Dagestan Technology is probably infamously known for the 2015 Hotline Miami-clone called Bloodbath Kavkaz. The Russian-made, top-down shooter ended up capturing the attention of a small contingent of eastern European gamers when it released, carving out its own sizable share of the marketplace and selling a rather impressive 375,000 units, according to Steam Spy.

Well, Dagestan is back. This time the company is prepping for the 2018 release of Bloodbath Kavkaz’s sequel, appropriately named Bloodbath Requiem.

While the game is still an obvious Hotline Miami clone, this time around it looks like Dagestan has managed to separate itself a bit more from Dennaton Games’ overhead action title by giving Bloodbath Requiem a chiefly more grounded, Russian feel to the atmospheric design within the stages.

Set within seedy nightclubs and high-rise towers, players will assume the role of the heavily armed vigilante, Shamil Rakhmanov. After attempting to find peace following the events of the original Bloodbath Kavkaz, Rakhmanov returns to face off against a Russian syndicate headed up by Roscorp Inc. The initial announcement trailer is actually better than I thought it would be. Check it out below.

The game’s frenetic top-down action makes a return, with the woozy rotating camera and the high-impact environmental destruction. The game has a decidedly more polished look this time around thanks to improved lighting and post-processing effects, which help to hide some of the stilted animations of the characters.

Some of the sequences do look quite enticing, though. Seeing Rakhmanov dual-wielding the pistols and shooting through the glass like a reenactment of the final showdown in Hard Target – starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and directed by John Woo – is a real pleasure to behold.

At least the game lives up to its name and there’s plenty of blood and guts spilling all over the place. It’s obviously still a Hotline Miami clone but it looks like Dagestan is trying desperately to separate itself from Dennaton’s project by focusing more on over-the-top action set-pieces and including a lot of John Woo-style action choreography into the fold. We’ll see how well it all plays out when it launches later this year for PC and on Xbox One.

You can keep track of Bloodbath Requiem by visiting the official website.