Neo Cab

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Neo Cab is a Graphic Adventure set in a not-too-distant future with touches of cyberpunk elements. It tells the story of a cab driver, Lina, moving to the California city of Los Ojos to reunite with her old friend, her frustrations with the corporation seeking to automate the entire ridesharing industry, and the various people Lina takes on as passengers, all while Lina finds herself at the center of a mystery that could have a huge impact on both her and humanity as a whole.

The game’s story is told almost exclusively from behind the wheel of a cab as Lina converses with the various fares she picks up through the course of a week in the game, with a few scenes having her step out from the car to meet with specific people. Players are not tasked with any responsibility for Lina’s driving or navigation, so they can focus entirely on the conversations that form the core of the game. While I’m a bit disappointed about a game that’s thematically about driving not actually letting the player, you know, drive, I understand the choice that was made here, since the story is very clearly what players are meant to focus on.

To that end, I feel like the story being told here is very good, and I was frequently reminded of the game The Red Strings Club, which had similar themes and topic matter. Neo Cab is largely about the growing reach of massive corporations, the debate about automation, our emotions and how we manage and respond to them, and the impact our choices have on the future. It is consistently well-written, features some excellent, memorable characters, and is generally pretty thought-provoking in the topics it has players engaging in, although I will admit that there were a few places I felt it dipped into areas that seemed a bit absurd, like a pair of German tourists who insist that Lina must be a robot and an older woman who inexplicably appears to be able to do that Doctor Strange trick of looking into every timeline. These odd moments detracted a bit from what was otherwise a very engrossing and thoughtful story.

In terms of presentation, what’s here is mostly excellent, although a few of the details throw things off. The game uses a mix of well-animated hand-drawn 2D characters along with cel-shaded 3D graphics that gives the game a nice, stylized look that reminded me a lot of the animated TV series Archer in its style and character designs. There are also some nice lighting tricks to really sell the feel of these characters being in a real vehicle progressing along on a road at night. This goes along with a superb Blade Runner-esque soundtrack that perfectly fits the blue-tinted futuristic setting of the game.

However, there were a few things that detracted from this otherwise great presentation – right from the start, there is some pretty obvious and nasty pop-up going on outside the cab, and through the course of the game there were a few moments I experienced some brief but extreme slowdown. Given the game’s focus on story and conversation, this didn’t interfere much with the gameplay, but it was distracting. Perhaps more problematic is the complete lack of sound in conversations – not only are characters here not voiced, but their words make no sound whatsoever, making the majority of the game feel eerily quiet. You do eventually get used to this, but I will say it was jarring at first.

For the gameplay itself, there are a few interesting systems at work here. Firstly, through the course of the game, Lina will have to not only navigate different dialogue trees in conversations, but she’ll also have to manage both her money as well as her star rating – if either drops too low, she’ll be in serious trouble. What’s more, early on Lina will come into possession of a mood bracelet of sorts that lets her literally wear her emotions, with the shifting color of the bracelet changing as conversations push her emotions one way or another. This is something to keep in mind, as some dialogue options will be unavailable if her emotions become too extreme in the opposite direction to feel like saying them – if she’s too sad, she may not be able to give an optimistic answer, if she’s too placid, she may not want to ruin the mood by talking about something serious, and if she’s too angry, she may not be able to avoid a confrontational response.

While each of these game systems is promising, in execution they fall a bit flat. It’s rarely very clear how different dialogue options will affect Lina’s mood, nor is it clear what sort of mood Lina should be in to keep all dialogue options open to her. What’s more, while I love the thought of juggling these conversations with the need to placate riders to maintain a good star rating, in practice these choices seemed just as likely to have no impact on the star rating Lina got – at one point, I avoided illegally parking to appease a fare and they brushed it off and gave me a five-star review anyway, while at another point I parked illegally in hopes of getting a five-star review only to get a crappy review anyway. While I’m sure this mirrors the frustration real rideshare drivers must face, it doesn’t make for very compelling gameplay to make players feel like their choices don’t matter.

Oh, one other thing I need to mention – do yourself a favor before the game starts and go into the options menu. You’ll want to turn off the setting that automatically progresses the conversation. Before I did so, there were multiple points where I went to press the button to progress the conversation only to inadvertently select a dialogue option when the game decided to move on at the same time.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Neo Cab and would recommend it to players looking for a great story with interesting characters and thought-provoking dialogue, but there are a few issues here and there that hinder the experience and make it not quite as good as it could be. Still, if you’re a fan of Graphic Adventures and especially if you enjoy a cyberpunk setting, Neo Cab should be high on your list of games to get on the Switch.

tl;dr – Neo Cab is a neo noir Graphic Adventure set in a not-too-distant future where players take the role of a rideshare driver who finds herself at the center of a mystery and must navigate thought-provoking conversations while keeping track of her dwindling bank account and fluctuating driver review score. This is a well-written game with some great characters and a compelling story, although some of the gameplay elements here are not as well-implemented as I’d like. Overall though, this is an excellent game and fans of the genre should definitely give it a look.

Grade: B+

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