I decided to finally knock this one off my backlog when I saw the sequel coming out. For the most part, I enjoyed my time with it. I enjoyed its characters and the world they inhabit is quite interesting to discover. There's a lot of little descriptions when you click on various items which fills out a lot of details, giving it a more lived in feel. It certainly is much more a visual novel than point and click adventure, so you won't be getting a puzzle fix here as they are few and far between. But there are some dialogue trees that'll have positive or negative effects later down the line. All was going well until... until the final chapter. Holy hell was it just awful :( It soured me on the whole experience. I'll spoiler tag my complaints but they'll be worded very vaguely if you want to peek before a purchase.


There are 2 mini-games you run into during the course of the game. One is an arcade cabinet, and the other is as necessary part of the story used to chase down characters you need to have a scene with. It's good that they introduce these early on because both of these mechanics are used in the final chapter. However, both mechanics are less difficult at the end even though the stakes are higher. The mechanic from the arcade cabinet just results in a few extra clicks you're forced to do. The chase mechanic is worse as well, because the first time you interact with it, you've got a goal of trapping a character so you can chat. But in the version used in the final act, there is no such goal, you're just doing busy work to run around in circles. It's again, simpler, but the stakes are higher as there is a life and death fail state. This would be disappointing enough, however, I certainly wasn't expecting any more complex mechanics. The issue is that this whole scene you're being chased by a character who, was written believably before hand, but turns into a campy Bond villain at the end. It feels like they got a new writer just for this act. He just loves to tell you all his evil plans, and the ways he's going to hurt you, and how fun it is to be evil, and it is just so damn boring and exhausting. It doesn't fit the character at all, who was, up until then, a pretty cool customer. It wasn't surprising in the least bit that they were one of the baddies. The reveal was telegraphed and obvious, so I'm not even sure if it was intended to be dramatic or not. But what was surprising is how that character becomes a cackling cartoon villain. Imagine if in Terminator 2, the T1000 in the final scene turned into Dr. Evil from Austin Powers and went on and on for an hour and half about how much fun it is to kill kill KILL!. It doesn't fit at all. The whiplash in the writing is horrendous. And he Does. Not. Shut. Up. It goes On. and On. and On while you're forced to engage in the subpar busy work mechanics. When its finally over, you get to another scene where your character is meant to accomplish the final objective. This scene is just another huge exposition dump. There's some dialog trees, but if there's a failure state in them, its quite hard to find. If it weren't for the previous scene, this one would be the worst writing in the game. It feels like there was a word count goal that the writers had to get to, because its so verbose. Its a little more earned here, but coming after the previous scene I needed a break and didn't get one. I cannot express enough how exhausting this was. When you finally 'beat' the game, you're let out into the world to see the consequences of your actions and... well it's good again, It's interesting to see how the world has changed and how those changes affect different characters around town. But the fact that the climax of the game is such a monumentous dip in quality for both the mechanics and the writing is impossible to ignore and overshadows the rest of my fairly positive experience.

Whew, needed to get that off my chest. Worth picking up on sale if you like visual novels with a few more minor mechanics. Or are itching to find out about the world before or after playing either its sequel, or VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender which is in the same universe. The world and characters are interesting, but this isn't a bastion of fantastic writing. The final act's dip in quality really ruined it for me unfortunately.

I love this game. I've loved it for years. I've played it on multiple platforms, multiple times, shared it with friends, and remember it fondly. Play this game at the right time, and it can become a part of you; an adjustment to the filter through which you see the world, or added scope on the lens.

The writing is funny, the characters are engaging, the world building intricate, clear, and a fascinating look into the future from a 2014-2015 perspective. It's definitely built for fans of a point-and-click adventure, in the style of the late 00's-early 10's adventure game revival.

Personally, I love how grounded the story feels, even in the cyberpunk setting. It's a futuristic noir mystery with a candy coated pallet swap and puns. Who Framed Roger Rabbit for queer nerds. The fantastical setting and tech are balanced by familiar archetypes and affecting relationships.

I recommend this game to everyone. It is a delightful, rich, and lovingly-crafted game, well worth the price and the time.

Sadly I'll never be able to play it on steam again/only for less than an hour, but please, enjoy what I cannot. If this message no longer tracks with my hours total, know I've failed my mission, but that the game so good that I would sacrifice the priceless to play it again.