Preview of Cloudpunk – City of Ghosts

For me last year’s biggest surprise in gaming was Cloudpunk, an Indie game by German developer ION LANDS. While I am a big fan of Cyberpunk 2077, my expectations were also very high. When I first saw the trailer for Cloudpunk soon before its release in late April I had no idea what it was to be about. The trailer consisted of footage of a taxi flying through the dystopian high-rises of Nivalis. When it comes to gameplay that is what it is. You take your HOVA (that’s what the flying taxi is called) and you fly from A to B. This triggers voice-over dialogue between the character you play – Rania – her talking dog Camus and anyone they interact with. Cloudpunk could be categorized as an interactive graphic novel. If you forget the guns, gangs, drugs and titties from Cyberpunk 2077 you end up with the same thing.

Yet, I thought Cloudpunk was one of the best games I ever played. The story is utterly engrossing, there is plenty of mystery and a sardonic humor that proves you don’t need lasers and rockets to tell a Cyberpunk themed story. Yesterday developer announced Cloudpunk – City of Ghosts DLC. They describe it as a sequel sized DLC meaning lengthwise the story will stand in comparison with the original game. This time besides Rania you will also play as Hayse, another one of Nivalis’s downtrodden characters. The story will again feature nefarious megacorps, secret A.Is and other odd characters. The basic gameplay will remain intact. While the base game featured sections on foot they were from an odd isometric viewpoint. ION LANDS did update this to third-person later on in 2020. Cloudpunk – City of Ghosts will continue this trend by permitting first-person on foot and in your HOVA.

What Cloudpunk – City of Ghosts is not!

I am certain Cloudpunk – City of Ghosts will be a worthy DLC. The quality production makes this a developer worthy of watching. I will remind readers this is not a game such as Cyberpunk 2077. It is an interactive graphic novel made by an Indie game developer. It just happens to be very interactive – with the freedom to fly around Nivalis used to augment the experience. The original game is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4. I suspect this will be the same with the DLC, no doubt Xbox Series S/X and PS5 will be added to the list. No official release date has been announced, merely that the DLC will be coming soon. I take that to mean before the summer. If you want you can read my review of the Cloudpunk base game. Otherwise, see you for the review of City of Ghosts.

You can already find a page for City of Ghosts on Steam.