Yellowstone Meets Blade Runner In Upcoming Cyberpunk Western FPS
Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond.
It wasn't always the case, but nowadays, there are literally countless different cyberpunk-based projects across all facets of media. The genre has evolved considerably since it expanded outside its early roots in literature, with Blade Runner becoming one of its most influential franchises and now preparing to expand again with Blade Runner 2099 in November. William Gibson's equally foundational Neuromancer is finally getting a major live-action adaptation of its own, with Apple's series scheduled to premiere in January 2027.
Gaming has embraced cyberpunk just as enthusiastically, as Cyberpunk 2077 overcame its infamous launch to become one of the genre's biggest modern success stories, expanding through Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and an increasingly large multimedia universe.
Yet futuristic cities, hackers, and megacorporations are only part of cyberpunk's appeal. The genre has also developed an unexpectedly natural cohesion with Westerns, pairing lawless frontiers and morally ambiguous gunslingers with dystopian technology and etching out a new genre all its own. That combination is becoming increasingly prominent, and one upcoming release is an unskippable new cyberpunk western with a perfect premise (via Steam).
This New Cyberpunk Western Is Yellowstone Meets Blade Runner
ExeKiller wears its cyber-Western influences proudly, blending the dusty frontier atmosphere of something like Yellowstone with the dystopian science fiction of Blade Runner. Paradark Studio's first-person action-adventure takes place in an alternate 1998, 20 years after the Great Fire Disaster devastated New York and the US. Players take on the role of Denzel Fenix, a licensed bounty hunter working for the powerful Helion Corporation, tracking fugitives through the wasteland and extracting valuable S.O.U.L. biochips from their bodies.
That setup provides plenty of traditional Western imagery, only filtered through a retro-futuristic world. Classic revolvers are used alongside neural implants, roadside settlements sit nest to irradiated ruins, and Denzel travels between semi-open regions in a hovercar called the Appaloosa. Locations range from Manhattan's ruins and scavenger-controlled Brooklyn to a sand-covered Long Island.
Gameplay similarly combines gunslinger fantasy with immersive-sim exploration. Contracts can involve investigating crime scenes, questioning witnesses, hacking systems, sneaking through restricted areas, negotiating, or simply reaching for a revolver and blasting away. Cybernetic upgrades provide abilities including Bullet Time, enhanced strength, improved vision, and greater mobility, while player decisions can affect faction attitudes and later events.
The result feels like the natural meeting point between Yellowstone's rugged frontier sensibilities and Blade Runner's corporate-controlled, dense city-based dystopia. It's a world of bounty hunters, moral ambiguity, powerful factions, and futuristic technology where the classic Western frontier has evolved into the cyberpunk age, coming soon to Steam.
You Can Wishlist Exekiller Now On Steam
ExeKiller still does not have a firm release date, and its current Steam page lists the launch as TBA. That is notable because Paradark Studio previously suggested in a February 2024 developer diary that 2025 would be the game's release year, but that target clearly slipped as development continued.
The biggest recent development is arguably the game's new publishing partnership. In June 2026, Paradark announced that 505 Games had signed on to publish ExeKiller on PC through Steam. The studio explained that its original publishing partner had stepped away from game publishing, forcing the team to search for a new home before eventually landing with 505.
Paradark says the deal provides additional resources and support while leaving its original vision intact, including the bounty-hunting structure, investigations, player choices, and cyber-Western setting. Development updates over the past few years have also shown work on new environments, buildings, vehicles, climbing mechanics, animations, drones, and other systems. Paradark previously received an Epic MegaGrant as well, although it stressed that this would not make ExeKiller an Epic Games Store exclusive.
For now, ExeKiller remains confirmed for PC via Steam, and you can wishlist it today to make sure you stay up to date on details any development news.
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