Indeed, the rare moments of personality that does come out in him seems to involve being a jerk to everyone around him (and revelling in it) regularly screwing over the inhabitants of the city, with everything from poisoning a bystander's food to causing the death of someone. He is very much a faceless body used to advance the plot forward. He is never funny enough, charismatic enough, or smart enough to hold the story together. There is nothing in his character that grabs the attention of the player. Lacking a surname sort of sums up the problem. The unfortunate thing is that his personality doesn't match the world. Starting with Nathan himself, first of all. So, while on the face of it this nails everything, those initial impressions are unfortunately dampened as the hours tick by. On top of that, rather than sticking rigidly to the urban jungle environment, there is plenty of other scenes on show - jungles, beaches, hills - it's not all trawling back alleys. More interesting though is that this is a world that is described as 'near future,' and the use of floppy disks, CRT TVs and a whole host of other more traditional technology really ground this with a retro feel. The gorgeous pixel-art graphics help immensely with that of course, but the neon signs and massive dance clubs exude science fiction. One of the initial most interesting aspects of VirtuaVerse is that from a visual and atmosphere aspect, everything is perfect. When he suddenly wakes up one day and she is missing, the adventure kicks off, and he suddenly is embroiled in an underground war against rival gangs and the technocratic whims of the powers in the world - an adventure that travels the world and beyond. Single named protagonist Nathan is a man cut off from this world a hacker in his hooded coat, who lives off the grid with his girlfriend Jay in their two-floor apartment in the skies. VirtuaVerse - from the first second - never shies away from sticking as closely as possible to the themes of this genre, and is very firmly a homage to some of those greats people think of. If this sounds like one of many tropes of cyberpunk science fiction, that's because it most certainly is. Flying cars, roaming gangs, and an authoritarian AI system plotting to control humanity. Again though, much like every point-and-clicker that has ever come to console, using a mouse instead of a controller would make the whole experience much easier.A rain-soaked city crumbling under rampant commercialism that is beamed directly into a citizen's eyes. For the most part, even though I personally found some of these bits hard to understand, the journey the game took me on has been a satisfying one. Some of the solutions found in VirtuaVerse are pretty complex and tricky though and so it’s good that there is an easy mode for those looking for less of a test. Standard stuff also plays out in the items you collect, combining them with others to create something else. What’s quite nice is that VirtuaVerse is initially limited to a few areas, so that you don’t get too lost or have to track back too much. Your journal, which is nicely implemented as a monitor on your wrist, will tell you what to do next, but as with all games like this you will pick up leads and find yourself going off on tangents, helping side characters to get something that you need to work with the main character or plotline. VirtuaVerse doesn’t bother with this and that makes progress tricky.įrom there, VirtuaVerse is pretty much what you would expect of a game of this genre, as you go out walking and talking to people, following leads, and working out where to go next. A recent move by many titles in the point-and-click genre has been to include a mechanic in which interactable elements are highlighted on screen. Due to this, you’ll probably miss a lot of stuff initially, backtracking in order to understand what is going on. You can point to where you want to move around the screen and Nathan will go there every screen sees you presented with a world that is packed with stuff to find, examine, or people to talk to. Gameplay-wise and VirtuaVerse is a game that embraces its old-school roots, working most effectively in terms of visuals, gameplay, and the challenging aspects of puzzle solving. It reminds so much of those huge adventures we all used to go on in the 1990s. The game also takes us to some very surprising places, moving from the city to lush wilderness and even into space. One of the things I enjoyed about the world was the seeming rebellion against the present technology and how it controls the status quo. The dialogue itself is witty, exciting and deals with some effective subject matter. The writing, storytelling, and world-building are extremely well placed and well thought out.
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