Cyberpunkdreams, as is the law for cyberpunk games, is set in a biggo futuristic city. Ah, but the city in question? No no, not future London. Not New York, or anywhere in California. Welcome to the cyberpunk midwest, everyone. This free, text-based RPG is set in the 2090s border city of Cincinnati. That’s in Ohio, which is the middle of the United States, which you’ll be forgiven for not knowing if you don’t live two hours away from it. As of 2090, it’s one of the hottest places to be, the biggest border city between the future states and the badlands, and the place where you’ll make or break it.
“Enter a living, growing world, with new stories and other content each month, plus regular limited time events,” say the developers Late Night Games. “You’ll always find new surprises waiting for you in Cinci’s dark and dirty alleys.” You can catch the mood of future Cinci in the narrated launch trailer here.
It is text-based, lest you forget while watching that trailer, in a way that seems to have shades of something like Failbetter’s browser game Fallen London.
Cyberpunkdreams puts you in the shoes of a wanderer who’s arrived at Cinci’s gates with no memories and a weapon. That there’s a nice and classic RPG setup, for sure. “There are a multitude of ways to solve each problem you’ll encounter—what you choose impacts not only your chances of making it out alive, but also how your character grows and experiences the world,” the developers say.
To actually make your way through the city and through time, you’ve got a bank of 40 actions to use. You’ll earn one new action point every ten minutes but can pay for more actions with real cash as well. Pursuing different storylines involves using those actions to draw from a deck of scenarios throughout the city.
It’s hard to turn down giving a free game a try, but if you’re keen to take a look before you download, the developers are hosting daily livestreams on YouTube and Twitch through May 19th.
You can find Cyberpunkdreams over on Steam where it’s free to play.