I got this game with hopeful expectations, looking for an alternative cyberpunk game that wasn't Shadowrun, but also didn't have the dated 80s vibe to it. After looking at the vid included in the title, and reading the rave reviews, I decided to pick it up. I am now somewhat disappointed.
First off, there's furries. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, since lets be honest: the moment it becomes commonly available, people are going to become catgirls. But they're a thing in the game's world, so if you're put off by that, there you go.
Second, a LOT of content is ripped off from Shadowrun. I should have taken it as a warning when I heard that most of the reviewers weren't familiar with cyberpunk, because hol-ee shit, a lof of the fluff is blatant copy-catting from SR. The BBS-style comments below info sections, the persecution of magical types, the balkanization of America, the internationally infamous rogue AI. At first, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt and call it coincidence, or their deliberate attempt to give the game a "Cyberpunk" feel to it, but then I looked at the augments section. Almost ALL the names of the augments aren't even changed from the ones in Shadowrun.
And about the fluff. If you're searching for a serious take on cyberpunk, this isn't for you. It's over the top to the point groaning. There are specific sections in the fluff mentioning the dangers of being a freaking pizza delivery driver, due to the competition always trying to delay each others drivers. Not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE major disasters have struck the world, which pretty much breaks the record for the amount of bad luck a single century has ever had. Their portrayal of "the bad guys" has absolutely no subtlety to it. For all the high-tech the world has, some aspects of it feel more primitive than today.
I could go on, but it's very clear the authors had no intention of having this game be taken seriously. Which is fine for the cinematic style of Savage Worlds, but definitely puts me off.
As for the mechanics, I'd heard a lot of good things about the rules, especially the hacking. But what I got was "see the Savage Worlds core rulebook."
The hacking section was uninspired, and actually reminded me of a dumbed-down version of Shadowrun's, but less sensible. This is pretty sad, considered all the good things I'd heard about it.
And the gear! I mean, augments are done alright. Their is somewhat sensible. You multiply the cost by a number given next to the augment. The strain system is retarded fluff-wise, but it seems every cyberpunk rpg has discovered the need to limit the amount of augments a person gets somehow, so as a mechanic it's one of the better ways I've seen of handling it, and all the augments seems useful in some capacity (though as I've mentioned, almost all the names are ripped-off from Shadowrun, with mechanically equivalent effects to boot).
But the gear? It's clear no-one actually built a character with this shit. A basic team communicator will cost the player half of their starting cash, but a decent assault rifle won't even set them back a third. It's impossible for a soldier-type to buy an actual piece of armor out of chargen. There are only three pieces of armor actually worth buying, and they're so affordable and effective that there's no reason the entire team shouldn't be wearing one of them. The gear section is also pretty poorly organized. It's supposed to be alphabetical, but what you end up getting is a gear section, a section for augments (which are bought with a different currency separate from normal gear), two sections of things the players couldn't afford even at the highest levels of starting points for character creation, and then the gear sections the players will actually want.
The effectiveness of something versus its cost is bonkers. And yeah, this is cyberpunk, style over substance and all that. But Giant Mecha are not practical. Seriously, even someone without a head for robotics or combat tactics can see they're a terrible way to design a robot built for combat. And yet there are an entire section dedicated to them. Most people won't know or care about that, but it irks me to no end. -_-
Some of the book has paragraphs-worth of spelling typos, particularly in the hacking section I'd heard -so- many good things about rolls eyes.
There is a huge section dedicated to the world and its fluff, but for reasons I mentioned above, it comes off as over-the-top nonsense that, were I to ever run this game, I'd purposefully ignore 100%.
The only thing I'd heard about this game that rings true is the art. It's top-quality, and very inspiring. But I don't play games based off pretty pictures. Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun had some of the shittiest art I've ever seen in an RPG book, and they are leagues better than this game.
Overall, I'd heard a lot of good things about this game, but it falls very short of expectations. If you're looking for a cyberpunk game with a fast-paced, cinematic style, gets GURPS Lite and its Cyberpunk book, and you'll have a great time. If you absolutely must have a Savage Worlds cyberpunk game, this is pretty much your only real option, so it wins by default. I'm not happy with the purchase, and its very clear the creators worked hard to shill their product with biased reviews before release.
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