Neo Cab
Game Title: Neo Cab
Released: October 3, 2019
Game Length: 4 Hours
Grade: B-
Expectations: I'm going to be blunt. Neo Cab isn't exactly a game that gets recommended very often. Without reading any reviews, I'm kind of hoping some interesting gameplay. Perhaps you get to drive around in search for a specific street. Maybe you get mixed-up in some interesting story inside a futuristic setting. The problem is that I'm not expecting too much for a $15 price tag and a 4-Hour playthrough. So maybe we have another Necrobarista on our hands.
Reality: Within my first 30 minutes of playing the game, I will admit that I was not impressed. You do not get to drive around. There is no voice acting, and there is barely any animation over some sleek facial expressions and transitional movements. Other than picking which area you to go next, your phone barely gets used. A lot of features simply don't impact your actions well enough - your emotions, your dialogue choices, or your destinations. I encountered multiple bugs from the police flashing lights staying with me into the next scene, to my emotion meter getting stuck lighting up the last choice, immediately being told to leave after stating to the contrary, to downright wrong dialogue. At one point the game automatically assumed I gave a passenger money on the last trip when it fact I shoved him out of the car without a penny to spend. The least they could have done was give you the option to press the appropriate number or using the directions on the keyboard to choose your responses. There is an option to increase reading speed or automatically advancing the text, but my game froze when I tried altering them during a scene. There is no way you can manually save the game. You can only load up from the previous finished scene.
Story: The majority of the game consists of you carrying out some dialogue with your "pax" (passenger) as you drive them to their destination. The backdrop of you driving through the city lasts as long as it takes to finish the conversation. There is no time-limit. Charging your vehicle is never a problem since your funds never seem to run out. There are some choices you can make that can abruptly end your trip, lower your star rating (which can effectively end your game if not taken care of), or alter your story progress. And all of this is alright. I must admit that the topics and personalities that come up while driving was really thrilling. I enjoyed the debate of quantum physics of alternate realities, whether or not I was a robot, if the idea of constantly recording your every action was unethical, and how capitalism through technology could be harmful to people. Juggling between what I perceived as a character and telling people what they wanted to hear was an interesting struggle. It was like watching a 3D Show on Netflix that lasted in 15-minute intervals. I had a great laugh when a person left "Driver would not let me jump from car while moving" in his 3-star review.
Ending: The problem comes when you have one long, final discussion with your friend. Your character and you as the player will be exhausted spending 30 minutes arguing over semantics. I hated it... probably because none of it made sense to me. It was a proposed scenario that you are stuck with that I think shouldn't have happened in the first place. Maybe I'm just mad because I still received the Bad Ending after all my work. The other two "good" options only become available if you find a way to leave without your friend... which I guess should have been extremely easy to do all things considering. I guess there was supposed to be a moral lesson somewhere about being in an abusive relationship, but I didn't quite empathize with the characters. To make matters worse, after reviewing the 6-Hour Walkthrough it is sad to think that I missed out on about 5 alternate storylines that would have better enriched my experience. Too bad the game isn't worth playing through a second time.
Opinion: Neo Cab is a cheap game that doesn't add much to your gaming experience other than reading about some interesting stories from occupants of a conglomerate futuristic city. Your dialogue choices don't change too much of the story other than receiving some penalties when immediately ending the conversation and providing some more optional responses down the line. If you were on the fence about playing it, I'd probably give it a shot. Otherwise, I wouldn't go out of your way in buying it.
12-2-2020