The HeartBeat
Despite being a really short game, I like this one.
Your artificial heart gives you just enough time to answer your secretary’s questions before it gives out, and depending on your answers, you can get a handful of different endings that either save or doom your city. The main goal is to stop the Coro- sorry, Prion virus from spreading, but you can get some interesting different final results based on your choices. Aside from answering questions, the gameplay is mostly rhythm-based, pumping your heart in time to the beat of the music to stay alive just a few more minutes. After a while this intensifies and the meter starts draining faster, and if you hit 0%, it’s game over and back to the beginning.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Visual Novel Games.
Okay this game is really intriguing… theres apparently so many endings too? wow…. it also kinda draws you in with all the underlying lore. i rly wish there was some guide online because i have no idea how to get the rest of the endings/achievements now tho :(
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Don’t Forget Me
Bought it thinking it’s a cyberpunk point-and-click but it turned out to be a graphical novel with branching paths instead. I normally don’t like this genre but Don’t Forget Me is surprisingly good. It’s too short to recommend at it’s retail price, but consider picking it up when it’s on sale if you like an engaging story.
The narrative / graphical novel genre is filled with games that have poor writing that is either simplistic emotional (like To the Moon) or barely philosophical, filled with lengthy dialogues and monologues focusing on ethics and morality (like 2064: Read Only Memories). I tend to stay away from this genre for this reason. Don’t Forget Me does have some lengthy dialogues about ethics but luckily keeps it concise enough that it doesn’t completely destroy the pacing. And because of the branching paths it even has replay value.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Story Rich Games.
Tl;dr: It’s a good text puzzle game with cyberpunk aesthetics, but with very heavy topics. Trigger warning for suicide, manipulation, alcohol and drug use, physical and mental violence, murder, blackmail.
This game needs a more prominent trigger warning. My original review stated that there wasn’t a trigger warning, but the devs point out that there was one on the Steam page, but it is located at the bottom with the System Requirements. I never even thought to look there, because I personally only look at the game summary and description of games. There is currently no trigger warning mentioned in the Steam page game summary, description nor in-game.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Cyber Manhunt
For an indie developer’s first game, I’m impressed. Definitely give this game a try. I believe that they’ll improve over time.
The good
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The story is very pertinent to how the internet is today. Data breaches, cyber bullying, abuse, cover-ups, flame wars. There’s a lot of despicable things that we don’t want to acknowledge. We know that the fathomless depths of depravity exist. This game delivers on reminding people that nothing is ever truly ‘gone’ from the internet.
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Generally, the puzzles are manageable with a bit of critical thinking. It’s quite a bit of fun seeing different puzzles and piecing data together.
– Real player with 23.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cyberpunk Puzzle Games.
Dear Developers,
You should’ve taken another MONTH at most and hired a journalist or copywriter fluent in English. This game has so much potential but a lot of it falls short due to the English grammar and poor translating. It needs A LOT of work. But I can see this game being an absolute GEM if the grammatical errors are all fixed.
Find someone who speaks Fluent English, and let them help you polish this game’s grammar. At least the English portion. I cannot speak for any other translations.
– Real player with 18.0 hrs in game
Trackless
I backed Trackless on Fig and later tested the early beta and RC.
Trackless is a good atmospheric game with simularities to Shadow Gate and Kings Quest. It takes two of the best aspects of both games and merges them with an interesting, and often gorgeous art style, and beautifully haunting OST.
Trackless uses text parsing in the form of (mostly) verbs to solve various puzzles. Where it differs from Kings Quest and Shadow Gate is in the use of typing in specific single verbs. The more complex the verb the higher the score. There is no score cap as in Kings Quest and the game is in a 3rd person 3D format with some 2D art mixed in.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
The game plays like a 2D P&C, but in a 3D world, so you can stick to the given path, but also wander off to explore a side-quest or two, or maybe find one of the alternative endings. Exploration is rewarded, which, together with several bonuses, adds to the replayability factor — as does the main mechanic. In short, you talk to people, solve puzzles, explore, and write.
For more precise interactions, verb input is required. Trackless improves the historically often tedious word search by allowing for a larger range of words for each interaction and rewarding the player for originality or precision, so a player, who wants to move on, can do so with the most plain of word, while others can take their time to get more bonus points. These points are by no means important for progress (with one exception), but allow you to spice things up a little. Some of the upgrades you can get will be more helpful than others. Not much is told about them, and you might even miss them being upgrades (as did I during my first playthrough), so you will have to explore and experiment.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game