Cloudpunk (PS4) Review
Release Date: October 14, 2020
Publisher/Developer: Ion Lands/Merge Games Limited
Platform: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PC, Switch, Xbox One
Price: $24.99-$34.99 depending on platform and physical/digital
Sci-fi and a retro aesthetic collide in Cloudpunk, a new narrative-style game where you play as Rania, a new resident of the city of Nivalis in employ of the titular package delivery company. Cloudpunk isn’t what you would call on the up-and-up, their basic rules are deliver the package, don’t look in the box, and don’t ask any questions. A tough situation has led to Rania moving to the city to try to scrape money together to build a better life for herself, and maybe buy a new android frame for her dog Camus, who is currently housed as her vehicle’s AI. Through the course of her first night, Rania accepts missions from Control and meets residents of Nivalis as she pounds the pavement delivering her packages. Rania can choose to help the downtrodden citizens of the city. Occasionally a package delivery may result in a moral choice which helps drive the narrative along.
The entire environment of Cloudpunk is created using blocky pixel art, set in a dreary, rain-filled Blade Runner-esque city. Rania’s interactions with Control and her clients are all fully voiced. This game is mostly narrative based, with a few miscellaneous fetch and search quests layered in between the literal fetch-quest gameplay of package delivery. Something’s not quite right in Nivalis, even for an underground agency like Cloudpunk. Early on, the agency is pressured into accepting a delivery….that ticks. Here Rania is allowed to choose to deliver the package or “accidentally” dispose of it. Moral choices like this slowly shape your story.
Most of the game consists of driving your HOVA vehicle around the city of Nivalis. Use your map to locate waypoints and drive there, pick up or deliver a package, wash rinse repeat. You aren’t going to be faced with a lot of dexterity challenges or such, and the main draw is the conversations that go on during the drive. After a bit you park at designated zones and walk to the delivery point, where you get a little more audio to narrate the story.
Graphically, the game is wonderful, with a long draw distance that looks really cool but zooms in to the unique pixel aesthetic. This may lead to pixelly characters that do not resemble their portrait counterparts. There are a few issues for me with interface, like how the map is accessed via a D-Pad push instead of the traditional PS4 Touch Button, or how another touch button takes away the HUD, and can be accidentally hit whilst in a menu, stripping away the entire set of choices and leaving you staring at a screen you can’t control. The visuals were butter-smooth, but I always ended up having a lag happen about three seconds into loading a new area. There are also a few sim-like qualities to the game, such as getting fuel or repairs for your vehicle. For some strange reason, I found it particularly hard to park at the repair garage. Instead of having a lit-up spot or such, I found several holes (with arrows pointing to them) in the building before learning those were aesthetic and you had to pull up to the front. Parking kind of gets annoying too, as you have to land in designated park zones and then hoof it to the destination. In other words, use the car GPS to find the location, then bust out the map and look for the nearest parking spot, hope it’s the one connected to your needed stop, walk there, deliver, walk back. Usually you end up in conversations with Control or your dog’s AI (simple minded but loyal!) during these walks or drives.
Outside of the story, there’s a few customization options you can play around with. Rania can get new outfits, upgrade her car, or buy goodies for her tiny apartment. There’s not much in that short of an achievement/trophy towards completion, but it’s nice to be able to have those options.
Overall, though, Cloudpunk has neat driving and a beautiful aesthetic, but it’s entirely in the service of the narrative. You’ll want to go into this one like you would reading a nice narrative-style game, albeit one with a few choices to make. Your life isn’t really in danger in a gamer’s sense at all, allowing you to sit back and enjoy the story. It’s a very chill and relaxing experience with an engaging narrative.
Pros:
-Engaging storyline
-Fully voiced
-Beautiful world, a great mix of expansive beauty and retro graphics
Cons:
-Primarily driving, walking, and listening (which is fine if that’s what you are expecting!)
-Finding a parking spot
-A few loading issues, reports of a lower quality on Switch
-Some strange quality of life issues like getting the graphical overlay to disappear during a menu
Special thanks to Ion Lands/Merge Games Limited for providing a code for review!