called Gardener.

We’re trying to build a believable world that is consistent in the way it acts, and where all the internal logic is always followed. We do let you kill any character in the entire game. But some characters are very pivotal to help you in the story. Then we say: Just so you know, a very important character just died. Do you want to load your last save? If you continue, you’re on your own. If that happens, it’s on you. In many ways, that has more weight than a choice you make in the story. The world responds. If you have accumulated enough of a bounty, you’re now shoot-on-sight. You took it too far, because before that moment, you have every chance to go pay off your bounty. This is where the systems kick in, making sure that the world lives. Because we’re not hand-scripting this.

The creative director wanted to be upfront that the story’s branches won’t lead to wildly different situations. What’s going to happen is that the game’s noir-inspired story, prepared by the developers, will be tilted in certain directions by the players through their actions and choices.

I don’t want to set a false pretence where people think that the big narrative will just wildly branch out to completely different adventures. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re telling this cool noir story in a cyberpunk world. We have a story — beginning, middle, and end — but how we tell the story is what we work out together with the player. You, as the player, have to tell me all the details along the way, and the consequences.

One difference from other immersive simulation games, like Dishonored or Deus Ex, is that players won’t be penalized if they don’t choose a stealthy approach.

While characters in NO LAW might comment on the fact that you made a ruckus during a mission, there’ll be no sense of judgment. We’re not saying you were bad — you were spotted. We’re saying you were a loud warrior bull, which feels awesome.

The interview also reveals that the Gardener can kick characters from balconies right into the sea (it was apparently one of the first things they added to the game), and also that fights against a giant mech will require proper equipment to succeed.

NO LAW, published by KRAFTON, doesn’t have a release date yet. We’ll keep tracking its development progress, though; stay tuned for more.

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