Neon Hearts City

Alright. [i]Neon Hearts City[/i] is done and dusted. This was a pretty decent little point & click adventure. And that is actually what I want to talk about first. A lot of PnC and straight Adventure games are basically full stories/books in video game form. This is not that. Instead, it is a short story. Which by my mind means a concise experience that doesn't really deviate much from the main story being told, with lite world development and fairly simple puzzles. Much like reading a short story, you learn enough about the world to both whet your appetite and set the foundation for the story being told, but the rest of the world is left to your imagination. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3580807006 With that in mind, this game wears its influences on its sleeves. Some are definitely intentional such as Philip K ♥♥♥♥, Bladerunner, and even Half-life, as is evidenced by some of the dialogue and Easter Egg(s). Some other stuff that I'd mention, but probably aren't intentional are like Dark City, The Fortress (Christopher Lambert movie), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The idea here is that people are living in a society where your very thoughts might be policed, and the government particularly enjoys imprisoning people and stripping them of their important personal social memories, such as family and such. Within the fold of that broad scope, you play as a detective trying to find a missing teenager who may or may not have been captured by the government or even killed. Parallel to that though, there is a subculture of Androids who are trying to figure out how to become more like humans so as to live peacefully alongside humans without humans being any the wiser; and perhaps even dive into the potential of having a soul. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3581401768 Like I say, this is a short story, and it's a fairly standard detective game from the perspective of the protagonist but set in a future that isn't fully developed outside of knowing for certain that it's dystopian. Which I thought worked perfectly. This game knows what it is and what it wants to accomplish, sets out to do that, and was successful in doing so. The point and click aspect of the game is intuitive and fairly simple. Items make sense in the context of how they're supposed to be used. You will occasionally combine items of course. And there are a few puzzles that I thought were pretty basic. If you pay attention to the dialogue and the puzzles themselves, you shouldn't be too stumped. I think the hardest one would probably be the color creation puzzle, but you could literally just Google color combinations if you get stuck. The dialogue was pretty witty and at times amusing. And this game is actually fully voice acted. All the voice actors did a good job in their roles. Which was refreshing. Graphics are retro, lo-fi, and colorful in general. It's a pretty vibrant game from a visual perspective. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3581401757 Yeah. I enjoyed the 1.8 hours it took me to play through this game. It's fun and doesn't overstay its welcome. It crafts a world just enough to invest you in the setting but doesn't over-explain anything. I think it in general does everything right. If you are into PnC adventures and understand this is written in short story format, you will find something worth your time here. Give it a look. [b]I received this license via our IndieGems Curator program.[/b] [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

I used to like Cosmic Void games very much (i made many guides for it), but as others mentioned this one is very short and too easy and they are becoming a dime a dozen. And while dev didn't take the criticism well on the forum, i understand it's someone's art/work etc and feeling it attacked. But basically all the games you can see as having a template with slightly different dialogue, different items on items, and some different artwork, it's not like one of the games is completely different then the other. I hope the dev can learn to take the criticism well from all the negative reviews, especially about this one that's it was way too short, which is fine but don't ask the same price as the other games then. Make the next one longer again and perhaps try to make some more difficult puzzles and let us brain work for a bit like many classic point and click adventures did and do.

This game had a very interesting concept that made me interested, although I was a bit hesitant due to the lack of demo. I figured, however, that since many of the Point & Click games don't have demos it wasn't necessarily something that was a "no-go" warning for me and it might not be a valid reason to resist giving it a go. Turns out that the reason for the lack of a demo was actually twofold. Yes, being a P&C was one of them, but the other (even more important) reason was because the game is short. Very short. To the point where any demo whatsoever could've pretty much covered the entirety of the game's plot. The plot of this game is not just very short, but very *very* linear. So much so that you can complete the whole game while unlocking all of the achievements in under an hour if you're an experienced player of adventure games. It's very obvious that the creator had a pretty extensive backstory in mind for the protagonist and the world in which the game is set but they aren't especially fleshed out, leaving the experience feeling shallow at best and hollow at worst. Both of these things leave me saying "No" to recommending the game.

Game is fun but so short, only about an hour of gameplay. I played the demo which is probably why it felt shorter as well. Wish the game/universe was expanded on more, or we got more cases to look into.

The game can be fine for a single evening, but note that "Neon Hearts City" is a very short adventure with few not always logical interactions, relatively plain characters, and very bare-bones plot.

This game is a mixed bag, but after playing the game to the end, the negatives outweigh the positives. The game has really competent pixel art (not as good as Wadjet Eyes games, but still on par with adventures from the 90s), good voice acting and nice soundtrack. However, adventure games rise and fall with the narrative they tell, and here I feel the game lets the player down. The plot feels rushed, just a collection of dystopian cyberpunk tropes jammed together without any deeper interconnecting idea or message. If you want to know how similar setting can be done much more immersively with lasting mood and impression, play Red Strings Club. The unconvincing story is not helped by paper-thin characters that feel like plot devices. It does not help that the dialogues are minimalistic, with no choices, and each NPC has only a few lines that are repeated over, sometimes after the advancing plot makes them nonsensical or outdated. The puzzles feel forced and out of place, a break in immersion as if a moderator suddenly stepped out and said - "And now, we will have a puzzle!" The gameplay consists of mostly running around and often trying everything on everything to get some arbitrary item interaction to move the plot forward. On top of all that, the game is very short. The developer would really benefit from finding a writer that can work an interesting idea into a more captivating story, because in this game, the plot feel like an afterthought.

This game is amazing. I am a bit of a Cosmic Void fanboy, so take what I say with a grain of salt. This game is a bit more straight forward then some of his older games, the puzzles are much more straight forward, some took a bit of a second, but they were pretty simple and easy to get through. This keeps you involved in the story but can be a bit too easy at points. The game will actively remind you of certain knowledge to point you directly to the answer, which can be helpful, but also might be a little over easy. The world feels lived in, it feels like there is a lot going on, but you're not beaten over the head with exposition and history of the world. I leave the game feeling like I want more, and feeling that I got to explore a bit. I would love to see a sequel game to play more in this world and figure if any of my hypothesis are correct, and how the oppressive government will respond to the people reversing the brain washing and mind erasing. Like every Cosmic Void game I want to have a novel or something set in this world so I can explore more. This game is worth it at four times the price.

Meh. Really short game (full playthrough took me less than 90 minutes), extremely linear gameplay, flat characters you barely get to know, and lackluster dialogue. Honestly a big disappointment that plays more like a demo than a full game.

I wish there was a neutral option on the recommendation, but on balance, I think I don't recommend Neon Hearts City. It does have a lot going for it: beautiful pixel art, a good soundtrack, a good theme, and a good premise. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite reach its potential. The game is short, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It took me two and a half hours to finish on a first run. I can live with that for $8. It does end pretty abruptly though. I was expecting a climactic sequence at a location mentioned throughout the game, but it never happened. A victim of its own rich worldbuilding. I enjoyed the few puzzles the game had, but wish there were a few more. Most items are single use, and most are used shortly after acquiring them. There aren't any repercussions for making a wrong decision, either. As someone who grew up on Sierra adventures, dying was half the fun! These shortcomings could be overlooked if the story was better, but there aren't enough twists and turns for a detective story, and the writing is uneven, some good prose and not so great dialogue. Same goes for the voice acting, some of which is very good, some of which not quite. While I can't say I regret buying the game, I don't think I would bother to play it again.

Meh, I was able to beat the entire game in about 2.5 hours, but probably could have done it even faster. The game is incredibly linear, the puzzles are incredibly simple, and the story is laughably bad at times - a lot of weird continuity things, and "that's not how that would work" moments. The dude feels more like some random guy who read a detective comic once than an actual detective. That said, there are a couple really good twists in the plot. If the game dips below $5 it might be worth it - the artwork is nice, the soundtrack is good. But the important parts are mid at best.