Developer: Runeheads
Publisher: 1C Entertainment
Release: Out now
On: Windows
From: GOG, Steam
Price: 17/ 20/$20
My latest big brain critic realisation is that dystopian sci-fi settings are a clever way to make basic (and possibly tedious) elements of interacting with your game, suddenly thematic. Hmmm, I ve been clicking on this menu for a while, You think. This isn t very interesting. And then the screen goes all crackly or whatever, and a disembodied voice materialises and says: The year is 2483, and all humans do is click on menus. Corporations did this.
And that s you, sucked into a charybdis-level whirlpool of immersion. Eyes glued to the screen as you watch a text crawl tell the terrifying story of corporate goons going around with big buckets of glue and sticking everyone s eyes to screens….forever. Cyberpunk, eh? Cyberpunk indeed, says Conglomerate 451. It sits somewhere between the Ultima Underworld homage of Legend of Grimrock, the debuff-firing turn based combat of Darkest Dungeon, and the base and squad management of Alien Defence Squad Trouser And Hairdo Customisation Adventure 2012, which I believe you proles call XCOM.