Cloudpunk's 'sequel-sized' DLC arrives with a tease for a full cyberpunk life sim

Cloudpunk's voxelated taxi service is opening a new service at the bottom of the city, as the cab-noire adventure's new "sequel-sized" City of Ghosts DLC arrives today.

Picking up where the base game left off, City of Ghosts explores the deeper, darker world of Nivalis' grimy understreets. We'll rejoin cabbie Rania and her AI dog once more as they flee from debt collectors and killer robots, but the DLC also introduces new playable lead Hayse—a drunken gambler with a stuffy android pal and a slick, chrome-blasted hovercar.

There'll be more playable characters taking the wheel throughout the story, one that developer Ion Lands reckons is just as long as the base game. City of Ghost also introduces fully customisable motors, street races, and multiple endings based on choices made throughout the base game and the DLC.

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We quite liked Cloudpunk, with reviewer Andy K praising a towering cyberpunk city that's "absolutely drenched in atmosphere". Good news, then, that Ion Lands has plans to return to its neo-noire city beyond just this sizeable piece of Cloudpunk DLC.

A cyberpunk ramen bar surrounded by customers — (Image credit: Ion Lands)

Ion Lands today also teased a new game, Nivalis, set in Cloudpunk's city of the same name. There's only a Steam page for now, but what's there sounds promising. Nivalis is a "slice-of-life sim" that sees you starting and growing your own businesses, be they a night club, ramen stand, restaurant or otherwise.

"In Nivalis, you choose how to spend your time in the city," reads the store description. "In this unique slice-of-life sim with realistic weather simulation and night and day cycles, you can grow your business, meet strange and diverse characters, form friendships and experience the danger and wonder of this cyberpunk voxel city."

It sounds ambitious, promising a game that'll let you live a fully simulated life full of strange people with stranger stories to tell. But it also appears to be leaning into the best parts of Cloudpunk—namely, the act of simply existing within a meticulously-realised Blade Runner metropolis.

Cloudpunk: City of Ghosts is out now on Steam for £11.69/$13.49.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.