>observer_
Observer_ is the latest game from the developers behind Layers of Fear. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk world, you play as Dan Lazarski, a neural detective known as an Observer. With your augmentations, you can hack into peoples minds to solve crimes all while reliving some of their biggest fears and nightmares. One rainy night you get a call from your estranged son, seemingly in danger and asking for help. Once you trace that call to a decrepit apartment complex in the slums of Krakow, your investigation begins.
– Real player with 29.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Atmospheric Games.
There is something unsettling about plugging in your computer, loading up Rutger Hauer’s character and playing a game where he plugs into dead people’s brains to get a look at their memories. It makes noir cyberpunk feel a little too close to home in 2020. RIP Rutger, gone but not forgotten. Off-genre stealth scenes mar this otherwise great experience, worth picking up if you are into cyberpunk, detective mysteries and/or horror games. (Please note that you can no longer buy the original game and must purchase the Redux version)
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Ha_Bits
This game is beautiful and has an awesome concept. The music, visuals and all are just amazing, but I do have a list here with the problems I have that can potentially fix this.
-Better Key placement like E, Enter, the use of the mouse and mouse wheel for combat, as for the combat system is hard to use against the enemies.
-Shorter Intro just so we can start the game faster.
-Allow us to skip scenes.
-Allow us to save early in the game.
-The block that acts as a platform needs a bit of a speed up.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Metroidvania Games.
It’s free so give it a try, but definitely has some issues.
Pros:
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unique style and story
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somewhat unique gameplay
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atmosphere
Cons:
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controls are not terrible but not the best
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subtitles (translations are far from perfect, but understandable)
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played half an hour and then quit, wanted to continue and had to restart the game because apparently it didn’t save
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Wild Dose
Wild Dose is a first-person adventure game which takes place between a cyberpunk city and virtual environments, until you start to mix both worlds.
It blends RPG, survival and psychological horror elements in a narrative-driven exploration game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1555790
The future. Virtual drugs are delivered directly from networks to neural implants. Hackers also deal illegal versions of these drugs. The deadliest one is called Wild Dose.
You are a cyberjunkie. Discover the city of Eleftheria, the stories of its citizens and complete missions to buy your next dose. The choice you will make will define your skills, your fate, and the course of the story.
Get away in a comforting digital nature, let your AI guide you and choose to build a relationship with her. Explore Wild Dose with the Capetian, the mysterious creator of that drug. He will teach you how to survive in this dangerous universe, using weapons and a limited inventory.
Evolve in virtual landscapes that look always more convincing, while the real world seems less tangible, until the two environments are confused.
In this divided society from which you are trying to escape, you will have only one certainty: taking part in Wild Dose is taking part in a real revolution…
Wild-Dose blends RPG, survival and psychological horror elements in a narrative-driven exploration game:
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Complete missions using your skills, weapons, and a limited inventory
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Exploring digitals universes
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Build a relationship with Nora, your AI
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Learn to survive with the mysterious creator of Wild Dose
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Loose your mind and start mixing real and virtual worlds
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1555790
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Adventure Games.
Transient
I’ve betatested this game, and am now playing the full version for the first time. I may update this review after I’m through, but so far, this is what I can say about the game:
To summarize, this is a very interesting, story-driven, lovecraftian, atmospheric, cyberpunk adventure game, with great locations and attention to detail, that will appeal to any Lovecraft fan, and may just win over anyone who is not one already.
Now, onto the more detailed review:
This game is awesome. Once again, these developers deliver a truly lovecraftian story, set both in Lovecraft’s universe, and in the one they create and expand upon with each coming game. I’ve reviewed all of their previous games, and I never get tired of saying this: these guys know their Lovecraft. They really capture what was his most characteristic and interesting aspect, distilled into all of his tales: the atmosphere.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
! Just in case anyone ever reads this, I’m playing on v0.140 for reference. I’m giving this a thumbs up in part for the genre combination, and for conarium, a good game without too much in the way of a downside. I’ve read a few negative reviews about the end, which i wouldnt mind so much if I got to see the protagonist actually float into the sky eye of nirvana, just end sooner, or something(or just tease a sequel or something, it doesnt have to be cyber, but why not?). I’ve more of a problem with the beginning, let me notice ive got no shaman cinnamon, load into my chair and go to that street with jovarium sunset bar first so I can take a cyber stroll down the punk street to get some meta saffron from the electro apothecary, and maybe swing by the dystopian 7/11 for some digital donuts, and holo-cigarettes. you could have me cyber holo summon up the supplies(or get them from the locker) when i unplug from my nifty padded hacker chair and then put it in my wicken blade runner pantry down stairs. I could avoid a cyber dystopian cop by keeping my distance so i know they want to keep the octopus truth hidden from me. Then at the end near the train station, have my guy go like “wow! nobody would ever believe this train thing! those corporate goons were hiding this all along!”, otherwise the whole cyber punk part falls by the wayside. If you don’t want to add a more cyber start, maybe have the plot dump orb, not immediate go into the thou, and thees. You gotta ease me into thees, lowes, and theretofores, I was just playing some gta, and its a nasty shock. Also the voice FXs on the mushroom headed guy needs another pass, go listen to the starcraft archon merging is complete track guy for reference. Also the first encounter with red mystic goat skull head guy next after the raven explosion friend needs a voice fx rework too, either more cybery, or go listen to the haunting ghosts from deadspace voices or something idk. Also maybe a little more concern on finding my clone whacked, or just some more text logs on that. Also check your text logs for grammar and spelling mistakes. saw a few:/ I’m just posting on steam, you’re publishing. On the upside though, pretty environments, fun mash up of two of my favorite genres, and neat mini games. cool scitar, wind chimes, and chanting music. Fun retro computer consoles, but dont over use antewhateverthat word was, and dont copy paste the same admittedly well done description of indescribable horrors(even if it is a lore acceptable copy paste). I think some of the problems in this game comes from lovecrafts horror often being so different from a lot of cyber punk in it’s fear of the unknown, knowledge, inevitability, slow creeping mutations and occasion body horror. Though cyber punk(and maybe i’m just getting dystopias confused with cyber punk here) are often concerned with conspiracy(hooded cults, big future organizations), inevitability or alterations of self by technology, the focus tends to be more meditations on the ills of technology as opposed to forbidden knowledge in general, ignorance of hidden costs, or dependence on technology. I think there is great potential in the meeting of of the genres, but I don’t believe that Transient really takes advantage of that. It’s a shame because there are some overlaps there, and it would be pretty awesome(get some lovecraft style descriptions of cronenberged cyber monsters, maybe dwell on wires/gears meeting gross flesh the way love craft did on tentacles? Maybe cyber punk lessons brought home with fish/lizard themed horror?) particularly with some occult in there. I had fun though, so even if I can see where it could have been way better story/message wise, thumbs up. I just like this neon, smokey, conspiracy, and occult combination a lot, but played great, zero errors.
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
Wild Dose: First Session
I absolutely love this. ❤
I’m addicted to cyberpunk-virtual-trippy-worlds and stories. This game served it’s topic very well to me. I almost felt like coming home, getting a hug by neon colors and getting petted by sweet grafic glitches. I’ve played so much crap the last days, so now i probably sound like a freak… but… who cares 😁
The different world maps are big and beautiful, no doubt they were crafted with care. A solid piece of work, easy to handle and user-friendly, but still challenging. 3D platforming may be hard, but to me it was relaxing for some reason, even if i died a few times.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
I do recommend playing this prologue but PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE THE CABIN IS. I stopped playing because I couldn’t find the cabin after over half an hour of wandering around. Overall, I liked this prologue and I am curious to see what the developers do with it because they do not have a release date set. To me, that means that they have a lot of development that they still expect to do, which probably means lots of changes.
The cabin was game-breaking for me because it’s the equivalent of a quest where they tell you to find a needle in a haystack- no one wants to do it. I can even see the cabin in a screenshot on this Steam store page but I don’t remember ever seeing it in the game.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Cruelty Squad
Cruelty Squad is a game that assaults all of your senses until you gain the skill and knowledge needed to assault the game back. Once you have ground the game into the dirt for what it did to you and there is nothing left to accomplish, it asks you if you are proud of yourself. The words make you feel like you winced, but outwardly you have shown no reaction. You continue to punish the game. You just keep playing. You have enough money but you keep harvesting organs. You have beaten every level over and over again but you keep replaying them. You’ve gotten S ranks in each level but you just keep going for shorter times.
– Real player with 114.3 hrs in game
The art style is like being born again. Merely the appearance of everything is so unfamiliar, yet the form has a purpose. What is at first is an assault on the senses becomes this journey to have a precision beyond that of machine, to retire at 30, to be a home owner. But now that you’ve reached your destination, there’s a distinct emptiness. What more is there left to do? You’re a high net worth individual now, and you can’t truly take that journey for the first time again. If you throw away everything, you’ll just navigate effortlessly back to where you were. Simply put, there’s no more destination to venture to, there’s no journey to be had, you’re at the end of what this planet has to offer and what a society of miserable chunks of meat has to offer. What do you do at the end? Desperately try to relive any past experiences, no matter how boring they’ve become? Or maybe keep doing the same routine every day in hopes that something new will cross your path? What purpose does man serve when they’ve done everything?
– Real player with 41.1 hrs in game
InsanZ - Retro Survival Horror
I’ll admit; I like the simplicity of the game and while I do want to continue it, it stops reacting to inputs (glitching, enemies not dying, a bossfight that never ends because there is no way to actually END the fight). The DLC is also glitched out, meaning it won’t run at all. If there was more work pumped into the game, I’m sure it would be lots of fun. Imaging co-op, that would be interesting and could save this game.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
As the game stands now, it still needs quite a bit of work. It looks really dodgy and it is on many occasions. If you can make your way past the first 20 minutes, it really picks up with a menagerie of bizarrely textured guns and a colourful cast of monsters. Monsters such as Imps, Ogres, Midget Lizard Men, charred gas mask clad soldiers that dance when you kill them, and even skeletons that throw….“rocks”.
FINAL OPINION: Not quite worth $9.99, but it’s fun to play overall.
EDIT: The latest patch has broken the game. I can no longer recommend it until the problem is solved.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Master Reboot
Master Reboot had been in my backlog for several months but I finally took the time over the past few days to play through and even 100% the achievements.
The game was not flawless by any means but to my mind the warts are just about what one should expect from such an ambitious indie project. Missing things like a key/controller config, multiple save slots (or a persistent way to view ducky and animated memories), borderless window, etc. are all minor quibbles that at worst I’d appreciate seeing in future projects.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
This game is a first person adventure game, a true adventure game where your focus is on wandering environments and solving puzzles along a storyline, not like the ‘adventure’ classification some games like the Legend of Zelda are sometimes given.
The game is set in a cyberworld/server where people that die have their memories preserved so that their loved ones can ‘visit’ them when they are gone. During the game you get the idea that things like the cyberworld weren’t common, so the memories you visit are relatively normal, like current 21st century experiences people might have as opposed to experiences in the transitioning cyberpunkesque world that the cyberworld exists in. However, the visuals in the game are just what you would expect from a game in the cyberpunk genre when not in the isolated memories. The visuals are relatively simple looking as far as being like crysis, but the style is appropriate for it and works well with the game. The sound in the game is pretty decent, but one of the added things that some may love or hate is that you constantly hear soft shouting or other horror tropes to give off a horror game atmosphere, even when you aren’t being chased by enemies or dangers that should actually give such a feeling.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
Sense - 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
Let me preface this review by saying two things:
1. I played this game for 11 hours and got every achievement. That means I went through THREE separate playthroughs (new game, new game+, new game++). I have seen EVERYTHING the game has to offer.
2. I became aware that there was a certain controversy attached to this game and that resulted in a lot of purchases, and positive reviews, to support the devs. I had no idea about any of this when I bought it. I enjoy both Cyberpunk and Asian horror, and since the game was on sale, I decided to buy it and check out something new. I admire their insistence to deliver their uncompromised and coherent artistic vision but I’m not here to make a political statement. I’m just reviewing a game on how I experienced it.
– Real player with 10.9 hrs in game
Please note, the Developers have changed the game in response to several points of this review, and this review will be updated when I play it again in the next day or two. I don’t want to just delete it as I need to go through and check things, but please refer to others for the time being as they obviously are considering things and changing things based on feedback.
Target Audience: Very Patient old school players who play games like they would in real life.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Cyber Arena
This game was really hard for me, there is no way to adjust the level of difficulty and monsters just start killing you, took awhile before I got past the first spiders.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Buy game. Install game. Press start button. Bullets do nothing to spiders. Die. Try again. Same result. Try again. Oh, they DO die, they just give no indication they’re being hit, and also you can’t change guns. Die. Try again. Die. Try again. Magically one hand is a shotgun now oh wait I’m dead. Shotgun gone. Die. Uninstall. Review.
I don’t know if this should still be considered a work in progress or what. The visuals are Dreamcast-ish, and not in a good retro way. There’s no indication of damage as mentioned, and when the spiders die they simply fall down. There seems to be no controls beyond pull trigger and warp, but if i missed any there’s sure no tooltips, hints, or even a readme file with details to clue me in.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game