As much as I like sci-fi and fantasy settings in games, one of my favorite settings is cyberpunk. See I grew up in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and movies like Tron, Terminator 1 & 2, Blade Runner, Running Man and games like Shadowrun, Syndicate and many others. Then the Matrix came out in the late 90’s and brought back cyberpunk to the forefront. Its safe to say that people will never get tired of cyberpunk. Which indie developer Super Duper Garrett Cooper is full agreement with and shows it with his game Black Ice. Now what is Black Ice?
Black Ice, besides sounding like a really cool name that Walter White might have made up, is actually a first-person shooter with strong RPG elements. Or as the website for the game describes it “Borderlands meets Tron”. A strange combination, but I think it works and the Tron comparison really stands out. See instead of a far off planet or a run down dystopian city ruled by Big Brother, the game take place in cyberspace itself. You have a simple task: hack and take down several corporations without dying. Each time you die, you lose any loot that you may have picked up. This is typical with rogue-likes and its really interesting to see in a cyberpunk game.
The main standout of the game is the graphics, as they are all in 3D vector style is the best way I can describe them. If you are photosensitive/epileptic you might want to avoid the game. As for everyone else here’s a video of some gameplay that I took that give a better visual explanation of the graphics:
While simple they get the job in immersing the player and giving them the feeling that they are in a visualization of cyberspace. I could see Black Ice being an Oculus Rift game and I hope it does get on the platform. As for the music, its chiptunes soundtrack by V-Axys matches the cyberpunk feel that Black Ice was trying to go for.
Now if it seems that I’m being a bit vague about the game, its because the game is out now on Steam and I plan to do full review. But from what I’ve seen so far Black Ice seems right up my alley.
