Neo Cab (Nintendo Switch) Review

Lina is introduced as a solemn loner leaving her old life to make amends with her former best friend Savy. After some harsh words on both sides, bridges have been mended, and their relationship expands upon through the opening minutes. These initial interactions set the basis for the rest of the experience, describing an Orwellian AI-run state with little human interactions for day to day tasks. Police forces are faceless robotic shells; streets are empty bar the soaring neon lit skyscrapers; and company Yes Men frequent pickups relentlessly hit their questionnaire quota by asking for opinions on the corporate machine as they take their journey.

The main focus of progression is determining what has happened to Savy after her disappearance on the first night of crazy taxi-ing. Clues are drip-fed through the interactions with each fare, and nights are based around balancing the amount of fares taken and keeping the electric charge high enough to take on more passengers. A bountiful night will provide much needed information to help find out the truth about your lost roommate.

A rating system determines the enjoyment of the ride for each customer and a 4/5 rating must be achieved each night. Interactions are made easy through multiple dialogue options, and the excellent Feelgrid system. Introduced brilliantly through being given a bracelet as a gift, the Feelgrid operates in four colours representing the distinct moods Lina can experience. Darker hues represent the most extreme of those emotions and can lock out dialogue choices if lingered in.

One of the first experiences for this reviewer was a fare who instantly threw up in the taxi. Complaining that it was there on entry, he instantly commented that sitting in a pool of (his own) sick would result in a 1 star rating whatever happened during the duration of the journey. On hearing this, Lina's Bracelet instantly flashed red, the Feelgrid moved to the outer blood red edges, and all dialogue options that didn't involve calling 'Alex' on his blatant flaunting of the facts became locked. Most interactions can be steered back into acceptable territory by paying close attention to what is being said and acting appropriately, although after a few journeys sucking up to the Los Ojos hierarchy, it is refreshing to let loose on someone deserving of tongue lashing.

It's through these interactions that Neo Cab shines and keeps it firmly on the top of a must-play list. Every customer reeks of character, which can lead to founding yourself being less and less interested in what had happened to the supposed 'best friend,' and more in hoping to run into a familiar face from a past night, just to see how their date went, to flirt a little, or even stick it to the man again with any objections to the Capra Machine running the city. Sure, the emotional cues are obvious in most cases (an anxious person will shift uncomfortably in their seat, and a happy fare will beam with at any response), sometimes reaching L.A Noire levels of absurdity with mouths grimacing and eyes bulging, but this only adds to the style of the experience. All character models are reminiscent of the cel-shaded brilliance of Fear Effect, and music fits accordingly to the situation, with sombre '80s synthwave that would suit those weird romantic parts in Stranger Things, to New Order sublime tunes for the more tense sequences.

There is a lot of reason to return to the cyberpunk city of Los Ojos after the initial completion. With several different endings are available (After a two-hour play-through it's hard to believe what was presented was anywhere near a 'good' outcome), and the enjoyment of dropping off, grabbing the Rating PDA, and seeing what comment has been left on the service never dims. The thrill of the rating likens to filling a quiet evening by filtering Trip Advisor just to get a kick out of reading how awful the local restaurants are through irate customers. It's worth experimenting in-game just to see how low or high is possible, although this never really end ups on a game over.