VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

One star for the presentation, one star for the novelty of a "game" from Venezuela.

I have no idea, why this peace of crap has such a big rating. Story - boring soap opera, heroes - a bunch of faceless gays, gameplay - meh... Don't waste your time.

Cyberpunk bartender action is a bit of a misnomer. Specifically, there is no action to be found in this game whatsoever. The gameplay consist entirely of a sort of mini-game where you mix drinks. But even this can't really be called gameplay, as there's almost no way to make mistakes, and even if you somehow mess it up the game simply moves on. Yep, it kind of makes you wonder why they even bothered putting the drink making in here. BUT. As you may have realized, this is more of a visual novel than a game. Now I must confess that I am definitely not the target audience for VNs. In fact, this is probably the first one I've ever played. It is my understanding though that this particular example is even less interactive than your usual VN. You see, there are no decisions or dialogue trees or anything like that here. You just listen to Jill, the protagonist, talk to the patrons of the bar. That's it. That's the whole game. As an aside, the music and art are quite nice, and set the mood well. Since the game is entirely dialogue though, it must live or die on it's writing, and it dies an atrocious, putrid death. The writing is abysmal. I'm not asking for Hemingway here, but I need SOMETHING to work with. It reads like what it is: a work written by people who's concepts of writing are pulled from anime and video games(two mediums notorious for bad writing). For example, one of the bar's patrons is an assassin, and he just comes into the bar and talks about how he's an assassin... Stupid. Memes are employed in attempts at humor with predictably embarrassing results. Seemingly all the female characters are lesbiens(I was starting to wonder if Vallhalla(sic) was a gay bar). It reeked of some creepy male fulfillment fantasy. That idea is even given some merit with the cringe-worthy "sexual" dialogue that's forced through the entire game in an attempt to sound mature. And by the way characters randomly get overly emotional over small things, you'd think they all have BPD.

I have a soft spot for all things Cyberpunk. I just find the setting to be fascinating. This game was just awful. I was intrigued by the concept, and seeing the word Cyberpunk made it a no-brainer. However, 45 minutes in, I just couldn't bear it anymore. Some people have said it's like Paper's Please meets a visual novel. While this is true to some degree, it isn't wholly accurate. From what I witnessed, the game has no dialogue options and only boils down to following recipes, that sometimes require you to double up on the dosages. This game would benefit tremendously from having dialogue choices. Instead of presenting something compelling, this game just strives to be edgy, and more often than not comes across as crass. I've never worked as a bartender, so I don't know if these types of conversations are what bartenders typically get from their patrons. Particular parts that stood out to me was the second patron asking the bartender if has ever faked an orgasm.... I get that it's a mature game, but it just comes across as very tasteless, and it comes very early in the game. I don't see it maturing further along. The bartending mechanic is simple and not particularly fun. While Paper's Please actually presented a challenge, this game does not. The gameplay merely boils down to following a recipe. You can make the drink wrong and then you just have to remake the drink. The stakes are incredibly low. To be fair, I grant this game a whopping two stars, for decent music in its JRPG - Breath of Fire 3ish sort of way. I found the music to have some level of charm. I also respect the developer trying something new-ish, especially in a cyberpunk setting. It's just a shame that the game was crass and tried too hard to be edgy.. This concept could work. If I could give the devs a tip, it would be to give the game an actual story and allow for dialogue choices. It could be interesting to piece together a story of cyberpunk corps, from talking to patrons. Pass on this.