Cloudpunk is an adventure game developed by Ion Lands and published by Maple Whispering Limited that has made the jump from PC to consoles. The game has a gorgeous setting and nails its futuristic atmosphere perfectly, but there isn't much under the hood in terms of gameplay or story.
Cloudpunk is set in the futuristic city of Nivalis, which looks like someone recreated Blade Runner in Minecraft. The player takes on the role of Raina, a delivery driver for the Cloudpunk agency, who must pick up and drop off packages in her HOVA flying vehicle without asking questions. Raina learns about the history of the city and the stories of its denizens through these missions. The player is given the chance to make choices during Raina's missions, allowing her to help her customers or earn a quick buck for herself.
The gameplay of Cloudpunk involves flying the HOVA around Nivalis, picking up packages, and dropping them off. The visuals in Cloudpunk are fantastic, and the amazing synthwave soundtrack creates an atmosphere that makes the player feel as if they're really working the night shift in a futuristic city. The player has a chance to leave their HOVA and explore parts of Nivalis on foot, giving an even closer look at the city. Cloudpunk uses a blocky aesthetic that works really well for the setting, with the human characters resembling the people in the "Money For Nothing" video by Dire Straits.
There are collectibles to find in Cloudpunk, as well as clothes and upgrades, but there isn't much to do in terms of gameplay. The bulk of the game involves flying from one place to another. There are sidequests outside of the main quest, but Cloudpunk never stops being a delivery game. Cloudpunk works best in small doses when the player wants to immerse themselves in its atmosphere, but fails in its characters and story.
The story of Cloudpunk is a mixture of numerous sci-fi tropes, which isn't an issue itself - the problem lies with how they're used. Cloudpunk has some of the most abysmal voice acting in recent memory, and it's the medium through which the story is told. Raina hears the stories of Nivalis through commlinks and calls, in seemingly endless conversations that become grating to listen to over time. It quickly becomes apparent that the long walkways of the city exist so that the player has somewhere to walk on while the cast talks at them in extended dialogue sequences that go on forever. Exploring the world of Cloudpunk is a treat and the story of Nivalis should be told through its environments. Instead, the player has to endure constant nattering and some terrible attempts at levity. The writing in Cloudpunk is dire and the story is told in a way that makes the game a chore to play.
The Switch port of Cloudpunk is riddled with technical issues, too, and the most pressing is the draw distance. Cloudpunk has a gorgeous landscape, but the player is only allowed to see a portion of it at a time. The draw distance is way too far for a city environment, with buildings peeling into existence as the player gets close to them. The game stuttered on a regular basis and there were a number of crashes to the home menu. The game's generous autosave feature meant that we didn't lose too much progress, but it was still an annoyance.
Cloudpunk has a great concept, but it never quite lives up to its potential. It has a fantastic atmosphere and world, but there isn't enough substance to back it up. A strong story could have held everything together, but the endless droning dialogue kills any enthusiasm we have for the setting. The technical issues with the game could be fixed in the future, but it's sorely lacking in key areas that aren't as simple to fix. Nivalis is a fun city to visit, but it was easy for the inhabitants to drive us away, and there's no reason the Nintendo Switch version should even be considered the best platform to experience it on.
Cloudpunk is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Screen Rant was provided with a digital code for the Switch version of the game for the purposes of this review.