I remember pre-ordering a PS5 before it came out in 2020; it arrived in mid-November by mail. I couldn't play with it a lot because I had to grade so many papers but I played around and beat Astro's Playroom. I bought this game because the word was that this could tide one over with a cyberpunk fix until Cyberpunk 2077 came out. I played it, found it thoroughly oppressive and put it away. Fast forward 10 months or so and I decide to finish this came off as part of my completionist masochism. I just did today (F 1/14/2022)--I made it through this thoroughly unpleasant, nightmarish game. I guess I am being unfair, as it is in the "horror" genre. I will hand it to the developer--they probably have a more clear-eyed view of how miserable and horrific a cyberpunk future really would be, as opposed to the cool, glamorous, sexy version according to Mike Pondsmith. Game-play wise, I felt like a lot of the time my character was trudging through grimy, colorless corridors and tunnels trying to figure out what exactly the game expected me to do. Sometimes it made me ill, but I was able to futz with a setting that I guess smoothed out the motion but even now, having just played through the ending, I feel a bit queasy.

Reviewed on Jan 15, 2022


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