Neo Cab: Review
In the universe Neo Cab live taxi drivers are practically no longer needed – instead of them, people are picked up and transported around the city by cars controlled by artificial intelligence. But with robots, no matter how perfect they are, you can’t have a heart-to-heart talk, you can’t discuss serious topics and you can’t share your own thoughts. The appearance of a taxi driver named Lina in Los Ojos comes as a surprise to its inhabitants and could have been great happiness for her, but almost immediately after her arrival, her best friend Sevi disappears without a trace.
And to hell with it
The heroine searches for Sevi throughout the game, but almost everything that has nothing to do with the main storyline turns out to be much more interesting. The premise is intriguing when, a few minutes after the start, you find your friend’s broken phone and think that an exciting detective story with unexpected twists awaits you. But in reality, the plot is slightly disappointing, and you expect something more from the ending – perhaps the problem is in the timing, and the developers simply did not have time to fit a decent story into a novel for several hours.
Fortunately, everything else is done much better. Since we take on the role of a taxi driver, and even the only living representative of this profession in the city, we will have to constantly communicate with people. And how wonderful these conversations are sometimes! Neo Cab regularly brings up topics related to the monopoly of a large corporation and how different people suffer or prosper due to it. Some people can’t stand the company Capra, which produces these newfangled taxis, while others don’t like cars at all and turn to drivers for help only as a last resort.
It’s hard to remember even one unsuccessful character – all passengers are unique. There is a girl imprisoned by her mother in some kind of heavy spacesuit, from which it is impossible to get out on her own, and a camera installed on it records all her actions. There is a member of the worm cult who is only happy when everything in his life is bad. There’s a woman discussing endless timelines. The company turned out to be motley, and these strange characters do not seem so eccentric in the world of the future. Besides them, there are quite a few “realistic” characters, but they are all equally good.
Not an imitation of life
As a driver, we start the https://casinoheroesonline.co.uk/games/ day by looking at the map and choosing who we want to give a ride to. But they don’t allow you to drive here on your own – Lina does this routine without our help, and we only communicate with passengers. Some may not like this limitation, but the developers did not try to offer a taxi driver simulator – first of all, this is a simulator of a living person in a world where you have to contact living people less and less often. Therefore, the entire gameplay consists entirely of dialogues, with very rare exceptions – sometimes you need to visit a gas station and choose a place to stay for the night, spending the money you earned per day.
Before his disappearance, Savy gives Lina a special Feelgrid bracelet, the name of which fully describes the technology used in it. With its help, you can quickly understand what mood the main character is currently in. If the bracelet turns green, she is calm. Blue – sadness or depression. Red is anger or anxiety, and yellow is a good, cheerful mood. Anything can change your state of mind: mentioning Capra in most cases will make Lina angry, and a good joke or positive thoughts will certainly lift her spirits. The further from the center the color is, the stronger the emotion, and usually these changes correspond exactly to what is happening in the car.
Conversations with passengers are filled with choice of lines. Sometimes, due to the heroine’s mood, some answers may not be available – either she will not want to be openly rude, or she will not be overly kind to a client who has annoyed her for five minutes. Or, conversely, being cheerful and cheerful, Lina will be able to give an answer that would otherwise be blocked. This usually doesn’t have much of an impact on gameplay, but it does make dialogue feel more lively – actions have consequences, and when you treat a passenger well, you’ll have one opportunity (or several) to use it in conversation.
It’s not an easy job
What influences gameplay is the ratings passengers give you after your trip. A lot depends on your reactions to the characters’ remarks. Someone is talking complete nonsense, but clearly believes in it? Either be honest and speak up, or constantly assent and be on the same page with him to get five stars instead of three. Someone makes a mistake? Take a risk and dissuade him, but who knows whether he will agree or send you to hell? You shake over your precious rating, which at the beginning of the game is a perfect five stars, just like in real life. You hope that you did everything right and receive an enthusiastic review, or you are upset because of the low rating, but you still believe that you are right and continue to work.
At the same time, stressful situations in Neo Cab never arise – the game is very calm, the time is unlimited, and the music is not annoying. Apart from it, there are practically no sounds here at all, except that you sometimes hear the roar of the engine. In many other games this would be a significant drawback, but here the absence of any noise only makes the atmosphere more peaceful. While this makes dialogue easier to read, it’s a shame that there’s no menu that lets you reread the last five or ten lines—pressing the button to speed up the dialogue window sometimes results in you unwittingly missing a phrase.
The game looks modest. The characters change their faces in a caricature, depicting emotions, and the city of Los Ojos seems to consist of absolutely identical streets and houses – no matter where the characters pass, the surroundings are the same. Moreover, in the dialogues we can talk about standing crowds, a bunch of police officers, an abandoned restaurant or something else, but in reality you don’t see any of this – the game tells more than it shows. The taxi driver’s actions also do not correspond to her conversations with passengers – if she says that she will now turn right, in fact the car will continue to move forward. It’s a small thing, but it still looks strange – sometimes the car still changes direction, but it’s not entirely clear why this doesn’t happen at the right moments.
However, these are not the most significant shortcomings – after all, in a story-based game, the most important thing is the narrative. And with this Neo Cab (except for the main story) no problems. Heroes whom you once brought to the right place can later come across again, and often you are happy to meet them again. I wonder how they cope with their problems, what they decided to change after your last conversation, what their mood is. Here you really feel that the residents of Los Ojos miss live communication, they can share something intimate, and then you decide for yourself whether you need to talk about your friend who left you to the mercy of fate, or is it just your business.
Best Neo Cab can be described with the word “cozy” – it’s a light, slightly unprepossessing, but stylish and pleasant adventure for one or two evenings. It’s an adventure – although there’s nothing really here besides conversations, finding yourself in an unfamiliar city and meeting completely different and unusual people cannot be called anything else. The authors revealed the theme of monopolistic corporations that control every action of citizens, and clearly showed how urgently they all need to communicate with living people, whom no soulless machine can replace. The game copes with its task, even if I can’t give five stars for this trip.
Pros: cozy atmosphere with great music; interesting passengers with whom you want to spend time at least once more; the theme of megacorporations and their influence on citizens is well explored through the gameplay; original idea with a mood bracelet.
Cons: you expect something more from the main plot; poor visual content.