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jp's Cloudpunk (PS4)
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| [March 11, 2022 09:28:26 AM]
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I've been slowly making my way on Cloudpunk and I ultimately finished it last night. Emotionally, I felt it was "ok" - maybe a little bit slow and boring at times, but in others a super chill and relaxing experience. Which seems strange to say for a Cyberpunk game.
I've been thinking how much Cyberpunk is tied in with violence - in my mind at least - via guns, gangs, cybernetic crazy monsters, etc. And this game has none of that. It's a super slow paced delivery service game with (save a few exceptions) no time pressures at all. The driving is slow - it gets a little better when you upgrade - the conversations are slow, the pacing is slow. It's all about the music/audio and the neon bright colors of the cyberpunk city. And for that, this game works wonderfully! All this despite the draw distance being...short (lots of pop in) and while there are signs and attempts and making the city and world feel lively - it's still pretty empty and lonely.
There's a noticeable drop in traffic AFTER you've just arrived in an area (I swear it feels like the drop in all the NPC drivers on the spot you appear in, and they then just spread out). My crashing/bumping happened almost exclusively when I just arrived in an area - which was really annoying...
Similarly, there were moments where I was able to get ahead of the story - like, arriving at a destination before the characters finished a conversation - and then having to stand around waiting for them to catch up - with a a "oh, now we're here". So, there plenty of little things like this (I even got stuck inside an area thinking the game had bugged out - turns out there was an entire conversation that had to play out before it would let me leave, I restarted - got stuck again and only then realized it was intentional)
Narratively, there's an obvious thread (who/what is CORA? what is going on in the city) that you pick up and sort of follow through...but I'd say that most of the game experience hinges on a handful of dilemmas/tough choices you need to make - for which there are no immmediate consequences or ramifications - but only as the game starts to wrap up do you get some sense of consequence from these choices. For example, early on there's a delivery of a car part to an illegal car racer. The racer then gives you a busted part for you to send to his mechanic as payment. If you deliver it, he can continue racing - but it's also a bad idea for him to continue racing, so you're given the option to steal the part and sell it elsewhere. I wanted to return it, but stole it by mistake. At the end of the game there's a mission where you end up visiting the mechanic to who you were supposed to take the busted part (it's a really contrived mission) - and the racer is there, retired! There's some conversation ("we know what you did, but it's ok, come back and visit is, the racer might start working with the mechanic"), and it wraps up. I found all this to be rather simplistic and underwhelming, to be honest. But, I would have been more disappointed if the game had not at least acknowledged by choices along the way as well.
Oh, last thing - the design of the different neighborhoods and areas was also SUPER cool - and all really cyberpunky with different vibes. Really enjoyed that.
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| [February 27, 2022 07:28:48 PM]
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Played for a few hours last night and...I love, love the way the music makes this game really feel like a cyberpunk game. It all takes place in some sort of floating city - with different levels and areas to go to and you play as a delivery service. But, the delivery service is sort of illegal? Sort of because they have an office with a large sign on the outside - but some security/private police talked about it like working for them was a crime. So, I'm a bit confused as to the basic foundations of the story - but I am loving the setting AND the music.
The graphics are also an interesting choice. It basically all looks like voxels (thing 3D pixels..so blocky, but less blocky than minecraft). It's a really smart choice because I'm guessing the game comes from a small team that would never in a million years be able to compete with, say, Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of scale, scope, and quality of the visuals. Regardless, the neons are all right, the lights are right, and they even have the oily puddles on the sidewalks! So, setting is a super check. There's enough NPCs around to talk to - each with nicely realized portraits that remind me of Netrunner cards/characters (so, good!)
As for gameplay - it's been fun to slowly discover the game and how it works (I've now learned how to read the map and icons on it), and the flying around - and then walking, was an interesting transition (even the existence of multiple camera possibilities was neat - 1st, 3rd, and 3rd from a far away camera). But, the flying (you have a flying car, ala AVs from Cyberpunk2020) is awful. Slow, floaty controls...I mean, the car is supposed to be "not good" - but it feels too bad? I wasn't expecting Crazy Taxi style wild antics, but still.
Talking with NPC characters has actually been the most fun - the missions are all delivery (pick this up here, then drop off there) with minor challenges thrown in - like figure out how to get to the delivery point because there's a security guard who won't let you pass... But still, I'm not super enthused at this moment, but if the game is short enough this might be enough for me to play through. I'm not THAT interested in the story (Cloudpunk is up to no good - but in the guerrilla war against the govt, but the govt is corporate - we'll see how this plays out)....we'll see.
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jp's Cloudpunk (PS4)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 26 February, 2022
GameLog closed on: Monday 21 March, 2022 |
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