Cloudpunk takes us on a journey through the cloud-city of Nivalis as we begin our job as a driver for a semi-legal delivery company. What begins as a typical night in the neon-blazed metropolis soon turns into something much more. There are detectives out there who need our help, elitist citizens moving up in the world, and a mysterious entity called CORA that lurks within the city. Each step along the way brings new decisions. We must choose our path wisely if we are to spare the citizens of Nivalis from more pain.
Cloudpunk is available on PC (Steam) and is set to release later this year on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Story – Head in the Clouds
Cloudpunk introduces us to the sprawling city of Nivalis, a civilisation in the clouds with a whole host of interesting characters and personalities. While some are lucky enough to live in luxury, many struggle to survive. Each delivery enables us to learn more about the people of Nivalis. Throughout our journey we meet all sorts of people, from a wealthy, snobbish couple relocating to an affluent part of the city, to a detective searching for a missing girl. But that isn’t all. Cloudpunk is not just a simple pick-up-and-deliver game. From the start we are immersed in an intriguing story revolving around strange incidents and a mysterious entity called CORA. Every choice we make impacts on the city in some way, cultivating in a decision at the end of the night that will change Nivalis forever.
We play as Rania on her first night as a delivery driver for Cloudpunk, a semi-legal delivery company. Our night begins with a call from Control, who welcomes us to Cloudpunk. He runs us through the basics while we get used to driving our HOVA vehicle. There are only two rules we need to remember: don’t miss a delivery, and don’t ask what’s in the box.
The Cloudpunk HQ becomes a focal point as this is where we pick up the parcels for delivery.
Our job takes us all over the city. As we make our deliveries and aid the citizens of Nivalis, we learn about Rania and how she ended up working for Cloudpunk. Through communications with Control and her automata, Camus (a sweet robotic dog who strives to help Rania in any way he can), she reveals that she is a former musician who lost her house. Finding herself in debt, she was forced to sell Camus’s body and move to the city to find employment. Down on her luck, she no longer finds enjoyment in her music, but begins to open up about her past as the night progresses. Control is quite grandfatherly in his care and advice towards Rania, but he too has his secrets.
What starts out as a normal night soon begins to descend into something much more serious as we investigate the mysterious CORA. The people of Nivalis have ideas on what it is and what it means. By the end of the night we discover the truth and have a difficult decision to make. While there is some variety in the missions, the game can get a little repetitive as essentially we are driving from A to B. What keeps it interesting is the story. The narrative pushes us to want to find out more and discover what is really going on.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story aspect of the game. There was nothing overly-complicated about the narrative, and each twist and turn along the way added to the growing enigma of CORA.
Our job takes us all over Nivalis from the richest regions to the poorest of citizens.
Gameplay – Driving Around Town
As soon as the game loads in, we are thrown straight into the action. Speaking to Control as he welcomes us to Cloudpunk, we have some time to get used to the mechanics. The controls can take a little while to get used to, but are relatively simple. Our vehicle not only moves forwards and backwards, but also up and down. On the highway we increase in speed so it’s important to be careful to avoid a crash. (Tip: I found it a lot easier and quicker to get around when driving on the lowest level possible. Most of the cars will drive higher and only a few will venture to the lower parts of the road).
It is our job keep our vehicle in good condition to avoid any charges from Cloudpunk. There are multiple repair shops dotted along the highways in the majority of regions, along with gas stations where we can refill the tank. The petrol level is indicated on the HUD, but the repairs are not, so we have to get our HOVA repaired at our own discretion. At the repair shops we can also purchase upgrades for our vehicle like a speed booster, or change the colour of the neon lights. Partway through the game our initial HOVA gets stolen and we can choose which HOVA we want as a replacement.
Between jobs we can visit vendors for something to eat, and take our vehicle to a mechanic for a repair and an upgrade.
There are times when we can also travel on foot. There are plenty of places to park so that we can explore some of the loftier parts of the city. We travel on foot when we have to make a delivery, speak with someone, or when visiting our apartment. Like our HOVA, we can upgrade our apartment to add in new items and make it feel more homely. Travelling on foot also allows us to collect items which we can sell or use, and to visit vendors to make purchases.
The environment is quite large, but the map is clear and easy to follow, showing all of the nearest essential places like parking, repair shops, petrol stations, and more. We also have an indicator to guide us to where we need to go and a metre display that tells us how far we are from our way point.
We start off with simple deliveries, but as the story progresses, we are sent on a variety of different missions. There are struggling superstars with tough career decisions to make, a detective searching for a missing girl, and citizens who need rescuing from a quarantine zone.
We have more than just deliveries to fulfil as the mystery of CORA grows.
Throughout the night we are offered multiple ways of completing a mission. In some instances, we can choose whether to deliver a package or throw it away. All of the choices we make matter, and will impact on the city in some way, so we must make our decisions wisely.
One of the things that I noticed was that there were no quick save or save options, and everything was automatically saved once a checkpoint in the story had been reached. Personally, I would have liked to have been able to save the game at my own pace instead of having to wait until I’d reached a certain point.
Cloudpunk’s main story can be played through in around 8-10 hours, but there are plenty of side quests to do during and after the main story to learn more about the city and the inhabitants.
Graphics and Audio – Stereotypical Cyberpunk
The graphics in Cloudpunk are mostly made of pixelated blocks. The style won’t be to everyone’s liking, especially those who prefer detail-orientated graphics, but we do get realistic portrait photos when a character is speaking (including a cute dog when we communicate with our personal automata, Camus). Many of the environments look similar with their towering skyscrapers and signature cyberpunk neon glow and rain, but there are some places that depict a much more sombre scene.
Cloudpunk contains many cyberpunk elements like signature hologram advertisements, a neon glow, and consistent rain.
All of the characters in Cloudpunk are voiced and include subtitles. Some of the dialogue does drag on with a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth that doesn’t add much to the narrative. There is some dialogue that we can skip through, but others we can’t.
As well as fully-voiced characters, we have additional sounds like the whirring of the vehicles and crashing sounds if we hit something. There is also a soundtrack that sets the atmosphere for each environment and situation we find ourselves in. For example, the music during the timed missions cultivates a sense of urgency, and we get a background track that accompanies us when driving.
