The dark cities, neon lights, and other synthwave aesthetics of the cyberpunk scene are alive and well in 2020. For gaming, this is in large part due to the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077. You really can’t throw a stone without hitting a video game title within the cyberpunk genre, which warrants mixed results, with most fall short of being worth players’ time. However, for fans lamenting over the fact that last week marked the original release of Cyberpunk 2077 (which was pushed back to September), developer ION LANDS is here to lend a hand with its latest title, Cloudpunk, available now for PC. While not without faults, Cloudpunk is an incredibly ambitious game that delivers a believable dystopian universe, which fans of the cyberpunk genre could get lost in for hours at a time.
It's Always Raining
Cloudpunk tells the story of Rania, a courier for the titular Cloudpunk - a delivery service that toes the line of legality within the vertically-built city limits of Nivalis. It’s her first night on the job driving her HOVA - the name of her piloted hovercraft - in a city that she is none too crazy about. Her deliveries take her from one end of the city to the other, and all of the seedy places in between, meeting a colorful cast of characters from all walks of life - human, machine, or otherwise - and economic status. It’s a wild ride through the skies of Nivalis, and one that no one, much less Rania, will forget.
First and foremost, Cloudpunk’s cyberpunk, pixelated open-world is nothing short of amazing. You could almost equate it to a 3D version of the early Grand Theft Auto games, but with three times the amount of character and personality. The city is made up of various sections reachable by way of highway portal, with each section more or less having its own style and overall identity. Many areas feature Japanese-styled buildings and neon signage - if you’re a fan of the cyberpunk genre, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about - while other areas, such as The Hollows, provide a glimpse of the city’s more dystopian wastelands that lie on the outskirts of Nivalis.
Truly Living In Nivalis
What’s even more impressive, not only can players can zigzag around buildings throughout the vertical city, they can also park their HOVA and walk around the streets of the city, taking in the sights, sounds, and tastes of Nivalis. Players can interact with merchants and food vendors, and even visit (and decorate!) their apartment, if they feel like spending their hard-earned Lims (the in-game currency) on the more cosmetic items instead of gas and vehicle repairs - which you'll be paying for plenty often.
Walking around on foot is actually a major component of Cloudpunk’s story and overall appeal. Many of the pick-up-and-deliver quests require Rania to exit her HOVA and make deliveries on foot. Often, this involves parking in a designated spot, before navigating the various streets, platforms, bridges, and elevators using the minimap in the corner of the screen. It’s not a terrible design, but the fixed camera (think Resident Evil) does cause headaches every so often, especially when trying to navigate to a platform on a higher level, or speak with an NPC hidden behind some scenery. Players can unlock the camera in the settings, but this didn’t seem to have an impact on anything other than when I was driving. Even then, it seemed to go in and out of working properly, resulting in me running with the default settings, which was fine, though I have to imagine that this mechanic will be much more precise and effective when Cloudpunk makes its way to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
The only other aspect of Cloudpunk that fell a bit flat were the characters. Don’t get me wrong; the characters and storylines were fine (if not sometimes slightly cliche), and you could tell that the creative team had its work cut out for them with the vast array of different characters met throughout Cloudpunk’s narrative. The problem was that the voice work just didn’t do much to hold my interest. From Apex Legends’ Pathfinder-esque, Camas - the AI autonama that accompanies Rania - to the dreadfully insulting Mrs. Octavius Butler, many of the character voices had me wishing I could skip the dialogue (which was only a possibility when having a conversation while standing on foot). This extended to Rania, whose voice fit the character perfectly, but fell flat in more heightened moments with an unemotional monotone, which kind of broke the game’s sense of immersion it held over me.
Cyberpunk Done Right
Cloudpunk has plenty to offer, including what the city of Nivalis provides after the main storyline concludes. Players can continue to fly the not-so-friendly-skies taking part in the side quests that they missed during the initial playthrough, continuing to personalize their apartment and customizing their HOVA, or just exploring every nook and cranny of Nivalis to see what other secrets can be found.
Cloudpunk isn’t a perfect game, but it comes darn close. At the very least, it’s one of the best cyperpunk experiences available right now. I have no doubt that I’ll be picking up a Switch copy when the game eventually makes its way to consoles, so that I can hop into the incredible cyberpunk world wherever I go. Unlike the streets of Liberty City, the treachery and debauchery in the skies of Nivalis do not in the least bit deter me from wanting to spend more time in its neon city limits.
A PC copy of Cloudpunk was provided to TheGamer for this review. Cloudpunk is available now for PC.
Cloudpunk
Working for the grey-market Cloudpunk company, you play as Rania, a delivery driver. You're tasked with making sure packages get to their intended destinations within the cyberpunk city of Nivalis.