Rustler
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Rustler Trailers
Rustler - Release Date Announce Trailer | PS5, PS4
Rustler - Announce Trailer | PS5, PS4
Rustler - Live Action Release Date Trailer
Critic Reviews for Rustler
A promising and fun - if a bit rude - game hindered by a not-so-clever implementation of a nice setting.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With a bit more thought and consideration towards the controls, combat and structure, and less reliance on fart and poo gags, Rustler could have been a riot.
This is Rustler’s biggest crime. The game just doesn’t work in the ways I wanted it to. I never felt compelled to keep going forward. Whether it was a glitch or just subpar writing Rustler never managed to draw me into its world. I struggled to finish the game and had little desire to return and mop up any side quests afterwards. There is a fun game buried underneath all of its issues, but Rustler never manages to achieve what it sets out to do. It would have made a solid addition to Game Pass, but for now I recommend waiting for a sale if you desire some Grand Theft Horse.
DualSense support is included to reflect your stamina through the adaptive triggers. Unfortunately, despite the generally simplistic presentation, performance is worryingly inconsistent on PS5, which is a shame. All in all, though, this is a fun if forgettable medieval romp: much of the appeal stems from seeing how GTA series staples have been adapted, like the Pimp-a-Horse drive-thrus which clear your Wanted level and the end of mission beats that accompany each quest you complete.
Rustler has some obvious technical and structural limitations but it is the first to laugh at them because it knows you should never take yourself too seriously. That's what it does and that's how it goes for the player too, who cannot avoid to be captivated by the absurd medieval setting, by the old style gameplay and by mountains of elegant vulgarity.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While Rustler manages to live up to everything it says on the tin, namely Grand Theft Auto with horses, there's not much in its delivery that leaves any sort of memorable experience. Relying almost entirely on its humour, Rustler tries to steal your fancy with crass jokes and pop culture references. However, it never quite manages to stand out as anything more than a basic sandbox romp, with all the repetitive fetch quests in tow. Couple that with some lacklustre mechanics, and what you've got is a fairly disappointing GTA clone.
What we can agree on is that mechanics and gameplay are at least as important as the setting and story, and this is where Rustler fails to deliver a consistently fun experience.
For all of its issues, Rustler is a fun little game that tries something a bit different, recapturing a long-lost element of game design and adding a fun new twist. Its humorous and satirical elements help keep it light-hearted, and though it occasionally has some comedic misses, its also full of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. I'd hope to see some adjustments to the combat system as well as a general cleanup of the odd variety of bugs encountered, but as a whole Rustler is a clever and fun title that has zero shame being exactly what it is.
