Cyberpunk, we’ve seen it more times than we count. From the 1982 Blade Runner all the way down to 2019 Alita Battle Angel, we have seen cyberpunk gain a plethora of pictorial representation. CloudPunk is no different. If anything, it packs a heavy and unprecedented tale-telling adventure game to the cyberpunk genre. However, this exquisite style, that resuscitates over flogged cyberpunk themes through excellent art direction comes at the cost.

Nivalis – the last city- is a landscape wonder. Its first striking feature is the beautiful tapestry of neon colors rising high into the clouds. The city is divided into two major strata; down beneath are the proles marked by the compact urbanity with a noodle stand on every street and a never-ending night. Up above in the towers live the upper-class CEOs and industrialists. Of course, this is a cliché cyberpunk theme that remains stands out throughout the game.

Generally speaking, Cloudpunk is an enormously aesthetic game built using brightly colored voxels giving off the image of a large Lego rainbow. The color merge and the scenery in the game are breathtakingly beautiful; I dare say it is wallpaper worthy. You might be tempted to take screenshots while playing, feel free to fall for this temptation, and even I fell for it a couple of times. It gets particularly more beautiful as you take flight on your hovercraft across the city, you’ll be amazed at the spectacular aerial view of the city. 

It gets better. As you begin traversing the city on foot, your first amazement would be the lack of camera control. The purport of this is revealed as you continue to move the streets. The camera view is designed to showcase every prominent feature of the city environs round about you. For instance, if you go into a narrow alley, the camera may zoom in to give off the trapped feeling of being in a dark alley. Sometimes, the camera randomly tilts upward to reveal an event unfolding in the near distance, or it could take on a worm view, which is best for revealing the serenity of the city above you. 

Now you may be wondering what your task would be in this game; hence it becomes imperative we examine the key character in the game, Raina. Raina is a newcomer to the city of Nivalis where she takes up a job as a courier for Cloudpunk, an illicit delivery company that takes on the dirty jobs no one else would take. The jobs begin with a phone call from Control, the company’s handler. The Control assigns her with the task of picking up a package from a designated location. The idea is to try to navigate your way to the location without missing the delivery. Thankfully, you are allowed to fly your HOVA anywhere within the city as its traffic is pretty lax even for a cloud city. You have the option of choosing what way to follow. The narrow highways present a faster route, but this speed comes at the expense of exploring the more beautiful scenery of the city.

The story of the game is told pretty much through the delivery jobs. As the game unfolds, the city’s mysteries begin to unfold through Rania’s travails. She came into the town from the cloud. Her coming is necessitated by the need to escape her previous life, which had ridden with debts and the loss of her family, leaving only her dog behind. Raina only interacts with her dog Camus – who later became an AI – and the handler from the company – Control – who gives her jobs. There are no options to choose her interactions, but the interactions are so beautifully constructed that they never become monotonous. Through these conversations, we can follow the humane evolution of the game character, Raina. We see how she grows from a nonchalant girl, whose only concern is how to garner enough to pay her debts and become a strong voice in the game. 

The game may not allow for flexibility with the dialogue, but you are allowed some decisions with the jobs, such as whether or not to deliver the package or to trash. As you can imagine, each decision holds a different outcome. As her travels proceed, we encounter the mysterious CORA – a mysterious ancient AI that is believed to be running the city. It doesn’t seem to be doing a good job because the city is literally falling apart. Sometimes you are presented with the sight of a skyscraper falling into the ocean.

Quite like many front burner adventure games, the quality of writing for Cloudpunk varies across scenes. Receiving most of the writing attention is the central mystery of the game. Some well-written minor characters in the city also help to add to the intrigue. The story-driven game is at its best when it turns its gaze on the theme of capitalism and its impact on the people. We witness tales of a pharmaceutical company that released a virus with the intention of selling the cure to the people. In this way, the game mirrors life at it’s best and worst.

Albeit, the writers fail partly when attempting to introduce an economic layer to the game. Features such as the trading game where you can engage in trade between vendors for profit are great. However, Raina’s spending on meager and mundane things tend to deviate from the theme of the game. It brings to question how a debt-ridden character would spend on trifling cosmetic niceties. It also becomes doubtful how she can afford a luxury studio apartment even before she gets her first job. 

Apart from these minor flaws and inconsistencies in the writing, Cloudpunk boasts of fantastic gaming experience. With its postcard-worthy voxel scenery, the next view is always better than the last, and you just might end up falling for Raina as she evolves.