NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy

Everyone that's ever played Reigns, a mobile game, knows how this goes. It's a visual novel. In this case you're an AI and during the course of the the game you constantly making choices having to pick between two options every time. The choices you make, change some side stories, possibly the ending and 4 parameters of how well you're doing. The 4 parameters represent money, people/happiness, security and power. If one of these ever goes to zero, you lose... Or so I'm told as the game is so easy that it's almost impossible to lose unless you're doing it willingly. I like visual novels and the main thing that attracted me here is the audiovisual aspect. The art is very nice and stylistic and I like that the characters aren't completely static. They move a little making them seem more like living breathing humans. They are also all fully voiced in English. Those things are rare for visual novels. I also liked the idea of being an AI that makes choices that shape the city it controls. I wasn't disappointed in the story. I liked how the characters, stories and side stories are written. While the characters aren't very deep they're not stereotypes either. However, for a game that's all about making choices, those choices felt mostly meaningless in the end. Far too often my choices felt in vain as the story would end up the same way anyway. The 4 parameters I mentioned before don't seem to influence anything either. Technically there are different endings but they consist of just a few vague lines of text that don't explain much. Whatever you do, you're basically left wondering what influence all of it had. If you'd take a look at my achievements you'll notice there are many achievements I didn't unlock in my one play-through. So yes, objectively on paper your choices do matter and your play-through is probably different than mine. I can only say those differences all felt very shallow. A thumbs down feels too harsh but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it either. I'm intrigued enough that I want to check out what this developer makes next.

Update - either the publicher fixed something or I did, but - the game works flawlessly now and... I am so sad I found the end. What a stunningly beautiful and great game and story. Now I'm desperate for the next chapter. I have some unfinished business, and I cannot decide if finishing it looks like the the story I just experiences or if I need to a little more... Skynet on certain people and organizations. Perhaps violence is the answer. Highly, highly reccomend. --- In the first 11 minutes, I see a beautiful, interesting, *unplayable* game as the mouse controls suck so incredibly badly. I had to restart the game once as the main menu got stuck for navigation with the mouse. The in-game tool tips apparently have targets so small that the tool tip (explanations and definitions) appear and vanish so fast you can't read them - are the literally the width of the character pixels? At the completion of the 1st chapter, I could not proceed as the timeline of results froze and would not scroll by keyboard or mouse. So - I think I want to play this game, and it is unplayable because of terrible mouse controls and UI. Sad really. I cannot recommend this game to anyone at this time.

This game was perhaps tailor made for me. It's beautiful art and emphasis on choice are what drew me in but unfortunately it wasn't to be. Likely due to the the game's creators going under, the game has not been maintained and a game breaking bug that can seemingly soft lock you out after seemingly any choice you click made this game unplayable. It occurred frequently and I could not find a good answer or solution to fixing it. I give this game a positive review because circumstances outside of the creators hands are what caused the issue. If there ever is a patch that fixes this I will readily return to playing it. For even the brief amount of time I got to play this game gave me much joy. Thank you Dream Harvest.

Good game. Sad the company just shut down.

A quick game but an interesting one, worth buying on sale.

NeuroNet is a fun (and rather timely) visual novel that lets you take on the role of a newly created AI. Your role is to help manage a city, tackling problems on both a macro and a micro level. Over time, your AI starts to develop something of a personality. Will you do what you can to meet the needs of the City, or will you focus on empowering the shady corporation that created you? Along the way you'll meet a lot of interesting characters and will be able to play a significant role in the direction their lives take. In a few instances, these characters will actually be at odds with each other, forcing you to make some tough decisions. The game is broken into 8 chapters, and throughout the game you'll encounter two types of events: 1. Standard events - these are related to managing a city, and mostly just alter the four metrics that are used to judge your performance (i.e. wealth accumulation, resident satisfaction, policing power, and your own intelligence/ capabilities). 2. Character story lines - These are lengthy side quests that span multiple chapters, and they're beating heart of the game. Alienate the characters, and you may get the chance to experience them. The game was a joy to play through, and I found the focus on cut throat corporate politics (with some of your corporate overlords turning on each other and forcing you to choose sides) to be pretty engaging stuff. I'd recommend this game to anyone who's a fan of visual novels, especially if you're a fan of dystopian sci-fi settings and good world building. Pros: +Absolutely beautiful visuals and solid voice acting. + A good mix of "city-management" based activities. You'll be doing everything from helping a homeless person find shelter for the night to thwarting terrorist attacks. + Several interesting moral dilemmas, some of which culminate in life or death situations. + Having your choices directly impact your stats makes the game more engaging than your average visual novel. Cons: - Mostly an illusion of choice. Your ability to define your AI is strangely limited - The ending is a bit of a downer, cliff-hanger ending. I don't know if there will ever be a sequel - There's no simple chapter selection option. The best you can do is rewind to the start of whatever chapter you're on Overall, this was a very solid game and one that deserved more attention than it ended up getting. I hope the developer keeps at it, because I'd love to see more from them.

I really enjoyed the story, the art, and the characters. This is not your typical visual novel, and there are a ton of little choices that all seem to add up over time. I would gladly play a sequel if one is made.