Cloudpunk decision above the clouds driver#
Cloudpunk decision above the clouds upgrade#

Unfortunately, Cloudpunk loses in the execution. The eternal rain and the overwhelming contrast of neon lights and darkness make all the different architectural styles that more visually interesting, and even the hover cars stand out as very different as they zip through the sky.

Nivalis is absolutely breathtaking to behold, with gigantic skyscrapers topped by a swirling sea of clouds that look ready to engulf the city in an ionic thunderstorm at any moment.

Cloudpunk decision above the clouds driver#

I dreaded every moment the game told me to leave the hovercraft – in fact, the on-foot sections are so boring and rote I’m almost convinced Cloudpunk should have taken the Driver approach, where the whole game takes place inside the car.Ī huge portion of that comes from the fact Cloundpunk so effectively executes the city and all related visual aspects. With a fixed camera perspective and only movement keys plus one interaction button available, the walking part of the game feels detrimentally lean – there is nothing fun about slowly running around large environments just to talk to one person, then run all the way back to your parked car. The on-foot movement, meanwhile, is absolutely unforgettable.

Cloudpunk decision above the clouds upgrade#

While the turbo and turn upgrades work quite well, the vertical upgrade is virtually unnoticeable – the car will still stutter when going up or down and stop for seemingly no reason mid-ascent, which alongside the VERY tight altitude ceiling, makes 3D flight extremely unenjoyable and restrictive. While initially sluggish and slow, its turn speed and vertical movement can be upgraded (and a turbo function added) with the money you make completing jobs. The hover car has a nice weight to it, making it rather enjoyable to drive as you ebb and flow through the Coruscant-like traffic. The gameplay itself is extremely simplistic, divided between driving a hover car in three dimensions and walking on foot to talk to people. That’s not a bad thing, as it’s what Cloudpunk sets out to do from the start. Between delivering packages and ferrying people around in a very big city divided by zones, you will get small snippets of larger happenings, including terrorist attacks and an underlying technologic subplot tied to the city’s arcane infrastructure, yet the plot fully embraces the idea of “a day in the life of a commoner”. What starts off as a normal courier job… never stops being a courier job, though glimpses of a larger plot abound and take more shape near the end of the game.