What if you could mix the neon lights of the cyberpunk aesthetic with the sublime feel of old-school top-down Grand Theft Auto 2 style action? Dark Lord’s debut title, Glitchpunk, looks to fit the bill.
Cyberpunk has been all the rage for years now. Harkening back to Akira (1998) as recently to the long-in-dev-dev-and-not-without-its-controversy Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) , Dark Lords looks to leave its mark on the growing genre with Glitchpunk. As explained in their press release, “In Glitchpunk you play as a glitching android going against your own programming and challenging the tyrannical governments and megacorps of the dystopian near-future… But Glitchpunk isn’t just about blowing things up, it also tells a story of transhumanism, xenophobia, and religion. You can influence the world around you, make new friends, face off against more enemies than you can count – and you might even find love.”
The fact that a studio’s debut title looks to tackle those core tenants of cyberpunk (transhumanism, xenophobia, and religion) is commendable in and of itself. It also helps that the game just looks flat out fun. It’s too soon to tell if they will be able to tackle such sensitive topics, and the fear is always there that they will take the surface level approach and just brush against what cyberpunk is all about. But the fact those ideas are even brought up shows that they are at least aware of their importance in crafting a world within the genre.
If you are not quite sold on it after watching the trailer, we are getting a demo during the Steam Game Festival on Feb. 3! Just less than a week away! I’m of the mind that there can’t be too many cyberpunk-focused games. If cyberpunk sends the zombie genre train out to the pastor, I’d be more than happy to welcome them as the de facto genre moving forward.
Glitchpunk is set to enter Early Access on Steam in the first half of 2021 and is being developed by Dark Lord and published by Daedalic Entertainment.
