Corporate Takeover…In the Future
Welcome to your new job, where your decisions not only affect the people around you, but also if you stay hired. Hailing from T-Bull, InfiniteCorp: Cyberpunk Decision-Based Card Game puts the fate of a futuristic city in your hands. Speak with residents from all walks of life and decide what to do based on their request cards. Swipe left and right to (hopefully) make the right decisions and keep your job.
Swiping A Fine Line
You have three weeks of decision making to get through before attending a board meeting. There, the board members tell you if you still have a job or not based on your performance. Swipe left for no and right for yes when a request card appears. A meter in the top left of your screen shows the impact of your decisions with three words: Bad, Ok, and Good. If you finish on Good at the end of three weeks, you get promoted. Ok lets you keep your job, while Bad gets you fired. There are five groups of people all vying for your attention: Elites, Citizens, Media, Security, and Syndicate. Every request you say yes or no to affects all of them, whether negative or positive. Be careful, if one group gets in the red, you’re fired, whether you’ve completed the three weeks or not.
Unfair But Fun
One thing I noticed is that seemingly every decision that benefits the Citizens makes the meter move towards Bad. On one hand that’s understandable, as you’re working for a big corporation and they want more benefits coming their way. But on the other hand, that’s unfair to you, since you’re trying to run a city and keep your job simultaneously. Granted, the unfairness is probably the point, as the corporation is basically made up of selfish Elites. Additionally, you can’t choose what your character looks like. Well, you can, but only after unlocking specific achievements. Getting those achievements would be more fun if the game were fairer and if the default character didn’t look like a drunk noir detective.
Besides that, InfiniteCorp flaunts beautiful and creative character art that appropriately fits the cyberpunk setting. From robotic limbs to robotic eyes, and some Elites looking more robot than human, the developers clearly did their homework. Plus, depending on which group gets in the red, your character has different endings. For example, you bite into an apple with a metallic taste with the Citizens and get suddenly ambushed with the Security. Though unexpected, the different endings added to the fun of the game and made me want to play more. Trying to keep every group out of the red can be frustrating, but it’s entertaining seeing how long you can last.
Swiping Fun (Not) For Everyone
InfiniteCorp: Cyberpunk Decision-Based Card Game is a colorful, albeit frustrating decision-based card game where your choices have consequences. You can’t please everyone, but you can certainly try pleasing everyone enough. A bit too easy to get fired, and helping average people apparently makes you look bad. The unfairness might turn some gamers away, but if you like a playing-hard-to-get challenge, this one’s for you.
Is it Hardcore?
Kind of...
Creative character designs and multiple endings make this worth a glance. Game over happens too quickly too often, however.
