A certain game’s widely-publicized rough launch has turned cyberpunk into a dirty word. The cyberpunk aesthetic has been around almost as long as video games. SNES-era titles like Shadowrun and Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher and Policenauts to today’s Astral Chain, VA-11 HALL-A, and – yes – Cyberpunk 2077. It’s so common in games that it’s harder to be wowed by the aesthetic. Despite this, we loved ANNO: Mutationem. With Sony’s China Hero Project, indie developer ThinkingStars has developed ANNO, a new action-RPG. In March, it launched on Playstation and PC, making its way to Nintendo’s hybrid with a near-flawless conversion, albeit with some long load times.
In this 12-hour campaign, you play Ann Flores, a young woman living in Skopp City. Entangelitis causes Ann to black out and go berserk, attacking everything in her sight and being impervious to damage. Ryan, her brother, has gone missing looking for N540, a medicine that suppresses the effects of her disease. During his search, he got involved with Factio Pugini, a band of thugs. As a result, Ann sets out to find Ryan and maybe a cure. She’s accompanied on her journey by her not-explicitly-stated-but-sure-looks-like girlfriend Ayane, who projects her image via a robot. While initially we thought she might be annoying, she ended up being one of our favorite characters. Great voice performances from Suzie Yeung and Lizzie Freeman carry much of the plot.
You’re kept on your toes by the narrative mystery. Throughout the game, cutscenes randomly introduce the Consortium, a secret organization. Initially, it seems like nonsense, reminiscent of Organisation XIII’s incoherent rambling, but it all makes sense at the end. It’s not the best start, but it wraps up nicely. With its gorgeous sprite work and use of voxels, ANNO is a treat to look at. There’s a mix of side-scrolling 2D and exploratory segments in which you traverse 3D environments with your 2D character. There’s a lot of detail in these areas, from how dense the cities are to how the light pierces through your blinds. In the investigation-focused exploration segments, you talk to people and find stuff; in the 2D sections, you fight. Most of the game is switching between these styles. Rooms in dungeons will switch perspectives, which can be jarring sometimes, but works well most of the time.
This game takes inspiration from games like Devil May Cry with a melee and gunplay style. You start out with a basic kit, but with a skill tree and unlockable weapons you soon have a solid inventory of moves and gear. In general, combat isn’t too challenging; barring a few deaths here and there, we only really struggled with one specific difficulty spike near the end. Around the game’s five city areas, you can do sidequests. There’s everything from common or garden go-places, hit guys, quests, to part-time bartending. You can find out where a suspect has disappeared to, or who’s throwing trash off a high rise balcony by searching an apartment. It’s no secret that ANNO is inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, and fans of the anime will pick up references right from the very first cutscene. Additionally, Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner influenced the visual design of the game, as did the SCP Foundation.
