Author Bruce Stirling one defined cyberpunk as being a combination of "low-life and high-tech". 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL certainly earns that description, but it also shoots for something a little loftier and more idealistic. This retrofuturistic point-and-click adventure game tackles weighty (and familiar) themes like what it means to be human and social inequality, but it does so with a great deal of warmth, humour, and positive progressive energy.
The Neo-San Francisco of MidBoss's cyberpunk adventure is one marked by the usual disparity between rich and poor, with mega-corporations commandeering law enforcement and health care. This is a future where humans have begun to augment themselves, leading to emerging social rifts between those who choose to modify their appearance, those who don't, and those who actively oppose the practice as being impure.
Alongside all of this civil upheaval, technology has reached a point where advanced robot assistants - or ROMs - are filling the role of low wage labourers. Humanity justifies this exploitation due to the fact that these robots aren't truly sentient - yet.
Into this powder keg situation, and into your freelance hack's care, drops Turing, a cute prototype ROM that claims to be the world's first sapient machine. Turing's genius creator has been kidnapped, and it falls to you and your digital sidekick to ascertain why. This is the cue for a classic adventure experience that draws from the point-and-click games of old. The developers openly reference the likes of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and Snatcher, but it will be familiar to any digital adventurers old enough to remember the late '80s and early '90s.
It's essentially a series of static scenes (viewed through a retro-tastic letterbox), many of which you'll revisit several times over, sifting for clues and engaging in branching conversations. Indeed, we should get the warning out right now that there's an awful lot of dialogue in 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL. For the most part, it streamlines and minimises the famously arcane point-and-click puzzles associated with the genre in favour of a focus on narrative.
You won't find yourself stumped on elaborate fetch quests or tortuous item combination sequences here, nor will you be required to click on everything in a bid to progress the plot. Generally speaking, your progress through the game is logical and fairly seamless. This might be seen as a weakness by grizzled adventure fans, but is perfectly in keeping with the game's inclusive tone.
There are various mini-game sections throughout the adventure, but these are highly simplistic and relatively brief. They certainly wouldn't stand up to playing an extended part of proceedings, but in this form, they act as effective palate cleansers.
The meat of the experience here is undoubtedly the story, though. Fortunately, the writing and characterisations in 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL are more than up to the task. Your companion, Turing, is a constant delight to spend time with - at once perilously vulnerable and plausibly capable. Their naivety and little idiosyncrasies (such as a fondness for botany) make them believably human - something that's emphasised by an expressive emoji of a face.
The rest of the cast understandably gets less attention, but is still admirably fleshed out and atypically diverse in terms of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. The game's world is rife with tension and discrimination, but the fact that the sources of this friction appear to have moved on from these basic areas feels oddly uplifting.
The entire cast is completely voice acted, and the performances are generally of a pretty high standard. This is accompanied by an evocative synth soundtrack, which nails that 'retrofuturistic' vibe nicely. Your interaction with the world arguably takes this approach a little too literally, though. Having to use the left Joy-Con stick to physically flick across all of the onscreen elements seems a little clunky, and it's a shame there's no direct touchscreen option available for handheld mode. In similar fashion, the four-strong interaction system of 'Look', 'Touch', 'Speak' and 'Use item with' seems a little crude and clunkily implemented; some kind of hold-and-release selection wheel, or maybe a direct mapping to the fascia buttons, would have been preferable.
Aside from these interaction issues, though, and a necessary warning over the game's heavy focus on story over gameplay, 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL is an easy recommendation to make for anyone after a new cyberpunk adventure. Or even a fairly old one.
Conclusion
2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL takes the classic point-and-click genre of old, strips out many of the annoyingly exacting puzzle systems, and injects a refreshingly positive and progressive outlook. A cast of memorable characters and some spot-on retro presentation should seal the deal for fans of a good story and snappy dialogue.
Comments 27
So it's a not-so-point-and-clicky P&C and a little more of a visual novel it seems. Good. I look forward to playing this when I get a chance. Love the old school P&C look of it and gives me memories of Deja Vu and Uninvited somewhat.
This actually looks really interesting. In the vein of Shadowgate, but not quite so brooding or difficult. I'll probably pick this one up as an old veteran of these P&C adventures.
I loved the Vita version. Seems like another good Vita port to me.
As a fan of games like Snatcher and Rise of the Dragon, I wish the puzzle portions were more substantial. But the style, narrative, and overall message just sound too good to pass up.
Goes on my watchlist, seems fun enough, but will probably wait for a sale.
This wasn't on my radar until now but it actually looks pretty sweet. Torn between picking it up now before the 10% off goes away or if I should wait for a better sale as I have so much to play as it is.
...Am I the only one plays Point & Click adventure games for the blend of difficult puzzles, exploration, and story? I mean, this doesn't sound I'd want to play. If all it has to offer is the story, just make it a visual novel and stop wasting my time.
...because I already know I don't like Visual Novels, and I would've moved on by now.
Heard some mixed things about it, one of which being your level of enjoyment will depend on how much you agree with (what some will argue a rather heavy-handed) political message. May grab it if ever a major sale as interested but don’t want to find myself payinga substantial amount of money if it ends up being an unenjoyable experience.
i'm honestly really torn about whether to get this again; i really enjoyed it back when it first came out, and everything from the soundtrack, the aesthetics and style of the game to the writing and just having a really queer experience (in both obvious and really subtle ways that I just haven't seen in any other game that had a decent budget) was great, but since it turned out the ceo of the studio wasn't paying the people who actually like, Made the thing (+ gross harassment stuff), it's really soured my ability to go back to it.
it's a really great game and I'm sure I'd love it on the switch but the baggage is rough
Skipped straight done to the score. Instant buy this week.
I’m not surprised but it’s sad the negativity people have when you don’t agree with them. The hate put out by the developer when this came out was sad. If you voted for Trump etc. But some will agree and of course like the comment.
Found a link to one of the many articles wrote about it.
https://www.gamereactor.eu/news/501473/Midboss+doesnt+want+Trump+voters+playing+their+game/
Just waiting for the inevitable physical version.
@myMaudlinCareer @TechGuy One the one hand I can understand not wanting to give money to hostile people. On the other hand you are punishing the whole team for something a few of them (or most likely just one person) said/did.
I personally mostly ignore stuff like that. If I stopped buying stuff from companies that employ bad people I probably couldn't buy anything anymore.
Think I'll add this to my wishlist and keep and open mind following the comments above.
This is not for me...
Big fan of Snatcher when I was younger, but between the disgusting actions of the founder, and the ones involving the ex-CEO that followed, wouldn't want to support them in any way. Besides, they'd said they wouldn't want me to purchase, anyway.
@Magician They just did a physical release of the Vita Version with Limited Run Games so chances are pretty high that they do the same for the Switch Version in 6 month.
Currently I know nothing about the game, but according to comment section, there’s the “get woke, go broke” vibe going on....
This game was such a great idea on paper, but as is, I can't stand it. Completely lacking in any tact in the writing, tons of technical issues, hardly any gameplay, etc. Plus the CEO... basically the PWR BTTM of video games in that they're a predatory hypocrite. I'd love a good "queer Snatcher", but this really isn't it for me.
@TechGuy Hmm, interesting. I didn’t vote for Trump because I am not American, but I cannot ignore such an impassioned plea from the developers. I’ll give it a miss. Thanks.
@TechGuy actually this is good as hell and if i was a creator with a platform i'd make this stance too, you should make it explicit that politics of extermination have no place in society, especially when you're a target of those politics.
or in short why do you think queer creators want these people's money
Considering the fact that the developers ran their mouths about not releasing games on Nintendo platforms at one time, I cannot support the release of this game.
Again, this game features HD rumble, but the reviews rarely mention this Switch feature
I beat this game on PS4 a few months ago and highly recommend it. It pretty much grabbed me right from the start and i couldn't quit til i finished it.
Wasn't until i beat it that i noticed that pretty much every character was gay tho, lol
@Mach_Rider Right now it's free if you have a PS plus account and PS4.
@animefan923 Thanks, but the only Sony system I own is a PS2.
Aaaaand it was finally on a huge sale and I forgot to buy it...darn it...next time I guess
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