

On-foot sections are also pretty, giving you the ability to explore the buildings up close and personal as well as interact with some of Nivalis' many citizens. ION LANDS did an excellent job creating a buzzing city of immense proportion. Traveling this way feels like a scene from Coruscant, a vibrant floating highway congested with tons of flying cars.
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Your job is to deliver packages, navigate Nivalis in your hovering vehicle called a HOVA, and listen to the narrative unfold.ĭriving along roads increases your speed as you progress throughout the city, but you'll have to contend with other drivers in traffic. She works for the eponymous Cloudpunk, described as a semi-legal and certainly ethically dubious delivery service.


While this city is an excellent rendition of a cyberpunk environment in video games, just about everything else falls far short of expectations.ĭeveloped by ION LANDS, Cloudpunk puts players in the role of Rania, a Nivalis newcomer. This cyberpunk, narrative-focused adventure takes place within the sprawling city of Nivalis - a city so tall, only the elite class can see the sky above.
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Whatever the case, that appeal is on full display in Cloudpunk. Maybe it's the people that inhabit these cities, making you wonder what made them live in such a way. Perhaps we have a macabre interest in the destitute as the corporations rising above the filth of the poor continue to abuse those less fortunate. Maybe it's the super futuristic, yet familiar look of all the neon skyscrapers. When it all starts to come together, frustration fades and your love affair with Dead Cells' phenomenal fundamentals can start all over again.There's something so appealing about cyberpunk cities.
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With experience comes knowledge of which weapons and encounters to prioritise, which routes to take, and how to get back to those tricky boss battles faster. Or to put it another way: this is one of the best games I've ever quit in frustration.Įven so, perseverance has its rewards. This is an excellent game, but it can be pretty mean sometimes. And when a good run goes south, it's always heartbreaking. Similarly, you might grind away to unlock the right weapons for an encounter you've been struggling with, only to find that they don't spawn at all in the run where you need them. Its boss battles are well-conceived and gratifying to overcome, but being reset back to the start of the game every time you die makes it a slog to practice against them-something that Dark Souls or Castlevania players, with their nearby save points, take for granted. The hunt for cells can feel like a grind at times, but Dead Cells’ true progression system-and its long-term appeal-comes from developing your understanding of how this evocative dark fantasy world fits together.ĭead Cells' punishing structure can cause grief.

Instead, mastery means discovering what the quirks of a given environment are and how to recognise areas where the best rewards are likely to appear. Dead Cells’ strength as a roguelike comes from the way it lets you choose the kind of run you’d like to embark on-levels are rearranged every time you die, but not to the extent that they become unrecognisable. You’re rewarded for both sticking around to try to garner as many rewards as possible from an area and for speeding ahead. The world itself is split up into zones, with each playing host to its own unique enemies and secrets. Unlike a traditional ‘Metroidvania’-style game, you’re not wholly reliant on specific upgrades to progress: the ones you really do need, like the teleport ability, you’ll earn early. You’ll earn a rush of upgrades at the start of the game, with the pace slowing-and tougher decisions to be made-as you get a little deeper.
