We’ve reviewed a variety of games here on TGTRS; from FPS to RPG; puzzle to simulation; endurance to strategy. Turns out, this month, we’re doing a mostly science fiction batch. I know this, of course, because this is the last review of the month for me to write. Yes, I’ve already done next week’s piece of writing. It pays to be ahead. Trust me. Today, we cover Cloudpunk and seek to answer the question we ask of all video games. Is it any good?
Well, to start with we need to go ahead and discuss the type of game it actually is and I think the easiest way to describe it would be as a pixel-art, science fiction, driving game with a cyberpunk style and a decisions-matter attitude. It’s a game that I first played prior to our writing reboot last May and I’ll be honest, my enjoyment back then was a lot greater than my enjoyment replaying it now for this review, so I’m going to try and reconcile both views in this review.
For starters, I quite like the art style, which you’ll be able to see in the pictures included in this review. I have a machine that doesn’t run modern games particularly well, so playing something with lower visual requirements is always appreciated, but the juxtaposition of science fiction content and retro visuals is something that I found enjoyable to experience in and of itself. It does the concept justice, without requiring too much from your hardware. It provides a sort of nostalgia inducing feeling, whilst being completely new in its presentation.
The game itself is fairly straight forward. Drive a flying car, deliver people and packages to places in this futuristic city, and manage your bank balance, fuel gauge and vehicle’s structural integrity as you experience your character – Rania’s – first night on the job with the titular illicit delivery company. You’re told right off the bat that it’s a dangerous job, with a high fatality rate due to traffic collisions, and I can’t help but wonder how fast these cars must have been going to have such a horrific crash. I’ve full on rammed into stuff because I was re-acquainting myself with the controls (up and down take a bit of getting used to) and there was no indication of impending death for me or my fellow commuters.
I enjoy the world building elements of the game – told mostly through conversations with other citizens of the city, as well as your work contact, you get a feel for just how screwed the city is. Cyberpunk themes typically include technology as either the salvation or damnation of society and in this game – spoiler alert til the end of this paragraph – you sort of experience both sides of that, but seeing how the AI that runs the city and keeps it functioning is struggling, as well as aging, and how because it’s been taking care of things itself, no-one really knows how to solve the problems that are being thrown up. If you don’t have to worry about making sure traffic lights work, you might well forget where you keep the spare bulbs, after a few hundred years, after all. Mix that with the info we find out about our primary work contact and you get the sense that the game’s creators were firmly on the “technology can make our lives easier, but in the long run, we need to make sure we understand how it works”, side of the argument. Using this game as a starting point for such a discussion, I agree wholeheartedly, but of course, such things are more nuanced than that.
The game also demonstrates the dangers of unchecked power and the capitalist state, as well as the real-world horrors of having such wide-spread technology that could in theory be used to do some truly terrible things. Great things too, sure, but terrible things are still on the table, so to speak. It’s very much a game about being human in a world that is becoming increasingly less so. I guess the closest contemporary I can think of without any specialist research would probably be Wall-E, specifically the lives of the humans on the spaceship. It’s not a perfect comparison, but the way they don’t need to do anything for themselves any more, their reliance on technology and barely understanding it, as well as the toll that takes on their physical and mental health, is something that I can see played with conceptually in Cloudpunk, to I believe, great effect.
As it stands, I would say that the first time I played, I was hooked, determined to find out what was going to happen as the night progressed, feeling a sense of duty to both the company and my colleagues, as well as to learning more about the world I was playing in. This second time round? Well, I know the story. I know how it all pans out, – the ups, the downs… the bits that shocked me last time I played won’t shock me again because I’ve already been shocked. It’s not the game’s fault, it’s true for any plotline in TV, film or game that once you’ve experienced it, the initial impact is lessened when you experience it again, with very, very few examples otherwise. The game itself has a reasonable replay value – the city is interesting to fly around, to walk around, to just take in as you spend this first night on the job, it’s just that the story, while compelling on the first playthrough, is less so in the second. I feel more inclined to muck about exploring than I did before, when I wanted to experience it the way it was intended to be experienced, and while there’s plenty of downtime for an individual to explore in between plot points, I never felt the urge to while I was on the first playthrough, which I hope makes sense cos I don’t know how else to phrase it.
Is it a good game? I do, honestly, think it’s a great game. I enjoyed it, and I have been enjoying it in prep for this review, just differently. I honestly think my first play would have cultivated a score of 9/10, but I can’t, in good faith, give it that score now that the time has passed and I’m playing it again.
7/10
-TG
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