Cloudpunk

Muito bom.

I really liked it a lot. It's a game where the story takes place over one endlessly rainy night, and you're doing deliveries for a dubious company to try and make ends meet. Like most (or all) stories set in a cyberpunk world, there is great dystopia just beneath the surface, if it even manages to go that deep. As always, there is a great disparity between the haves, the have-nots, and the have-nothings. While on first blush the districts you visit in the game all largely look the same, there are differences, and they become especially clear when you move between the wealth classes The game itself plays out in a fairly interesting manner, all taking place in one night. While the game is fairly laid back for the most part (even with all the craziness going on), there is generally an undercurrent feeling the whole game of other characters instilling the thought of "I hope I make it through the night" within you. As you begin, it's all fairly standard delivery fare, but as time goes on the story picks up while still having you play the courier, and as such, a dichotomy of sorts plays out; on one side you are a powerless cog in the machine of an unkind world. On the other, you are actually able to impact and affect peoples lives, for better or worse, even if only for a moment. The environment is divine, and the voxel style aesthetic works really well in its favour. The story is quite decent, but due to the scope of the games development you will sometimes wander in to stories or characters for only a short time, and get left wanting more. On the flip side, the game length felt correct for what it was, I could have finished an hour two sooner had I not spend as much time on driving around following the loot markers on the map. In terms of problems I had with the game, I think the voice acting was weak at times, the main characters tone/cadence/emotion when speaking didn't always match up properly with the situations she was in, but she had good moments too. I think the writers perhaps failed with rule 2, given they repeatedly say don't ask what's in the package and Rania asks every single time, without consequence. Camus felt really wooden early on and at parts throughout, although I think that was intentional due to how the character is, whilst also having to exist in a less optimised space. I did enjoy Camus talking about sex though, I thought it was written in a way that was humourous and unexpected. Huxley is obviously a standout character, who is both annoying and endearing with how they speak, I also liked Control. My second issue would be that for a game where the actual active gameplay is driving, the driving itself was kind of blah. Driving and walking through the city felt so immersive and I loved it so much, but parking and especially turning always felt a little difficult. Finally, there is one side quest (for Evelin) which goes on forever, due to requiring you to pick up an absurd number of punch cards for her quest. Going from 20 to 15 would have made a big difference, 10 might have been the sweet spot of just enough. Although my criticisms of the game have been longer than my praises, I've spent the whole time writing this review looking up at the screenshot slideshow cycle through, and it makes me want to hop back on and maybe knock out a couple of the dozen or so achievements I still need. The games atmosphere really is magical and has left me wanting more. I don't know how well Nivalis do at capturing the magic that is within Cloudpunk, but I've been keen to play it for what feels like an eternity, and I'm glad I gave Cloudpunk a go.