Lasso Games’ MiniLAW: Ministry of Law is a unique side-scrolling cyberpunk title that gained quite the cult following during its lifespan on the Early Access circuit. The game recently graduated from Early Access on January 1st, 2020 after spending four years in Steam’s developmental branch since 2016. However, despite the game receiving a fair amount of praise during Early Access, it’s receiving very little of it during its full release due to the fact that there are some nagging and unwelcoming flaws that have plagued the game all throughout development.

The core of the game is that you play as a Constable carrying out justice on behalf of the Ministry of Law. Players will roam around the city of New Babel, attempting to find criminals and prevent future crimes from happening.

The charm of the game comes with the player’s ability to utilize various methods for taking down enemies. You can utilize lethal, non-lethal, and other diplomatic means to resolve situations and complete missions.

You can check out the trailer below to get an idea of what the gameplay is like.

t reminded me of Judge Dredd, but the game was billed as a “Robocop simulator” by those who saw how it played out and instantly saw the appeal.

However, the issue with the game is that navigating the play mechanics and understanding how to play became a big issue for a lot of people who had no idea what they were doing, and the game having layers of interactivity that weren’t properly outlined for some missions left some gamers aloof.

The game went from being very positive during its Early Access run to “mixed” upon release, with users like Adolf_Disney succinctly summing up the overall experience, writing…

“Not a very engaging game at all. Cool theme, love the retro-revival look and feel, however the controls and game play are too abstract and complex for the gamer. I think if you’re trying to make a modern retro style game, maybe not rely on retro graphics, make it in a modern game engine. This game has way too much going on, don’t buy it if you’re hoping for a Robocop-style game on the Genesis with RPG elements.”

Steam user Grime wrote something similar…

“ An interesting game with interesting mechanics. Unfortunately it gets bogged down by frustrating and unfun mechanics. Want to talk to the various npcs? Slowly type out their numbers by clicking on a numberpad on the screen. Additionally many of the game mechanics are cryptic and hard to understand. Why would I arrest or knock a perp out as opposed to killing them? Does it give a benefit? How do I actually go about finding the bomb, do I just fight random criminals? Its all rather confusing.”

These criticisms were also further echoed by PartyBear, Lieutenant Moon, and Nile, amongst many others.

This wasn’t something limited to people who purchased the game on Steam. YouTuber ZackScottGames also had trouble navigating MiniLAW as well.

Now to be fair, the game does come with a tutorial, and a lot of people apparently failed to play through the tutorial to understand how to play.

The problem, however, isn’t just with the presence of the tutorial but how you use the controls.

For instance, cHiLLs figured out the button to aim but couldn’t figure out how to aim. He also figured out how to shoot and interact with the environment, but the way the controls are setup were still a fairly big hassle, resulting in things not going over so smoothly during the first-look impression video.

Even for some YouTubers who did manage to get the controls down, they were so cumbersome that the gameplay videos turned out rather…unwieldy.

The real tragedy here is that MiniLAW has a pretty cool concept at its core. Being able to play as a RoboCop style character in a Judge Dredd-inspired megacity with different ways to apprehend and take down perps, or infiltrate buildings using stealth or Rambo tactics seems like a really fun ride, especially with graphics that are supposed to rekindle side-scrolling action games from the 16-bit era.

Unfortunately, even as people attempt to follow the tutorial and the on-screen prompts to make use of the game they’re still having troubles controlling the character and getting things done.

Hopefully Lasso Games can take note of the criticisms from those having a tough time adjusting and maybe take into consideration adding alternate control layouts or customizable buttons.

If at some point you’re inclined to pick up a copy of the game you can do so over on the Steam store for $14.99. During the first week of release it’s on sale for 40% off the normal price.