Cloudpunk

So I recently finished Cloudpunk for the first time, and I thought I'd share some thoughts on the game. Consider this a mini-review type thing.

Firstly lets get the main point out of the way. Yes I would highly recommend playing this game. It is a great story based driving game in a cyberpunk world. The graphics are voxel based so the visuals can seem a little rudimentary when looking at the characters, but it allows for a stunning world for your exploration and enjoyment.

The game itself is a wonderful look around a cyberpunk city where you survive through your first night on the job as a delivery driver for the underground courier service "Cloudpunk"

Along the way you meet a host of interesting characters and uncover the seedy life within the city of Nivalis.

The story is nearly all communicated through direct dialogue and radio comms dialogue between the player character and the various denizens of Nivalis, as well as your Automata Camus. (Meet Camus with as few spoilers as possible if you intend to play this game), The gameplay of driving, Navigating, and delivering Parcels across the city is more akin to an elaborate walking sim, however it really doesn't feel like one what so ever. Each drop off feels like you're being shown another area of the game, and with plenty of side stories/quests that can have you running around the city away from the critical path like any good side quest should.

There come's various points throughout the game where you are called upon to make decisions that mostly don't appear to affect the path of the game aside from one but I'll leave that to you to discover. But they can affect how you perceive the player character (Rania), or even open up alternative lines of dialogue with other NPCs.

Where this game really shines is its aesthetic. The Neon drenched city, flying cars, holograms, the digital artifacting on the character portraits, and the architecture all making for a incredible world to exist in and explore.

The voice acting can be a bit hit and miss as is to be expected with a smaller indie title, but never bad enough to take you out of the experience. Highlights are Control, your main point of contact with Cloudpunk, Camus, your personal Automata, and Huxley, an Android private eye that speaks like a Noir movie voice over. Huxley annoyed me the first time I came across him, until I clicked on what his mode of speech was, then I fell in love with the character. Control becomes my favourite character by the latter part of the game, and Camus is brilliant from his first appearance. The actress playing Rania does a good job for the most part, but has 1 or 2 moments where I'm not sure if self-consciousness caused a more reserved performance, or weather or not direction played a role. Her more sentimental moments, and stand offish moments show she has good chops. But sadly her performance is the weakest of the central cast of characters. Her best moment in my eyes is pretty much at the end of the game in a very short exchange before signing off her shift and heading home. 

This is one game I would not sleep on if you've not played it yet, The world of Nivalis is beautiful to explore and there is plenty of great writing in the game. I'm gonna be picking up the DLC as soon as my finances free up a little, and I'll be picking up the spin off title "Nivalis" coming soon as I want to experience more of that world. 

I'm tempted to stream this game at some point, probably as Nivalis comes a bit closer to launch. 

You can also catch a video I made of a track inspired by the game, using footage from the game to really hit that vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ9M0e3X7Ak