Cyberpunk

The Steam Next Fest is going on right now with lots of demos to try. If you're interested in a cyberpunk metroidvania, Altered Alma is a lot of fun.

This demo starts slow but quickly ramps up into some precision platforming. I have to assume they added some sections just for the demo to help give a feel for what the later game will be like. The combat and movement feel great though, so that isn't a complaint. I'm really looking forward to this game.

Here's a trailer so you can see the game in action. The demo has a couple dialog choices with some characters but from what we see in the trailer, it looks like you'll also be able to romance them. And then the trailer makes it seem like you might be able to do more than just "romance" them...

First, let me say that I don't play turn-based strategy games. I'm not a fan of them and also I'm terrible at them. But I am a sucker for cyberpunk and this is Shadowrun so I felt like I should at least try. So I had bought the first two games (Returns and Dragonfall) around the time they released and then... never actually played them. To be fair, I tried playing Dragonfall once, died on the first mission, and gave up. Ten years later (about a month ago), the third game was on sale so I decided to buy it and give the entire trilogy another shot. This time I was able to beat all three games. And now it's time for me to ramble about my thoughts.

I will say that the first game (Returns) was definitely the most janky. I got soft-locked multiple times where an animation would play for the enemy phase and then the game just... wouldn't give control back to me. There were also times where I'd be in the Matrix, walk through a portal, and the game just... wouldn't do anything. And then sometimes I'd Alt+Tab to look at a walkthrough, then Alt+Tab back into the game, and it'd crash. In every case, reloading my last save would work but there were a lot of times where I had forgotten to save for awhile and ended up replaying more than I would've wanted. Overall though, the story here was my favorite of the three.

When I moved on to Dragonfall this time (after my shameful rage-quit a decade ago) I discovered that the first mission was an ambush that you were supposed to fail. Oops. The problem was that all members of your team had to escape (for plot reasons) so the goal was to run away with all members surviving. I hadn't realized that on my first playthrough because every time I lost a single character I'd get a "mission failed". So I had been trying to beat a mission that was designed for me to lose. After finally escaping that first mission, the rest of the game wasn't too bad. They fixed a lot of the jank from the first game so I never had any issues with soft-locks or crashing. Personally though, I wasn't a fan of the story this time around. This might just be me, but I don't think Shadowrun games should have "save the world" storylines. The story was fine, it just had too high of stakes in my opinion. The stakes can be personal to the team, but I don't think it should be world-ending. Others might disagree with me though; I'm no expert on Shadowrun.

The third game, Hong Kong, had some amazing improvements over the first two games. The Matrix sections in this one were really fun because there were now IC Watchers with a vision cone that you could actually avoid. So rather than being forced into combat, you could sneak past IC and keep your detection levels low. I liked that. Again though, the stakes in this game were even higher than the last one. More "end of the world" stuff. Also, maybe I was just tired after playing these three games back-to-back but I didn't care to read all of the lore and talk to all of the characters in this one. It probably deserved more than I gave it.

In the end, I had a good time with the entire trilogy. I set all three games to Easy mode this time (which I probably wouldn't have done a decade ago) and I was able to beat all three. It was definitely a struggle though.

I do recommend picking up any of these three games when they go on sale. Just be sure to save often in that first game. And hopefully you're better at turn-based combat than I am. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26635/Shadowrun_Trilogy/

One last thing... Each game has its own Workshop of free user-generated content on Steam and someone recreated the entire Shadowrun SNES game in the Dragonfall engine. I'm seriously tempted to give that a try despite being terrible at these games.

About two years ago I held a vote to choose the icon for this community. I had used my own minimal photoshop (well, GIMP) skills and made the type of icon I was envisioning. All of the other submissions were AI generated. In the end, my icon lost by one vote and we went with the winner. Lately though, I've been thinking about that icon I made. To me, cyberpunk is more punk and not just a pile of skyscrapers.

Anyway, we recently made a !steampunk@lemmy.zip community and BrikoX had created another genAI image for the icon just so the icon wasn't blank. And we got a lot of complaints about using a genAI image. A random user even submitted their own icon just because he was so annoyed at that genAI image (and we're now using that icon).

To some extent, I think genAI images are "cyberpunk" so I think it fits the community. However, there's definitely more push-back on genAI images now than there were 2 years ago. So being a mod (and being drunk on my own power), I'm forcing you all to live with the cheap icon I threw together in GIMP two years ago. 😈

I'm open to using a different icon if someone with more skills than me wants to take a crack at it. But I think I'm going to avoid using a genAI icon for this community now. Also, I don't have any strong feelings about the banner image so we can leave it or someone can submit an alternative.

I believe this was the artwork used for the 4th edition (2005) of Shadowrun but I'm no expert. Personally, I would've assumed it was from the 1990s, not 2000s. Either way, I think it's a good representation of just how weird Shadowrun is.

Circuit Preacher is an interesting band. It's an industrial/Dark Electro/EBM project that has a "rural cyberpunk" concept. Yeah, that's quite the sentence.

Here's their official description:

The year is 2222. The Circuit Preacher leads The Last Church of the Final Days, an underground doomsday cult in the American South.

A State employee by day, the Preacher is secretly building a congregation. His songs fill corridors, basements, and other hidden places with heavy electronic rhythms and haunting melodies. This is dark music for the End Times. Will you join us?

Personally, it just sounds like downtempo Industrial to me, and I'm a fan. Here's their new album: Heaven Can't Heal.

I'll admit I don't know anything about this movie, but the YouTube algorithm shoved it in my face and... yeah, ok algorithm, you got me. I'm intrigued.

Apparently the main character (Hakaider) is a villain in the 1970s Japanese TV show Android Kikaider but appears here as an anti-hero. That's all news to me. He just seems like a Japanese version of Ghost Rider as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I started watching it and it's definitely from the 90s, definitely Japanese, but I'm not sure how cyberpunk it is. Japanese cyberpunk has always had a different definition compared to American cyberpunk though so it's probably just my own ignorance showing. Either way, it's a fun post-apocalyptic sci-fi (in a low-budget 90s movie sort of way).

Here's the description from YouTube:

Born from the legacy of Kikaider, MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER unleashes a stylish, violent spin on tokusatsu mythology. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the iconic villain-turned-antihero rises as a dark mechanical avenger, confronting corruption, tyranny, and humanity’s obsession with control. With striking cyberpunk visuals and operatic intensity, this cult Japanese sci-fi horror film stands as a fan-favorite evolution of classic tokusatsu storytelling.

And here's a trailer if you aren't sure about committing to the full movie.

Personally, I'm not a fan of DarkSynth songs with vocals so there are a couple songs on this album I skipped but overall it's a great album. My favorite track right now is System Shock.

It sucks hearing about an upcoming cyberpunk game in an article describing layoffs. A heist shooter in a cyberpunk world actually sounds like a fun idea. It reminds me of the Syndicate reboot from 2012 which had similar missions. That game didn't deserve the "Syndicate" name but it was a fun game in its own right. I liked it, anyway. What was I talking about? Oh right, Den of Wolves. Here's the Steam link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1818140/Den_of_Wolves/

Ha, I just keep posting more videos about Replaced. But now the demo is available! I'm gonna go install it now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1663850/REPLACED/

I know I've posted about Replaced a bunch of times already, but I get excited every time a new preview comes out.

The game looks so cinematic that I'm not sure if I'd rather play it myself or just watch someone else play it. Also, I'm still curious how much combat there will be. It looks like this is primarily an exploration game (or maybe platforming?) and only has combat in certain arenas. That makes me wonder how much of this game is cutscenes and walking, and how much is actually "playing". Either way, it looks gorgeous and I can't wait for it to release on March 12.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1663850/REPLACED/

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0kPBy

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B34rll

Ergo Proxy has been a popular cyberpunk anime since it came out. I've watched it twice now and I just... don't like it. It isn't bad, but I don't see the appeal. And I feel like maybe I'm missing something.

The first episode is amazing and sets up a really interesting world that I can't wait to see more of. It makes me think the series will be about hunting down a serial killer in a cyberpunk world, which could be really cool. But then they go out into the wasteland and I lose all interest. And then there's the game show episode and the "lost in an abandoned grocery store" episode and I start to question why I'm even watching it. By the time I get to the end of the series I'm just waiting for it to end. However, I'll accept the fact that maybe the issue is with me. Maybe there's some deeper meaning or symbolism that's going over my head and there's actually a deeper story I'm missing out on.

So for those of you who liked Ergo Proxy, what do you like about it? What do you think the story is trying to say beyond the surface-level plot?

Here's a trailer for anyone who hasn't seen it. You can watch the entire series on Crunchyroll.

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/b56kro

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QzE2r3

Hey, so this is the list of movies on my local media server which are tagged as "cyberpunk". I am looking for suggestions on more movies I should add to this list. Cheers,

ETA: Well, OK, this should keep me busy for a while. Thanks - y'all are amazing and awesome.

I found this image when looking for a good picture to represent "classic cyberpunk" in my post yesterday. I wanted to share the full image though.

I have trouble understanding when a genre becomes "post-" so I'm curious what people here might think.

What cyberpunk work do you think moved us into post-cyberpunk? Is there one? Or is this "post-cyberpunk" stuff nonsense and it's all just cyberpunk?

I've heard an argument that Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) is post-cyberpunk because it's a satire of the cyberpunk genre, but I've heard the same thing said about Bruce Bethke's Headcrash (1995). And is satire of the original genre a requirement to move post- a genre?

I could see an argument that post-cyberpunk takes place in worlds that know what the modern-day internet looks like (with social media and disinformation) but I'm not sure if there's a cyberpunk work that really carries that flag. That is, I could see an argument for post-cyberpunk being a "refresh" of the 1980s cultural fears to fit our modern times, but I'm not sure if there's a work that ushered in this new genre. I've made the argument that Elysium updates cyberpunk with modern cultural fears, but I don't think it led to a wave of updated cyberpunk works (it was an outlier, not the progenitor of a new genre).

So what do you think? What requirements would you have for the cyberpunk genre to become post-cyberpunk? And does that cyberpunk work already exist?

(Note: for the picture in this post, I was trying to show the juxtaposition of "classic cyberpunk" vs "modern cyberpunk". I'm not arguing that Deus Ex is post-cyberpunk.)

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dOebYX

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1866v8

I absolutely loved the first Huntdown game. It's a 2d run 'n' gun set in a very 1980s cyberpunk future. Really fun gameplay. If you haven't played it, I highly recommend it.

Apparently this Huntdown: Overtime will be a roguelike prequel to Huntdown. While I love the idea of more Huntdown, I'm not sure how I feel about it being a roguelike. Although I will say, I like the way they phrased it in the description:

Hunt, die, upgrade, repeat in this explosive roguelite prequel where every strategic upgrade strips away more flesh and builds a cybernetic fighter one chrome limb at a time.

So the permanent upgrades you get through each run actually strip away more of your humanity each time. That's a fun (and very cyberpunk) idea. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this one.

I've posted the earlier teasers but this is the first one to actually show the animation. It also finally has an official release date of July this year.

The video was originally posted to Xitter so I'm linking some random person's video who uploaded it to youtube.

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BmvB98

Apparently I posted the reveal trailer for this game over a year ago. I totally forgot about that. At the time, I had said it looked like a Brazilian version of Anno: Mutationem.

This new gameplay trailer makes it look more like a 2D beat 'em up but they're also now calling it a metroidvania. I don't know what to think of this game. I think it just comes down to these trailers not explaining enough. Either way, the artwork looks great. I'll continue to keep my eye on it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3066300/Sky_Dust/

There was a lot of discussion about the real-world inspiration for the world of Stellar Blade when the hit game came out. While it was set in a post-apocalyptic world, and there were clear real-world inspirations in terms of aesthetics, but the actual references were more vague references to North Africa and the Middle East. This doesn't seem to be the case for Stellar Blade 2, whose development seems to be in full swing. The official @StellarBlade account on X posted a teaser about the upcoming location for its "next title," and it looks as though the game will be set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic China, seemingly with an emphasis on Chongqing city. The city itself, which was identified by u/jamiebaby on Reddit, is known for its multi-layered construction.