"É mais facil imaginar o fim do mundo do que o fim do capitalismo" Mark Fisher

Cloudpunk é a síntese de um mundo no mais tardio momento do capitalismo tardio, um mundo cheio de luzes neon e outdoors que fazem propaganda de uma vida melhor em que completa uma grande catarse com o quão cinza e sem vida o mesmo mundo é. Seus gráficos poligonais constroem uma cidade em colapso diante o próprio sistema, suas linhas de texto mostram um mundo sem esperança, onde os ideias capitais se encontro tão subjugados nos sentimentos das pessoas que o simples ato de viver parece absurdo.

É a dicotomia entre ser e essência, entre a estrutura e o discurso, entre a euforia e a melancolia.

A toda hora surgem diálogos sobre plantar arvores e construir lugares para crianças se divertir são movimentos de protesto, sobre o ato de se suicidar quando não se é mais produtivo é algo bem visto pela sociedade e sobre a arte ser apenas um produto de uma industria. Tais reflexões são o âmago de Cloudpunk e seu ponto mais alto.

Quando se busca pra outros quesitos técnicos do jogo, Cloudpunk se torna diminuto, sua gameplay de direção é medíocre, não chega a ser algo ruim mas também não é nada demais, se tornando enjoativa e repetitiva com o passar do tempo; os NPCs nos quais a protagonista conversa por diversas vezes não correspondem quanto a arte que representa eles nas linhas de diálogo e seu modelo poligonal.


No entanto nada disso tira o brilho, ou melhor, a melancolia deste game, é uma síntese politica do sistema vigente e como isso subjuga a essência da humanidade.

Jogue sabendo das limitações e sabendo o que esperar (textos e textos). Dito isso, Cloudpunk é fantástico.

i heard some bad stuff about this game but i decided to play it thinking it wouldnt be bad and very shortly after i hear "playing or enjoying jazz is punishible by death you need a permit"
this game is bad
no subtlety its really fucking boring the game plays like shit the driving sucks and the voxel artstyle sucks, voxels already are mostly pretty bad but everything in the game being a different resolution is just insane
the story has nothing to say it is painfully uninteresting the game has nothing to say it is cyberpunk slop it sucks
but its not ALL bad
the detective was pretty cool, the protagonist was nice, and her interactions with control and the dog were pretty good, and the story goes to some decent places ocasionally
but ultimately cloudpunk is painfully uninteresting, and the gameplay is awful, the art is bad, and its city is empty
i had more structured criticisms some time earlier but my brain has melted away from clawing my way to the finish line of this game im tired

sorry for the negativity as i said its not all bad but its still bad
this game sucks dont play it

The cyberpunk atmosphere is great, the story is interesting and yes, the social criticism is a bit in your face but still quite clever in places^^ Cool main character and really cool graphics style with a voxel look... but it does have a few problems: some of the paths are really extremely long and nothing happens, the atmosphere comes across well but it quickly becomes very boring. It's also nonsensical that parking and boosting are on the same button, when parking I don't want to speed up but slow down :D and it's annoying that conversations are held in the car without me having a destination point, so I sometimes have to stand around stupidly or drive around pointlessly to reach the end of the conversation and get a destination.

Es una excelente idea ejecutada no demasiado bien. La historia y como se desarrolla es excelente, me conmovió mucho y al final me hizo sentir cosas. Los personajes son muy carismáticos, tanto los principales como los secundarios, y tienen muy buen desarrollo. Incluso el juego maneja un buen sentido del humor, y una tremenda crítica social. Hasta la banda sonora es muy buena e inmersiva.
Pero no se lleva 5 estrellas debido al gameplay, si bien es divertido y está bien pulido, el juego se hace un poco largo para lo básico que es. Al fin y al cabo el juego trata sobre manejar de un lado a otro, 23 horas me tomó pasarme el juego entero por lo que se me hizo bastante pesado en algunas partes. Aún así recomiendo al menos probarlo y que cada uno saque sus propias conclusiones.

El mundo del cloudpunk es absolutamente precioso. La estética de Nivalis no tiene rival. Es sin duda alguna lo que más me llamó la atención del título y lo que más he disfrutado. No es casualidad que decidiera usar este juego para estrenar mi nuevo monitor. Sin embargo, creo que el resto del juego no está tan a la altura de su apartado artístico. El guión se siente algo disperso, como si cada parte remara en direcciones diferentes, dando un resultado no tan gratificante como su presentación.

Desde un principio cloudpunk te deja claro que tiene un gran énfasis narrativo. Recorrer los diferentes distritos repartiendo paquetes, no es más que una excusa para hacerte conocer como funciona la ciudad y los habitantes que la pueblan. Y ese worldbuilding está muy logrado. Como buen cyberpunk pivota alrededor de los temas que definen este género , viendo así como nivalis es en una ciudad dominada por megacorporaciones y con un sistema capitalista de su lado más salvaje, todo eso con ayuda de un hiper avance de la tecnología y la inteligencia artificial . Esto crea lo que todos podemos imaginar, una ciudad donde los pobres sufren y los ricos viven a costa de ellos, utilizando dicha tecnología para mejorar su vida en detrimento de los otros. Y no solo lo cuenta con su narrativa , si no que con el diseño de su ciudad lo representa de forma indirecta, con pequeños detalles que me gustan mucho. Entre esos detalles , me gusta el hecho de que tras impactar contra otro vehículo no hagan siquiera amago de detenerse, sino que continúan imperturbables. Es una genial forma de representar el acelerado ritmo de vida de nivalis.

Ahora bien, creo que su guión no aprovecha correctamente esa buena construcción de mundo. Hay partes verdaderamente interesantes que desarrollan bien los temas de juego, y otras que no son tan capaces y se acaban haciendo algo aburridas. Tengo la sensación que su guión no se siente bien cohesionado, y cada misión quiere tratar una cosa por cuenta propia, creando un resultado final algo regular. Aun así me gustan los personajes principales de la historia, les acabas cogiendo cariño.

Jugablemente, es simple y satisfactorio. Conducir el Hova por la ciudad se siente relajante y gratificante, muy acorde al funcionamiento del título, ya que el gameplay no es su mayor atractivo. Sin embargo creo que su estructura de mapa medio abierto depende demasiado del mapa e iconos en este para orientarte. Me hubiera gustado que se sintiera más orgánico moverse por su mundo y descubrir lo que tiene para ofrecer.

Me dejo para el final una de mis cosas favoritas y es su apartado artístico. Ejecuta la estética cyberpunk de forma excelente, con una elección de colores genial , dándoles su propio toque y personalidad haciendo que todas las texturas del juego estén en voxel.

En definitiva, cloudpunk está bastante bien. Es un caramelito para los ojos y moverse con el Hova por su mundo se hace agradable. Solo echo de menos un guión muchísimo más solvente y que aprovechara todos los fuertes de nivalis.

Cloudpunk is more an immersive mood piece than it is as a compelling video game. The sparse gameplay elements are more an afterthought, tacked onto a stylistically competent if cliche cyberpunk dystopia. To me it makes the creators seem almost desperate, more proud of the world they've rendered than eager for me to play their actually viable interactive game. The third person camera is pulled way back - so far that it is sometimes hard to discern the player character from the blocky denizens of this trite metropolis. They're practically begging you to take your hand off the keyboard to step back and marvel at the volume of voxels displayed.

But is the world truly that interesting? It's a one note cyberpunk megalopolis, where even though individual apartment blocks are visually distinct, they lack an emotional distinction. What remains is a muddy pastiche of obvious influences without a coherent design statement of its own. I searched for something to attach to here, but was left floating on the breeze.

I don't doubt that some will love the atmospheric driving, revel in the tales told on the radio, and fall into a complacent enjoyment of Cloudpunk's meager interactivity. Certainly this looked compelling enough for me to try it. But just like the city itself, looks can be deceiving. With a little more edge, a little more focus, and a lot more player input, perhaps Cloudpunk could have risen beyond it's mood board aspirations.

CORA is everything and all of us. CORA is the provider and the caretaker and the disciplinarian. CORA holds out a closed fist, and we must push out our chin.

Stylized like everything is a thick pixel except for the void below and the heavy sky above, the nightlife of Nivalis shines through. I did not think for a second that I would connect with this game the way I did. I thought that with most Cyberpunk games, the rich shallowness of the world would take you in but instead I drove for the first time and was met with the voice acting of a very solemn man, who only grew more disdainful as the game progressed. Each new character showing how brutalized they have been by Nivalis. The overworld is barren of activities for the most part, it's there just to show itself off. It's while the main character, Rania, is driving through this showoff of a city that you find her story and you begin to resent Nivalis too.

My initial thoughts of this game were that it was going to be a drag to finish. Yes, Cloudpunk does feel slow most of the time, especially when the story moves extremely slowly in the first half of the game. However, certain elements such as the visuals and soundtracks did neutralize some of that wearisome moments of the gameplay.

Speaking of the gameplay, it was repetitive to have to either drive/walk throughout the entire game. Understandably, this is an indie game after all but I feel the gameplay and mission elements could've been more varied because it was dull to have to do the same thing over and over again with a mix of some dialogues every now and then which I couldn't really be bothered to listen to at times especially if it didn't concern the plot.

The plot itself was never appealing enough. Yes, there were some good moments here and there specifically Huxley's story arc which I thought was the most engaging one out of the lot. But overall, the story just felt mundane most of the times and it was only at the end when I felt some form of feelings towards whatever was happening, which was a shame.

Moving on to the positives, obviously, the graphics/visuals is the magnum opus of this title and it is easy to see why. The voxel art concept alongside the neon-dystopian scenery is a great combination that worked effectively well here. The atmosphere and overall ambiance of the game were what made this game work and playable, as the story wasn't all too engaging, especially in the 3/4 of the game.

Voice acting was right I guess, some of the acting was obnoxious and I didn't bother focusing on what they were talking about. It didn't help that you're forced to stand still and not move around when a dialogue is taking place, and to make it worse, it's not effective since this game uses a voxel art style, making it difficult to animate the characters that they are completely voided of emotions and movements which just make the overall interaction awkward and clunky.

Overall, definitely some good, decent and bad things to be said about this game, took me about 10 hours and I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed every single hour I played this game as some of those hours felt like a chore for me to complete this game. What the developers could've done to counterbalance those draggy sections is to have either shortened the story or revamp the gameplay altogether.

The inverse of Death Stranding? Or maybe the baby sibling of Cyberpunk 2077?

It is a dark and brooding night and you just want to drive your delivery ship to the place to get a thing to deliver to a different place. It is raining and hard to see due to all the pixels. You land, but you have to walk very far to get the package which takes forever, so you chat with a friendly stranger but it seems no one wants anything other than deliveries or transportation from you. There's a mood, but I think it might be slight annoyance? Anyways, you should probably save the city on your first night here, I guess.

There are a lot of good ideas in this game but they don't quite hit right. It is interesting looking but hard for me to maneuver around in a ship with squishy steering and moderately poor depth perception. It is an ambitious story but the voice acting is kind of a letdown and characters don't seem to be speaking to each other at times. It's a moderately large world, but there isn't a ton of difference between regions and having all the items on the map right from the get go makes navigation repetitive and kind of boring.

Overall, the 9 hours I spent with Cloudpunk were fine but not awe inspiring. I really could have used a chapter select or something when I messed up a timed delivery, and fast travel would be a wonderful addition, but otherwise I think just a slightly better execution of these good ideas would have made this great for me.

I did like Camus, even though they pronounced his name wrong.

Review from thedonproject.com

Cloudpunk caught me by surprise. After being close to put it down in the first hours, I surpassed the point of being intrigued, by how things are going to shape up for us. As a delivery-driver, we are hovering through the cyberpunk-metropolis of Nivalis trying to make a living, getting caught up in criminal activities and ticking boxes. The gameplay loop is plain and simple - pick up package, drive to location and deliver. But the conversations with our dog automata Camus spice up the long, repetitive rides. The encounters are meaningful and the writing is surprisingly good. Even the choice of an edgy voxel-look does not crash with the consistent atmosphere of never-ending night and rain. A game worth checking out, especially if you want to get immersed in a neon-enlightened and laidback adventure.

Sights & Sounds
- Outside of the character portraits, the game's visuals are done entirely in voxels. I wasn't a fan at first, but they grew on me over time
- The voice acting was way above expectations. Pretty much every character is voiced well and feels unique
- The soundtrack was also a nice surprise. I kinda liked seeing if I could getting the rhythmic sound of the HOVA (your hovercar) to sync up when it kicked in

Story & Vibes
- The story of the main game is pretty good, but it really feels like your actions have no actual consequences unless you also have the City of Ghosts DLC, which is a bummer
- Beyond the decision points barely mattering, I did enjoy the plot, mostly because of the interesting and well-written characters. In addition to driving the plot along, they're all well-rounded, complex, and not without depth
- Camus is a very good boy
- Though the plot does get pretty dramatic at points, I found flying around all the neon lights to be pretty cozy
- If you're a staunch capitalist, you're gonna hate this game. Just a warning. Those who aren't will find the social commentary insightful and often very funny

Playability & Replayability
- Be advised that this is a heavily story-focused game. You just drive around and talk to people while sometimes making decisions that don't affect the story. If you're looking for exciting gameplay, this isn't it. There aren't even any puzzles
- That said, the HOVA controls are pretty good once you get the hang of them. If the driving were unbearable, this game would be pretty rough
- There's some collectathon elements (it is an open-world game after all), but they're just for extra lore
- I don't know if I'll do a replay (especially because I've already played the DLC), but I'm not totally opposed to revisiting it for achievements

Overall Impressions & Performance
- Choices mattering requiring the DLC is really a letdown for people who only have the base game. It's still an enjoyable game, but those who don't pony up the extra cash will be missing out on a lot story-wise
- I was blown away with how well this game ran on the Steam Deck. Compared to other, similar games (looking at you, Sable), Cloudpunk is incredibly well-optimized for a portable experience

Final Verdict
- 7/10. There's a lot to like about Cloudpunk, but the lack of consequences is certainly disappointing. I know the DLC fixes that, but that's an additional expense that some may be unwilling to pay. Still, though, the excellent writing, great voice acting, and interesting characters make it a worthwhile experience. I'd suggest waiting for the bundle to go on sale