Cloudpunk - the pixelated open-world adventure through a vertical cyberpunk city - was one of my most anticipated games of the year, and it delivered on expectations even more than I thought it would. It wasn’t perfect, but for my money, it is one of the best games within the cyberpunk genre this year; a genre that is being saturated within the industry due to the current hype surrounding the upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077.
One of the main pain points that Cloudpunk faced in the original game was the camera angles. I was really only able to navigate the HOVA delivery vehicle with a locked camera, lest getting motion sick from the very touchy camera control. When walking around the city streets and highrises of Nivalis, the fixed camera angle (think early Resident Evil titles) often made it difficult to see where I was going and where I needed to go, or totally covered up an interactive NPC or item due to the placement of a piece of scenery between them and the camera. These struggles, however, seem like they will become the thing of the past, thanks to the work being done by the game’s developer, ION LANDS.
New in-game footage was posted to the developer’s Twitter featuring totally new camera perspectives. The first piece of footage showcased Rania - the game’s player-controlled protagonist - walking along a bridge and overlooking the neon city from a third-person perspective. The second piece of gameplay footage posted today, showed a first-person view of the city streets with Rania looking directly into a noodle bar before checking out the stormy sky above.
My question is simple. Why were these perspectives not included in the initial launch of the game?
Considering its pixelated design, Cloudpunk is surprisingly immersive thanks to its ambient audio design and overall world that I could lose myself in exploring for hours. I can understand appreciate hard deadlines, but if either of the two soon-to-be-added perspectives had been included in the PC launch of the game, it would have earned a perfect rating from me, even despite the forgettable voiceover dialogue.
Walking around Nivalis is one of the best parts of the game, which could have been elevated even further by a third-person or first-person camera. Even Cloudpunk’s developer hinted that this new view is potentially better than the original single-view in terms of wanting to experience the city in a more intimate way, tweeting: “I feel like with this new camera I’m staying longer on the walking sections than before.”
Ultimately, it’s fantastic that these new perspectives are eventually going to be making their way to Cloudpunk. It will make for a more immersive experience on PC, but seems like the perfect addition to incorporate for the game’s release on consoles (which I will also be picking up). Cloupunk is already a fantastic game. Pushing back the release date to add such valuable features could have just made it perfect from the start.
