Unfortunately, this does break down a bit later as some choices do come back to bite you, but that initial shock of “oh, that’s it? I just have to… live with what I did?” is wonderful, and an idea that shines through the entire game. You’re left with your choice, the road, and an internal war raging over your decision. Your coworkers, friends, and clients rarely commit one way or another. There is no morality tracker to tell you if you’re playing as a hero or villain. Cloudpunk never outwardly states whether your choice was good or bad. Then the game makes you sit with your decision, sending you on to your next delivery in silence. Even simple decisions are delivered with moral complexity as your automata/dog/conscience adds nuance to what seem like clear-cut choices. Cloudpunk occasionally hands you a choice but coats it in gray. The game’s early brilliance shines through in these driving sections, highlighting the connections between story and gameplay. It’s also rarely your main focus, allowing your attention to drift to the stories happening around you, rather than fret over steering controls. It embodies the mundanity of deliveries with an entirely functional system that neither wows nor fails. The driving feels perfectly adequate, and that’s a compliment. Most of the story takes place while moving from point A to point B as characters discuss their days, deliveries, and lives over your com systems. They’re all competent and finely executed, just lacking that spark to make them great.īut more than anything, the core of the game is driving (flying? hovering?). Each story was good enough that I wanted to see the next one, hoping that it would be the one to push me to fall in love with Cloudpunk, but they never quite got there. But those same feelings also added to the distance I felt from the game. I can’t say I ever found myself totally in love with any of the little stories, but they certainly held my attention. There is an underlying story subtly woven throughout your journey, but that relies more on your own emotional experiences to reach a narrative end, rather than an overarching tale.Īnd as a game about small stories, it’s pretty successful. Most of the narratives are self-contained to a single delivery. Deliveries (and the entirety of the gameplay) are completed through a combination of driving your Bladerunner-esque hovercar and casually strolling through the neighborhoods, chatting up package recipients and the occasional civilian observer.Ĭloudpunk’s focus is on small stories. As a driver, it’s Rania’s job to not ask questions and just make the delivery. Cloudpunk, the in-game company, is a delivery service, moving questionable packages from one part of the city to the other without alerting the business-cum-police, CorpSec. Taking place over the course of a single night, Cloudpunk puts you in the role of new-to-Nivalis, new-to-the-job Rania. It felt like a bad relationship: every time I would get close to it, it would push me away. Every time the game grabbed my attention with a clever story beat or a neat narrative trick, it would pull the rug out from another one. Not because it’s bad, not because it plays poorly, not because it’s a buggy mess, but because it is so close to greatness. Follow the link to listen, and thank you for all your support! Ĭloudpunk is a frustrating game. This article is also available in Audio, exclusively for our Patreon supporters.
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