Visually speaking, this game is gorgeous - especially if you're a sucker for voxels. Otherwise, Cloudpunk and it's DLC makes for a rather hollow experience. You play as Rania, courier for the eponymous delivery service: Cloudpunk. A shady enterprise whose drivers seldomly works more than a few shifts, Cloudpunk employs Rania and send her out in the rainy nights of Nivalis, a huge and sprawling metropolis filled with vice, conflicts and misery. Cloudpunk is a fairly straight forward Dark Future-story, straight from the 90s, mixed with certain political messages that oughta cater to Gen Z mixed with odd satire. While you navigate your path between neon lights, garish billboards and howling police sirens in order to either collect or drop off a package, Cloudpunk tries it best to enterain you with constant dialogues between Rania, the car's AI, her handler at Cloudpunk HQ and the occasional passenger. The endless banter is often tedious although it can sometimes be a tad entertaining. Satire can be fun but a game that is 90 % walking simulator really can't afford to have such a poor cast when it comes to the voice actors. The delivery is so stiff it belongs in a morgue and the game has weird pauses between each characters lines which renders any attempt at making the dialogue feel natural pointless. In the DLC, the developers try to spice things up a bit with a more adult-oriented language (plenty of F-bombs incoming), a couple of escape sequences and even an optional racing mini game (that is almost impossible to loose) but it's way too little to make a real difference. Before releasing on GOG, the developer Ion Lands was opaque, to say the least, about the DRM they used for Cloudpunk which made me less than eager to pick this game up but a juicy discount made me fall for the temptation. All in all: not a terrible game but besides looking pretty, Cloudpunk has too little going for it to merit a higher grade than a 2/5.
I just finished this game and yes, with the current updates the game is definitely playable and you can get through the game from start to ending despite the bugs. That doesn't however make it a very enjoyable time. The voice acting is still solid and the music has a nice vibe to it that reminds me of NOLF. The story is still a fun adventure romp and very comic book-esque. Visually, the game looks pretty nice and I think the flak it got for the aesthetic choice of toning down the cel shading style is a bit undeserved. The visuals of the remake isn't the problem - the wonky gameplay is. It's stiff, it's awkward and it often isn't very fun. Your enemies are dumb as bricks, until they spot you and starts spraying bullets with almost perfect accuracy - even if they're running past a corner they can open fire instantaneously as soon as they see you which makes it impossible to avoid damage. The developers have compensated by nerfing the enemies weapons and giving you body armor and health packs in abundance - I played the campaign on medium difficulty and rarely did I die from enemy fire. The gunplay is sadly very stiff and the weapons lack impact. The game is also crap when it comes to notify you of what it wants you to do in certain situations. Small details, like a key on a table, is very easy to miss without any waypoints and you will need to holster your firearm and play detective more than once in order to trigger the scripted events that moves the story forward. And so the bugs - a few times I fell through the floor or got sucked up through the roof. Sometimes the sound of your guns disappear and during one late level where you are supposed to use bottles, broomsticks and other tools to eliminate guards in a non-leathal fashion, the game suddenly stopped allowing me to pick things up. There are more bugs but honestly, I wouldn't mind them so much if the gunplay was more fun. Finally, the current price tag is beyond absurd considering the quality of the remake.
Just finished playing Close to the Sun (CttS) and after clockin in at around 5 hour, I'm grateful for a bite-sized game that doesn't stretch out the experience beyond what's necessary. In short, CttS is a very Bioshock-influenced walking simulator with a sprinkle of horror and some running sequences where you are being hunted by various menaces. You play as Rose Archer who travels to the gargantuan Helios, a mix between a science vessel and a lavish cruising ship. The Helios is being runned by Nikola Tesla who has attracted geniuses from all over the world who excel in their respective field and they - of course - run all sorts of experiments who - of course - goes terribly wrong. If the Bioshock-esque setting wasn't obvious enough, the Art Deco could be considered the exclamation point. The enviroments in CttS is by far it's biggest strenght with some really impressive vistas that you will visit during your hours aboard the Helios. Lush greenery in the in-house garden, thunderous machinery in the engine halls and of course the enormous concert hall that Rose navigates through on her quest all makes their respective impression. On your way you have to solve an occasional mini-puzzle and you can read documents and newspapers if you wish to learn more about what happened aboard the now dilapating ship but otherwise there isn't much interaction with the world. While CttS may look rather impressing in screenshots and and carefully picked snippets of gameplay, sadly this doesn't convey the actual gaming experience very well. CttS is an indie title which you will be reminded of on several occasions. The character animations are stiff at best and comically bad when you get up close. The voice actress for Rose sounds like your average teenager at the mall and sometimes the music stops playing for a couple of seconds before the soundtrack starts to loop again. On top of that, the performance is horrid even on a beefy graphic card so expect stutter and frame drops.
Not exactly pretty even by the standards of yesterday and it isn't very innovative but it is fun and well worth a couple of bucks if you haven't tried it yet!
Nice, short game but since it's lacking the soundtrack on GOG there is little reason to get it here
The game requires an internet connection to access basic things like unlocked inventory.
I instantely fell in love with Echo and its mix of spooky and bizarre sci fi-setting. It reminded me of many of my favorite cult movies from the 90s. You traverse a planet that is basically a giant palace in order to save someone close to you which means visiting endless halls and luxurious salons: crystal chandeliers, marble floor and golden pillars. The palace first seems dead and the spooky ambience is amazing. Then the actual gameplay kicks in and you start meeting the infinite clones that tries to stop you by mimicking your actions in minute long-cycles. Run, cross water, use elevators and doors or discharge your sidearm and expect the clones to respond in kind during the coming cycle. It can be a tad scary but not exactly fun or exciting and you will mostly stick to sneaking around to handle dangers. The typical challenge is a a huge open area where you need to collect glowing orbs in order to unlock a door or an elevator in order to proceed. Despite the great beginning, the story progression is sluggish and despite only taking 4-5 hours to complete the game feels rather repetitive. Since the developer went bankrupt we'll never see a sequel. A pity, since the actual story is exciting and I would love more stories like this. Hopefully with better gameplay however!
The offered insight into inuit culture is by far the best thing about Never Alone which otherwise is rather meh as a platformer. The controls feel sluggish and the game is just rather dull. You get video snippets of documentary style interviews with inuit people regarding the cultural significance of certain things in the game and these are highly entertaining to watch. Those videos can be unlocked in the game and are without a doubt the highlight of an otherwise mediocre game.
