Neo Cab (2019)

Neo Cab is a visual novel set in the (near) future in Los Ojos, somewhere in southern California, where you play as Lina, one of the few human cab drivers. As passengers get in your cab, you can choose how to interact with them and the direction of the conversation.

Story

Lina moves from Flat Cactus to Los Ojos to restart her life in a new direction and to reconnect with Savy, her former friend who both ended their relationship on bad terms. Shortly after picking up her first passenger and seeing Savy, Lina suddenly can't find her, which means no permanent place to sleep and the cab is the only way to make money to survive. As Lina progresses each night working, she has the opportunity to connect with a range of residents of L.O., from quirky to distrustful to unsettling. At the same time, Lina has to come to terms with dealing with Capra, the mega corporation that has eyes, ears, and technology everywhere you go.

Gameplay

As an interactive visual novel, you follow a set story, but have the option to choose your passengers, where to sleep, and what choices you will make to progress. Some passengers and places are important to engage in order to solve the mystery of Savy's disappearance, while other passengers are more entertaining. If you have a desire to hit all the achievements, try to rotate to all your passengers as much as possible (you can pick up 3 people max per night). Depending on some of your decisions, you have to monitor your cash and car power in order to stay on the road. During your interactions, you will also gauge your emotions through your bracelet (like a mood ring) and have to be careful what you choose to say to not upset both the passengers and you.

Overall

Visually, it's pretty stunning and contains a lot of cyber-punk elements in a cityscape. Unfortunately, you don't really get out of the car much, so there isn't much to see beyond the characters you interact with and the fronts of buildings that you stay at. The story is pretty heavily focused on capitalism and political tension, so be aware if that type narrative bothers you. One other thing that can be limiting is that Lina can get emotional, which limits certain responses (she will be angry/sad/unsettled to go through a response choice) in scenes and can be a bit frustrating. It took me about 3 hours for a single playthrough, although I would have to return to get some of the other achievements. If you happen to see it on sale on Steam, I recommend it.

Narrative

Lina has just arrived in the city of Los Ojos. Her best friend, Savy, or we should say former best friend invited her to come live with her in Los Ojos. Lina hasn't seen her for ages but she has a soft spot and had to admit she was happier when Savy was in her live. When she arrives and picks her up, Savy is acting odd. She is being flaky and after you drop her off at a nightclub after which you were supposed to meet an hour later, she disappears. You use your job as a cabbie to find information about her wherabouts.

Gameplay

It's a narrative game through and through. You spend your time mostly inside your cab. You get a map with passengers to pick up. These will tell you stuff, and you can try and press them for info on Savy, which may be not what they want to hear. After the ride you get money and a rating from the passenger.

It's not hard to both find out info and get good ratings. I got a bad rating once but that's it. You have to use the money to get juice for the car, sleep in hotels and sometimes get fined. I thought it was a fun concept, and the characters you pick up are mostly pretty interesting.

You have a cast of characters and you can choose to pick up some people multiple times. I haven't seen all the characters (some require a 5 star rating to even pick up), but I only missed one I think. I found it pretty enjoyable.

Setting

The setting is mostly the inside of your cab driving in Los Ojos. Los Ojos is a futuristic cyberpunk city (this seems to be popular lately in games). It has neon lights, weird tech and an evil corp, just like most cyberpunk cities. The artstyle, which is mostly the characters, is pretty cool. Nice dark colours with pops of neon. I thought it looked great. Music is pretty generic beats, I sometimes played with it off while with an half ear listening to the olympics and I didn't miss it.

Other

Nothing of note.

Conclusion

It's a pretty short narrative game, but I didn't mind that. I actually prefer shorter narrative games that are on point as opposed to long dragged out ones. The story was honestly pretty generic but was in my opinion saved by the interesting characters you pick up. Each had their own story to tell, and some had pretty funny interactions. I really enjoyed these guests in my car, and I wasn't really focused on the main story at all.

I thought the art was really pretty, and also the animation pretty well done. Facial expressions, especially of Linda, were on point. Writing was decent as well.

I've read there are different endings, and as I said before I missed a passenger. I do not feel like replaying it though. It will probably be 80% the same and it's not really possible to skip. I also though the whole money thing, using it for fuel and hotels etc was really unnecessary. It didn't add anything. Just remove the whole sleeping thing and fuel thing and the game would not have been any different.

All in all I just really enjoyed it. Wouldn't play again, but was worth it in sale for sure.

I am so, so glad I played this. The relationship between the two protagonists hit way too close to home and there are a whole bunch of messages to unpack here.

All I can say is, sit down for a few hours and play this in one go. You won't regret it and I think it'll stay with you for a while.