History VideoGame / Cloudpunk

* AnAesop: Time is the currency of life. Spend it meaningfully.

----

* ColonizedSolarSystem: Extraterrestrial colonies are mentioned, in particular ones on Phobos and Luna, implying that humanity at least made it to Mars. Travel times are also relatively fast, with a trip to the Moon/Luna lasting a mere 4 hours.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: While Nivalis is set on Earth in the far future, the exact location is ambiguous. Though given that Rani is from a place called Eastern Peninsula, and another outlander is from the steppes, it is possible that the city is in or near Eurasia.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The timeline is never clearly specified, though from the clues offered it is likely at least a few centuries in the future, if not millennia. For instance - Tokyo is barely remembered and several characters give out ludicrous time frames like thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. This may however be an exaggeration or like in [[Transmetropolitan]] the collective perception of time got distorted at some point.

* YouGotMurder: One delivery plays out like this. You have the option to dump the package in a trash chute instead. [[note]][[FridgeLogic But wouldn't that just cause an explosion in the garbage system?]][[/note]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Rania and Jay-K make a decision to either euthanize Cora or transfer her daughter to another city. Either way, it results in an end to the diasters and accidents happening around the city. Ben, revealed to be an AI, is deleted by Cloudpunk due to his role in Pashta's rescue. Ben leaked Reoh's location to the Corps, though, and the DirtyCop is arrested. Rania also finds out that all of her debts and fines have been cleared. Jay-K also gives Camus a new dog frame.]]

* InformedAttribute: Early on, Control tells you that Nivalis' traffic is incredibly dangerous, with frequent crashes and driver fatalities. However, the traffic experienced in-game is actually very light and calm, with little risk of crashing unless you yourself drive recklessly.

* MysteryCult: One side quest takes you to the doorway of a strange cult-like organization that rejects anyone who doesn't possess a certain blood type. A former member who received an O- blood transfusion after an accident is trying to return his belongings to them.

* TwoHalvesMakeAPlot: [=CORA=] reveals to Rania that she has been speaking with a CEO named Jay-K, her "other half", and that together they must decide what happens to the future of Nivalis.

''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/746850/Cloudpunk/ Cloudpunk]]'' is a 2020 {{Cyberpunk}} open-world role-playing game developed by Ion Lands and published by Maple Whispering Limited. Currently out on PC, Nintendo Switch, and consoles.

You play as Rania, a newcomer to the city to Nivalis. Nivalis is a pretty typical cyberpunk MegaCity: [[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain rain]], [[NeonCity neon]], [[AdvertOverloadedFuture ads]], massive class divide, etc. Rania has just gotten a job working for Cloudpunk, a "semi-legal" delivery service. In your trusty [[FlyingCar HOVA]], you have only two rules to follow: Make the delivery, and don't open the package. Everything else, as your MissionControl ("Control") tells you, is just a guideline.

A sequel sized DLC called ''City of Ghosts'' was released on June 25th, 2021.

* AlwaysNight: The entire game takes place over the course of a single night.

* CyberpunkIsTechno: Cloudpunk's soundtrack complements the technological expansiveness of Nivalis.

* DisasterDominoes: Essentially, the plot of the game. The city's infrastructure is falling apart and begins to accelerate in its total collapse throughout the evening. It starts bad at the start of the night with increasing accidents and even a whole neighborhood falling into the ocean. [[spoiler: This is due to Cora slowly coming into her full power.]]

* FlyingCar: They're called [=HOVAs=], and they're the normal mode of transportation. Crashes are quite common (not just for the player).
* GeniusLoci: What [=CORA=] is eventually revealed to be. Her growing beyond her programming is what's causing the city to fall apart.

* HighTurnoverRate: Control says that most drivers don't make it past their first night.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The CEO announced he will show solidarity with the starving unemployed masses by... slashing wages within his company so their employees will ''also'' be starving! Yay?

* SadisticChoice: At one point you have to choose three passengers to rescue in an area that has suffered a gas leak. Cloudpunk wants you to rescue the richest of them and leave the poorest behind but even if you want to save only the best people, there's too many to save.
* SelfDestructMechanism: Huxley possesses one of these, which Reoh eventually takes advantage of when Rania and co. make away with his daughter.

** When you get a package addressed to Anderson Financial's Mr. Anderson your dog Camus, surprised by the name, reads it out in the same way Hugo Weaving says it in ''Franchise/TheMatrix''.

* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Control, your dispatcher who assigns missions. And Camus, your cyborg dog, who is currently inhabiting your HOVA due to lack of a physical body.

[[folder: Main Game]]

[[folder: City of Ghosts]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Rania is alive and the Corus are defeated with Orma taking over for her mother to safeguard humanity. Camus is also prepared to share all the secrets of the universe. Oh and Rania has gotten rid of at least two of her pursuers. However, Hayse or Morpho is dead. Plus, Rania may commit suicide to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.]]

* MovingAwayEnding: A potential outcome of the game, [[spoiler:if you sent Orma out of Nivalis in the original game, is for her to extend an offer for Rania to join her there. Accepting leads Rania to leave Nivalis.]]

* MovingAwayEnding: A potential outcome of the game, [[spoiler:provided Orma is being literal when she asks Rania to move away with her to a new city.]]

* BombThrowingAnarchists: Averted by [=BlockFourOh=], an anarchist android street gang. Instead of throwing bombs, they do urban renewal, installing parks, growing trees and making playgrounds for children out of empty and disused corporate property. Naturally, this makes them one of the most dangerous criminals in Nivalis. [[spoiler:Though, as ''City of Ghosts'' reveals, they are not opposed to shanking corpos who wander onto their territory.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Rania is alive and the Corus are defeated with Cora' daughter taking over for her mother to safeguard humanity. Camus is also prepared to share all the secrets of the universe. Oh and Rania has gotten rid of at least two of her pursuers. However, Hayse or Morpho is dead. Plus, Rania may commit suicide to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.]]

* BrownNote: A cognitive virus called Pallid 4.0 that hacks the human brain through visual input (basically a series of blinking lights) is introduced, [[spoiler:with Rania becoming an infectee due to handling a trapped package. [=CORA=]'s child uses a similar medium to overload the brains of three Corus members in the climax.]]

* HappyEndingOverride: Rania is disappointed to note that the city is still a dystopian hellhole after fixing Cora. It's just ''less'' of a dystopian hellhole.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Either Morpho or Hayse are killed by Archo near the end of the game, depending on whom you gave the cure to first.]]

* MovingAwayEnding: A potential outcome of the game, [[spoiler:provided CORA's child is being literal when she asks Rania to move away with her to a new city.]]

** There's an extended subplot that is one long one of these to the VideoGame/{{Ruiner}}, which is a DarkerAndEdgier {{Cyberpunk}} game. "Phaze Runner" basically speaking in stock edgelord action movie dialogue. Its surprisingly brutal.

* DullSurprise: Rania doesn't really emote very much even when confronted with murderers and criminals.

* {{Robosexual}}: The Butlers are an android husband and human wife.

* AncientConspiracy: The Corus are a secret society dedicating to StatusQuoIsGod, keeping Nivalis as wretched and downtrodden while they financially benefit from it. They possess an Algorithm that grants them predictive power over the economy, and they seek to [[spoiler:dissect [=CORA=]'s child when she is created]] to fill in the gaps in it.

* BrownNote: A cognitive virus that hacks the human brain through visual input (basically a series of blinking lights) is introduced, [[spoiler:with Rania becoming an infectee due to handling a trapped package. [=CORA=]'s child uses a similar medium to overload the brains of three Corus members in the climax.]]

* BigBadEnsemble: A trio of them -- the AncientConspiracy who want Rania due to her connection to [=CORA=], the Debt Corps assassin Archo who wants her dead, and [[spoiler:Koga]], who is trying to blackmail her into joining his MegaCorps [[spoiler:and whose boss is a member of the Corus. By the end of the game, the Corus fail in obtaining [=CORA=]'s daughter and three of their members suffer a BrownNote, Archo dies in a HOVA crash while chasing down Rania and Koga is dealt with by [=BlockFourOh=] after being lured into a trap by Hayse.]]