A Quirky Adventure

My time on Gamepass has been spent playing some games with easily recognizable titles and also spending some time checking out indies.  After my genuine enjoyment of Va11-HALL-A:  A Cyberpunk Bartender Action, I was looking for my next cyberpunk bartending fix--The Red Strings Club looked to be a nice fit for this bizarrely specific genre.  The reviews for TRSC were all positive, but mentioned how short the game was.  Rather than purchase the game, it's perfect for a playthrough on Gamepass.

The Red Strings Club is set in a futuristic, cyberpunk city--glowing neon, rainy skies, androids, ominously powerful corporate entities--it checks off the entire cyberpunk must-have list.  Donovan is the bartender in the Red Strings club and possesses the unique ability of being able to read the emotions of patrons and can fix special drinks to tap into those emotions.  Tapping into emotions is important because it can influence the way someone reacts during discussions.  Donovan's boyfriend, Brandeis, is a hacker and associates with some rebellious types who are looking to take down the big evil corporations that run the world.  The story begins when a battered android stumbles through the front door of the club.  Brandeis has a special chip implant which allows him to connect to and tap into the memories of the android to discover its history and how it came to be in the club.  As Brandeis unlocks the memories, he stumbles upon a potentially world altering secret plot by one of the corporations--most people in this futuristic world have implants and a certain corporation is looking to upload a new program that can control the emotions that users experience.  It seems ominously like mind control.

The rest of the story involves coming up with a plan to foil the plot of the corporation.  Part of the gameplay involves Donovan gathering information at the club through his useful talent of reading emotions and prepping drinks.  The other part involves playing as Brandeis as he works to hack into the corporation and derail their plans.

A full playthrough of the story can be accomplished in probably 5-7 hours.  It is short.

Bartender Donovan possesses some supernatural skills.

Pros:
+Drink mixing mechanic is oddly enjoyable.  Each patron that comes into the club has emotions that appear as differently sized circles on or near their body.  There's another small, circular indicator that represents the drink that Donovan is fixing.  Each type of alcohol has a different effect on how the circular drink indicator moves--a little bit of tequila might make the indicator move one direction, adding a different alcohol might make it move up or down, adding ice will shrink the size of the circle--the ultimate goal is to mix a drink that matches up with the emotion of the patron.

+Dialogue is interesting.  Once a drink has been mixed and an emotion has been tapped into, Donovan can have discussions with the patrons in the club.  The goal of these discussions is generally to learn some sort of information that is related to the corporate plot.  Choosing the right emotion for a discussion seems to be key.  One interesting part of the dialogue is that there are some deeply philosophical questions that are tied directly to the ending of the game--much of it has to do with human behavior and what is appropriate.

+Gameplay is varied and unique.  You play as Donovan mixing drinks, an android who molds implants (there's an interesting "lathe" where you shape these implants...it's very strange), or as Brandeis as he uses his voice modulation skill and an old-school landline phone to ferret out information from people who work at the evil corporation.

+Great soundtrack.  I really dig the music in the game, it has a nice electronic vibe and gives it that perfect cyberpunk feeling.

+Much replayability.  One of the interesting parts of the game is that you can look at the "red string" that represents the path you've chosen by your gameplay and dialogue choices.  There are many potential paths and it would take several playthroughs to see them all.

+Story is chocked full of deep questions and choices.

Cons:
-It's short.  You're looking at a few hours of gameplay max.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Red Strings Club.  The story and gameplay are very unique and are perfect for anyone who enjoys cyberpunk or is just looking for a cool indie.  It's a great game if you just want to come home and relax, but it's also thought provoking enough that your grey matter can get a bit of a workout.