VirtuaVerse

I thought this game was a parody of the rubbery morality of classic LucasArts and Sierra protagonists who the story tells you are heroes but the puzzles require act like a raging jerk. Sadly it's not a joke, it's played straight. The setup is your girlfriend left mysteriously and you've got to find her. Not the strongest motivation but servicable. In the first act you proceed to steal her identity and catfish someone to blackmail them. Guess you're really in love. In the first act alone you catfish, blackmail, give high-powered narcotics to an addict, burn down a house, get someone killed by setting them up and get a guy fired from his job. I couldn't stomach it once cheating on your girlfriend, who you love so much you get people killed so you can find her and save her from the danger you put her in by stealing her identity, was required to advance the plot. Not for me, thanks. The protagonist makes the one from Mystery of the Druids look like a fine upstanding policeman, he's a perfect 10/10 on the "sociopathic solutions to mundane problems" adventure game scale. And it's a shame too-- the soundtrack is absolutely stellar and the visuals are really atmospheric and well-done, the sound design in terms of atmospheric sounds is also amazing. But the protagonist goes so far beyond the moral event horizon so fast I felt icky playing and stopped.

The first impression is really good: graphisms are nice, music is a bit monotonous but good enough, and it has a real good cyber vibe. But the puzzles... Are lame. Far fetched, tedious, and even if the solution is obvious, the way to do isn,t. Also, the character suffers of the "unbearable asshole hero syndrom". In that game, you're an insufferable egocentric useless prick. You frame your girlfriend, you engage in blackmail, food poisoning, drug dealing, and even murder, for mundane goals. "Oh, I want that tatoo, what should I do?" Kill a complete stranger. That's the answer. "Ooooh to bad a guy is dead by my fault, but hey, I got to find my guurlfriiieend" You know, the one I framed... So if you want to play an ass in a game where puzzles are written by a monkey in front of a keyboard, it's a wonderful choice. At least it's cute.

The game starts off very slowly. The initial plot doesn't make it any fun, you're getting people killed, blackmail others, and overall being an a-hole to a lot of people just to get in touch with your girlfriend. It makes no sense at all. The main character is not likeable and it really kills any bit of enjoyment from the game. And then, when the plot thickens, the puzzles become even worse than before...they all require insane amounts of backtracking, going back and forth again and again just to do 1 action that will result in the character not managing a task and finally realizing what he really needs. So bad. I love point'n'click games, i'm a fan of old lucasarts games but this is not a good one. The visuals are really cool, music is great but the rest is subpar to bad. Avoid it.

I was drawn in by the art style and my general love of cyberpunky things. Most of the games I played that I would label "cyberpunk" discussed topics like identity, technology, transhumanism, unhinged capitalism, gender, etc. The story of VirtuaVerse is very shallow and boils down to "new technology bad, old technology cool". I'd compare the disappointment with watching on of the newer episodes of "Black Mirror": it's just the retelling of an old trope you've heard for a million times. There are a lot of plot points that simply don't make a lot of sense. The characters are so underdeveloped, it hurts. You are responsible for the killing of a gang member, which has no consequences at all for your relationship with the gang members. At first I thought I would be able to customize the faceless hooded main character at one point, but nothing of the sort happens. Maybe this is a generational thing, but the puzzles weren't my cup of coffee at all. I often had a "half-solution" that just wouldn't work (or the game would tell me that I was wrong) and then discovered after long frustrating trying that I was supposed to do something before. Maybe the pixel-hunting is supposed to be fun, but if the story is so bad and the motivations are unclear, it's just frustrating. The (A)VR-mechanic was good, but not used often enough. If you fancy a Lucasarts-style game with cyberpunk decor, you might have a few good hours with VirtuaVerse. I'd recommend "2064: Read Only Memories" as an alternative if you like … an actual story and characters that are fleshed out a little more than "punk", "gang-leader" and "girlfriend".

Even though I give it three stars, this game is abolutely worth the purchase if you enjoy P&C adventures and/or cyberpunk. The aesthetics and soundtrack are absolutely perfect. However, movement is slow...both across the screen and between areas. Shortcut movement would have helped maintain the pace of the game. Many of the puzzles don't fit smoothly into your interaction with the environment and characters. Interaction with some items depends on hitting certain conversation points with characters, even when it is fairly obvious the object is part if your current task (looking at you, tattoo machine.) Moving back and forth between locations over and over while you iterate through the necessary text to tip you off was a little frustrating, but maybe only because I'm used to the P&C paradigm of picking up and carrying around every conceivable item in pursuit of a solution. All that said, the game fun. The story is interesting and I was compelled to play it all the way through despite some of my frustration with the design.