Neo Cab

Neo Cab is primarily a visual novel set in a dystopia for taxi drivers similar to Glitchhikers or VA-11 HALL-A. The game is about Lina, a taxi cab driver, who is moving to Los Ojos, a town with self-driving cars, with her best friend Lina to establish a fresh start. With its aesthetic, cyberpunk vibe and possible thematic depth, I was interested. After seeing a playthrough and all the possible endings, I was confused and disappointed at the direction it took although I did find it interesting and worth discussing. Still, it is a good game with the stories of their passengers and evoking the feeling of economic desperation like with Paper's Please.

DISCLAIMER: I have only seen a playthrough with the game, it does not change the validity of my claims

SPOILERS AHEAD

Shallow Dystopia

Automation has created a fear of replacing jobs and in this game world, cars are self-driven with AI and taxi drivers are threatened. While I am against self-driving cars that do not have accountability in mind, it does not delve into deeper issues such as whether self-driving cars protect their passengers more so than the pedestrians. (Check out Moral Machine to understand these problematic scenarios.) Ethics aside, the game does not show what benefits those self-driving cars have like consistency, scalability and so on to balance the perspectives. One peeve I have with cyberpunk is that technology and monopolies are painted evil without mentioning positive impact. Usually we take the perspective and morality of our protagonist, since Capra, the company of self-driving cars, replaced our human driver, the protagonist thus the player shares this animosity. Sadly, the game is intent in demonizing Capra as an evil monopoly which I found cliche. As a supporting idea, the currency used in the game, the car recharge stations and several living home rentals our protagonist uses to survive are made by that same company that indicates almost a staggering monopoly over basic services and people. On the other hand, the activist group, Radix, that hates cars (self-driven or human) or why subways or trains are no longer viable transportation are not explained well or clearly. Both findings show weak writing in coloring the cyberpunk setting nuanced or interesting. If the world building is not the focus, then what does the mechanic have to say?

As a taxi driver, the player can choose what passenger to serve based on destination, fuel/electric consumption, ratings and revenue. Aside from just financial survival, the rating system is the most interesting aspect, thematically and narratively. For each passenger you serve, the passenger gives the driver a star-based rating which is then averaged to produce a driver rating. The catch is that if the rating of the driver is below 4, the driver can be deactivated or decommissioned making your interactions with difficult passengers a balance between being a friend or a driver. This also affects how the player chooses passengers if the rating is in danger that objectifies passengers as ratings. I also like how regulars or frequent passengers that likes the driver can give a 3-star rating making them unreliable for ratings and how it talks about impartiality in providing a basic service. Giving the ratings a mechanical meaning and combined with the economic hardship of getting by is a bright spot for this game that made me empathize with the character and think about the ethical value of an averaged number.

Fundamentally, this is just the mechanical tension but the main tension comes from how the stories of the passengers and the mystery of Savy's disappearance. Mechanically, this is more logistics planning than being a taxi driver which is fine to support the story its trying to tell. During the playthrough, one scenario had the driver picking up a passenger in an invalid area for the ratings that could result in a steep fine or penalty, another had the driver deciding to donate money to a passenger who lost their lodging which are interesting ideas and appreciate more of this. With those scenarios, several simple ideas can further improve the immersion:

Going against the navigator

Is there difference between a driver guided by an AI or an AI driving the car itself? Perhaps, showing how human intuition and perception go beyond path finding such as traffic and rerouting.

Crime or hostile passengers

One case of self-driven cars it that it also prevents the driver from being harassed and taken advantage of. For example, a passenger showing how mugging works even with a digital wallet.

Being a passenger

In games like this, the role of client and server can be reversed for one scenario to muse on the

Route/street selection

Giving the player to select routes during rides that can affect time and energy efficiency.

Timers

Certain decisions are timed say avoiding riots or conflicting decisions with the police

Walking or being a commuter

Allow our protagonist to take walks or be as a commuter say while investigating Savy in between shifts.

Multiple Dialogue

Showing a dialogue choice while the passenger is speaking can convey the multi-tasking effort required to talk and drive.

As it stands, the main map shows the majority of the mechanics and could be thought of as rather generic. Taking cues from various visual novels such as from Telltale Games, these ideas can be simply extra dialogue choices, an in-game map and so on all to make the mechanical choices more immersive or color the cyberpunk theme. So although we have a serviceable mechanic to tell a story, I think the mechanics of Neo Cab can be better and further developed to better express the theme or message specially with it starting strong with the rating mechanics.

With both the world and mechanics not as strong or focus, does the story carry the game?

Story of Abuse

Moving on to a strange narrative mechanic is the emotion wheel taken from color psychology that takes the form of a glorified mood bracelet. Personally, I would not like accessories to show my private and internal emotion to people without my consent. In this game, it is both a HUD element and physical device that the passengers can read and comment on. The twist is that based on how intense the current emotion is other dialogue options are disabled. The most perceivable consequence of this is to disable dialogue choices that may impact the ability to get a good rating with passengers. As a minor gripe, it is unpredictable during conversations is unpredictable so mechanics to manipulate it like an option to take deep breathes would make it more interesting and introspective.

More importantly, this is similar to Depression Quest where the level of depression disabled valid and good options to represent how depression prevents people from making the best decisions. In this game, it is used to show our protagonist unable to fight back against her abuser, Savy. The climax of the game is when you decrypt the incriminating data against Capra and have a verbal boss fight with Savy to who should deliver it and gain the glory in her eyes. A small peeve I have here is that the FeelGrid on Savy's neck serves as an indicator from green to red showing her health making the whole aspect of standing up to her a little immersion shattering, reading on verbal cues and intensity of the attacks instead might be better. Nonetheless, the evidence of Savy being a manipulative abuser is staggering:

• Tracking you during the whole game, knowing you need help
• Using you as a courier of dangerous data without your consent
• Leaving you on an unfamiliar town without lodging or cash
• Ignoring questions and forcing you to prioritize her

One minor parallel between Capra and Savy is how they represent a form of control over the city and the player respectively. If Savy wins the fight, Capra remains in control and Savy sells out Radix and leaves with you; if Lina or the player wins, she leaves Savy, may or may not take down Capra with the data, and leave the town with another passenger. Either way, the framing whether to take Capra down as a function to spite Savy is where I find the cyberpunk setting displaced in the background. It is not about the ethical, moral, practical or philosophical considerations of bringing down the monolithic company and its technological progress, it is about dealing with this relationship.

If the cyberpunk and dystopian setting is secondary, it might as well have taken place in America during the prohibition as a struggling taxi driver trying to make ends meet by smuggling alcohol while being pressured by an abusive partner or family member. Also, it would not focus on dismantling a government or institution but its effects and how different forms of manipulation occur under various pressures. If Neo Cab's focus was indeed on Savy, then it would be better to drop the Capra corporation and self-driving controversy and focus living under the thumb of an abuser that might make it more coherent and focused. Although I cannot speak for every possible passenger and dialogue that shapes the story or world or whether the portrayal is respectful, the general feel of the story does not have much of an impact.

Aside from the emotion intensity mechanic being more of a hindrance and the story underwhelming, what else can we look to?

Final Comparison

To compare against another visual novel with a stronger impact, Eliza is about a programmer who worked on a psychologist AI leaving the industry in bad terms for three years and coming back to see what happened to her project, its impact and whether it actually helps people. The central mechanic is being a human proxy for that AI and merely parroting a script or responses to the patient. This made me quit a day after initial session because of the depressing implications. Pushing through the game, the topics are also shallowly discussed but it works here because it does not judge the player's choice and must decided between the push and pull of the issues. The choice that determines the ending is much more satisfyingly agonizing, meaningful and thematically satisfying.

As a minor spoiler, one choice had you returning to your old job to grow the AI. The pull for me is that my baby project is possibly being misused and mishandled that I would rather go back to protect the legacy of the old team, while the push is that the AI is not fit for actually addressing mental issues where a human therapist might be better. The president of the company is a typical business man who treats him employees like a tool; however, he considers himself a tool or servant for change and would prefer to be in the company that produces the singularity. His goal is not money but that humanity can transition to a higher intelligence or evolution through the singularity and that AI is the seed that he wants to grow regardless of more ethical concerns about big data and privacy. As much as I disagree working for an unethical person, the game was able to make me reconsider my position along with the other choices.

As simple this game is as a visual novel, I would prefer to play this again for its subtlety and balance. Even if it did not dive deep in philosophy or morality, it did make me think about those questions hours after the credits and that is a success in my book. Regardless of my rambling about themes and meanings, comparing this against Neo Cab or simply on its own, the story and emotions did not stay past the credits. Nonetheless, I am still open for a sequel or variation of the game as long as it provides a more meaningful experience or insight into the fears of automation from the eyes of the working class.