Neo Cab | PC Review

You wait ages for a proper taxi-driver-narrative-adventure game, and then two come along in the span of just a few months! Neo Cab is the new game developed by Chance Agency and published by Fellow Traveller. In the cinematic world, it is quite a common occurrence when two similar movies get released very close to each other. Think Armageddon and Deep Impact, Capote and Infamous, or White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. There’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to these so-called twin films. It’s a lot rarer with video games, though. The development cycle of a video game being completely different from movies, when two games show up at the same time that are very similar, it is quite special.

A Real Rain Has Come

I was lucky enough to be able to review Night Call, which is a game about a taxi driver in Paris trying to solve the mystery of a serial killer by engaging the passengers he drives around the city. And now here’s Neo Cab, which is a game about a taxi driver in Los Ojos trying to solve the mystery of her disappeared friend by engaging the passengers she drives around the city. Fellow Traveller describes the game as “an emotional survival game about gig labor, tech disruption and the experience of being a driver-for-hire.” The emotional part is an important thing here, because the main character Lina’s emotions influence the game heavily.

Feelgrid(™) Inc.

You are Lina Romero, a ‘daring, empathetic young woman hustling to survive as one of the last human cab drivers in an autonomous world.’ That autonomous world is spearheaded by the gigantic corporation Capra, whose office building is one of the landmarks of Los Ojos. You are moving there from Cactus Flats at the invitation of your best friend Savvy.

You meet up so you can spend the first night in your new apartment, and as a welcoming gift she gives you a Feelgrid(™). A Feelgrid(™) is basically a mood ring that works, as it shows the emotion that you are feeling: red for anger, blue for sadness, green for happiness, and yellow for relaxed. And everything in between that. This Feelgrid(™) is in the shape of a bracelet and will help you get a better grip on your emotional state. Savvy has one in a necklace form. This simple device has a big impact on the game, which will be explained a bit later.

A Sense Of Someplace To Go

Before going to the apartment, Savvy asks you to drop her off for a work errand and, being the good friend you are, you do just that. But then she disappears and it’s up to you to find out what happened to her. This is when Neo Cab really begins. What happened to Savvy? Where are you gonna sleep? Can you keep your cab on the road in this strange city? Can you keep your rating above 4 stars? How will your emotions affect all this? You need not only find out what happened to Savvy, but also to survive in a cold, autonomous city filled with strange characters, unknown locations and corrupt law enforcement. 

Days Go On And On

You have to keep moving by picking up passengers and taking them to their destination. When they’re in your cab, you can talk to them and how you treat them will affect the star rating they will give you. You must keep your star rating above 4, otherwise your Neo Cab license will be suspended and you lose your car. Your Neo Cab also needs energy to keep driving and you have to have money for motels to sleep, as you still have no clue where your new apartment is. Even though the economic system isn’t as tough as it is in Night Call, you still need to pay good attention to this aspect of the game, otherwise it’s game over quicker than you would like.

You Talkin’ To Me?

Your dialogue influences your mood, as can be determined by the Feelgrid(™), and your mood affects your dialogue choices. If you let yourself get angry, you might not have certain options to choose because you are too angry to say that. If you are too relaxed or too depressed, you might not get the information you need. This goes all the way till the finale of the game and can be a determining factor in how the game ends.

In the case of my first playthrough, I allowed myself to become too angry and couldn’t go into the direction I wanted. I still finished the game, but with a different ending than I was aiming for. This does give Neo Cab a lot of replayability, as you can go back and play the game making different choices and thus go in a different direction than the previous playthrough. As the game isn’t ridiculously long and Los Ojos is an attractive city to explore, this is very much welcome.

Neon Nightmare

The graphics are very distinguishable and really suit the cyberpunk atmosphere. I want to specifically call out the way that Lina emotes. You don’t just read her emotions on her Feelgrid(™), but you can see it clearly on her face. It’s very well done and adds a sophisticated layer to the game. Of course the game has a synth score as the soundtrack, I would’ve expected nothing less. The score is good, and its presence is subtle and welcome. The story draws you in and, like with every good cyberpunk story, deals with the morality of technology, capitalism, corporations and the survival of mankind, but on a small and personal scale. The characters you come across range from quirky to bizarre and the game takes its cyberpunk genre to heart. Los Ojos is a beautiful, neon, autonomous nightmare that both allures and frightens at the same time.

Neo Cab Final Verdict

I really enjoyed playing Neo Cab. I finished the game in about 5 hours, but as I said previously, I did not get the ending I was aiming for, so I am definitely playing it again and explore Los Ojos more. I’m curious what new places and characters I might come across. Fellow Traveller and Chance Agency gave us a very enjoyable cyberpunk taxi game and I hope we might get to play more in the neon-coloured and cold-hearted technological Neo Cab world in the future.

This review is based on a copy of NeoCab provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on Nintendo Switch, macOS, iOS, tvOS, and iPadOS.