Cruelty Squad

Cruelty Squad is set in a dystopian corporatocracy where corporations possess overwhelming influence over police and government affairs. Technological advances allow people to be resurrected after death, rendering much of humanity immortal and cheapening the perceived value of life. Indiscriminate killings are commonplace, and armed security is a fixture of virtually every populated area. Human and animal organs are sold on the stock market, and invasive biological implants and augmented organs are used by security forces and assassins to aid in combat. Corporate contract killings are handled in part by Cruelty Squad, a wetwork security company working under the umbrella of a large conglomerate.

After being discharged from the "SEC Death Unit", the player character receives a phone call from his handler, who offers him employment within Cruelty Squad. He is tasked to kill a number of people who have drawn the ire of conglomerate "higher-ups"; these include anti-corporate politicians, cultists, rogue police officers, delinquent employees, and rival CEOs. Later in the game, the player and his handler begin to turn on the higher-ups, not due to any real anti-corporate beliefs, but simply for the potential humor of the situation. This culminates in targeting CONTROL, which Cruelty Squad is a subsidiary of, and killing its CAD (corporate arch-demoness) Elsa Holmes.

There are three endings to the game, achieved by beating three different levels. They follow the same format of cutscenes featuring the player and cryptic, abstract text.

In the first ending, the player defeats a three-headed being and seemingly removes the concept of death from the universe. This results in everyone being trapped in a stagnant world where life has lost its value.

In the second ending, the player defeats the target of the Cruelty Squad Headquarters and seemingly meets the concept of life, who pities the player and gives him advice on his professional career.

In the third ending, the player locates the "cradle of life", becomes a god of sorts, decides that the universe is beyond fixing, and destroys and recreates it. It ends with a quote on excess from Georges Bataille's The Accursed Share.

Prior to the development of Cruelty Squad, lead developer and artist Ville Kallio created and exhibited multiple artistic works consisting of comics and video art, as well as installations and standalone artworks for galleries. Notable museums he has exhibited include the Futura in Prague,[15] and the SIC Gallery in Helsinki, Finland.[16] Many of these previous artworks contain allusions to video games, as well as many ideas that would later become parts of Cruelty Squad. Kallio has said that his gallery work "never really felt like more than just a weird hobby" and that it was like "a black hole with no future", stating that going into game development felt sensible since his previous work had been heavily inspired by video games.[17]

Other than gallery pieces, Kallio has produced many video projects before the release of Cruelty Squad, such as "Adversalife"[18] and "Venmo Combat"[19] which was also a component of a multimedia art exhibition hosted at the SIC Gallery in Helsinki, Finland.[16] Additionally, he worked on comics such as Hyper Prison-Industrial[20] and Corridorspace.[21]