Neo Cab has finally arrived, and the ride is…almost smooth sailing.
An emotionally-driven narrative game, you’ll spend your time cruising the streets of tech-filled, Capra-centric Los Ojos, picking up fares, managing Coin, and trying to find out what happened to your friend and roommate Savy, who was supposed to get you set up with your new life in the city, but mysteriously vanished, leaving behind too little clues and too much mystery.
The game is straightforward; find a fare, pick them up, get them where they need to go. Along the way you’ll meet quite the menagerie of people, and in your transition from point A to point B, you’ll have to engage in conversation to keep up the mood, and your coveted five star rating.
You’ll also have to be mindful of your finances; in the cyberpunk future of Neo Cab, gone are man’s dependence on fossil fuels (oh, if only), and cars are instead juiced up at charging stations spread throughout the city. While relatively cheap, those recharges can stack up, and you’ll find it will be usually better to pay by the bar instead of going for a full charge every single time.
Unlike other narrative-centric games, this one comes with a twist in the form of a strong, visible indicator of your emotions. The Feelgrid, a bracelet you get early on from Savy, will become indispensable through the course of the game. “A mood ring that actually works”, being mindful of it will keep you in the know of Lina’s (the main character’s) true emotional state.
Your interactions with your fares, or pax, will change Lina’s emotions based on the answers you give (or don’t give), and can lock you out of certain responses if you’re not careful. In Neo Cab, what you say truly matters, and you’ll never know how much until you actually do.
For all the bells and whistles Neo Cab has, there is currently an issue; players are finding they’re getting stuck at a certain point after transferring their save data from the demo to the full game (the common element seems to be the fare of Oona St. Clare). The developers are currently working to fix the issue, but for now they recommend that you simply delete the demo, and restart a new game. Frustrating, but so is not being able to progress at all, and at least Chance Agency is aware of the situation.
This little issue is only a minor bump in the road, though; it’s quite fixable, and doesn’t detract from the neo-noir experience the game is sure to provide.
So sit back, relax, and take it easy with a slow ride around Los Ojos.
