Cloudpunk, the taxi noir game that our own Fraser reckoned was the best Cyberpunk game of last year, is receiving an expansion that its developers describe as "sequel-sized," featuring a fully voiced campaign that "is even longer than the base game."
The City of Ghosts DLC casts players as the original game's Rania as well as a new character called Hayse. The otherwise-spiffing trailer has a gruff voice deliver the lines "Who am I? I'm Hayes. And I'm the straw that stirs the drink." Maybe that line looked cooler on the page.
The two characters' stories intersect, as Rania gets chased down for old debts, eventually by a "homicidal, chimeric cyborg," while gambler and boozehound Hayse has his own money problems.
New areas and new characters will be added to Cloudpunk's Novalis setting, as well as the ability to compete in street races. While the original included vehicle customisation, this expands in the DLC to "every aspect of your HOVA [in order to] craft the perfect racing vehicle." The DLC campaign will also have multiple endings depending on your route through its story.
“Going back to Nivalis has been a thrill,” says Marko Dieckmann, Ion Lands' studio head. “It might be a DLC, but City of Ghosts has a sequel’s worth of content. It’s a darker, tenser, more complex story, and we can’t wait for people to experience it.”
City of Ghosts is coming "soon" to PC, while Cloudpunk itself is at 40% off to coincide with the announcement. As Andy Kelly said in his review: "If you've ever watched Blade Runner and wished you could get behind the wheel of a spinner, this is as close as any game has come to realising that fantasy."
