The cloud-based cyberpunk game "Nivalis Nights" was released on the 29th of last month. It is priced at 98 CNY in the Steam China region, with a launch discount of 10%, bringing the price down to 88.2 CNY. Chinese player reviews on Steam are "Mixed," with only 48% of users giving positive reviews out of 362 total reviews.
On Metacritic, the PC version only includes reviews from 6 media outlets, with a current average score of 78 and a user score of 7.9, but there are only 8 user reviews.
DualShockers: 75/100
"Nivalis Nights" is a game I genuinely wish more people were discussing right now. It's clearly not perfect, especially given its poor performance at launch, which neither I nor other players can ignore, since optimization issues sometimes directly affect one of the game's greatest charms—immersion in the world of Nivalis. However, setting aside these problems, it's actually a surprisingly thoughtful life simulation game: the atmosphere is excellently crafted, the variety of characters and NPCs is rich, the business management mechanics are quite satisfying, and the human touch displayed throughout the world far exceeded my expectations. It's beautiful and somewhat depressing, occasionally lagging ridiculously and riddled with glitches, but somehow it still makes me want to come back tomorrow to "clock in for work." After waiting about five years, I finally had the chance to play it, and now the only thing I'm relieved about is that it turned out to be a hidden gem rather than plunging me into a digital "tax audit" after five years of anticipation.
IGN Italy: 75/100
This is a wonderful adventure story showcasing snippets of life in a cyberpunk city. It's relaxed and cozy, perhaps too calm for those seeking excitement.
A Steam user who played for 42 hours gave a negative review: (Their setup is an RTX 4060 Ti and an i5-12600KF)
"I hesitated for a long time between giving a positive or negative review. In the end, I chose negative because I got stuck on the main quest. I'll change it once it's fixed.
This game is a cyberpunk-style business simulation that also includes fishing, farming, romance, and other content. However, not all of these elements are satisfying. As a loyal fan of Cloudpunk, I've been looking forward to this for six years, and the gaming experience is somewhat disappointing.
I will evaluate this game in two sections: drawbacks and advantages.
First, the drawbacks:
The most obvious drawback is the optimization issue. With my setup, I can't maintain a stable 60 FPS at 1080p, experiencing severe stuttering, especially in crowded areas. Such poor optimization seriously affects the gaming experience.
Some bugs directly ruin the gaming experience. The most critical one is the bug in the main quest: the Black Box has no fishing indicator at all. It's outrageous that such an important quest has a game-breaking bug that prevents progress. Additionally, if you loiter near the shop, the AI exhibits behavioral bugs, including but not limited to spinning in place and freezing (which also freezes the cooking machine unless you teleport to another map) and characters floating and walking around, resulting in missing staff in the shop.
One aspect that severely impacts the gaming experience is the lack of a minimap. Some quests can be completed by following markers on the map, but some maps and teleportation areas are not aligned. I specifically criticize the Stacked Buildings area; finding one NPC took me two days.
In terms of interaction, most side quests are unsatisfactory. Some quests cause NPCs to disappear, which is expected; even if I make the wrong choice, I don't think it's a problem. However, when I chose to give the hacker 200 credits to deal with the sanitation worker, the quest was marked as completed, but the sanitation worker still wandered around the streets, and I even encountered him later and exchanged greetings. The detective quests are hellish; if you unfortunately make the wrong choice in the early stages, the quest will inevitably fail. At the beginning of the game, Thaddeus emphasized the importance of choices, but the translation of these choices is incomplete. Many options don't indicate how NPCs will react, and there's a major issue—I have no idea who the names in the options refer to, which severely impacts the quest experience.
The core gameplay of business simulation also has serious issues in the early stages. I don't consider early-game management difficulty a drawback, but during this period, some NPC quests and interactions actually ask players for money. This arrangement restricts players' freedom of choice, greatly affecting the synchronized progression of management and story. Furthermore, during the process of opening second and third-tier shops, players personally need to transport 200 dishes each time. Most of these dishes have a shelf life of no more than three days, and they rot inexplicably. Additionally, some shops lack nearby merchants and are far from teleport points, making the delivery experience terrible. Importantly, you have to repeat this process every time you open a new shop. After the new shop stabilizes, the manager will severely test your patience. The manager buys stock frantically, while chefs prioritize using fresh ingredients, leading to large amounts of food spoiling every day (this seems to have been fixed now, but I think the manager should use near-expiry ingredients or sell them instead).
Despite listing so many drawbacks, I still played for 41 hours. Because the management aspect of the game is fun enough, and some quests provided a very good experience. I don't remember most of the quests in Cloudpunk, except for one detective quest involving Huxley. In this game, there is also a quest involving three sailors that left a deep impression on me. The fun of the management part is hard to describe in words; it might be too difficult for some players, but I think it fits well with the cyberpunk background where casual spending can quickly lead to financial ruin. I hope the bugs and optimization issues will be improved; this game is still worth playing. Additionally, it's a pity that Eva stops greeting me in the morning after 30+ days."
Review Video:
"Nivalis Nights" peaked at 6,976 concurrent players on Steam
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