Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

    Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Jun 21, 2016

    A cyberpunk bar tending simulator in which players interact with a bunch of alcohol-deprived characters in a dystopian setting.

    darth_navster's VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (PC) review

    Avatar image for darth_navster

    Where Everybody Knows Your Cyber-Name

    No Caption Provided

    Glitch City is an intriguing yet dangerous place. Ruled by a totalitarian government, swarmed by nanomachines, and populated in part by androids that look human, it would seem like a perfect setting for an action-packed cyberpunk adventure. But alas, you are but a humble bartender named Jill. Working out of a dive in the neon district referred to as VA-11 HALL-A (or “Valhalla”), Jill’s primary goals are to serve her customers drinks, listen to their troubles, and pay her bills. A shadowrunner she is not, and yet the small scale of Jill’s world makes for an intriguing setting all the same.

    The story takes place over three weeks, with Jill working six days a week and getting Sunday off. Each week is a separate chapter of the overarching narrative, and Sundays are usually reserved for Jill interacting with friends outside of a work context. VA-11 HALL-A mostly functions as a visual novel, although there aren’t traditional dialog choices to affect the story. Instead, the player can alter the narrative through the drinks they serve. If you can manage to remember a regular’s usual order as the belly up to the bar, they’re more likely to open up to you. Alternatively, if you serve them a sobering drink when they want to drown their sorrows, you may put them on a healthier path to dealing with their woes.

    The choice to make the player’s only interaction with others in the form of the drinks they serve mostly works, with one caveat. It works because it gives Jill a stronger characterization as all of her words are her own. It also makes the narrative feel organic and naturalistic by backgrounding the player’s impact on the people around Jill. Where it doesn’t work is that it can at times feel like the player has little to no agency within the story.

    The player agency issue is most apparent during long stretches of playing the game. I found that playing multiple days in a row can get quite repetitive with little variety. Sure, the game’s diverse cast of characters will rotate through to offer different stories to listen to, but all too often the game settles into a pattern of “listen-serve drink-listen-serve drink-listen”. With the writing being hit-or-miss and a lot of the humor falling flat, some stretches with certain customers can get a little grating.

    I ended up liking VA-11 HALL-A a lot more when I started playing it in smaller chunks. By taking the game a day at a time, the characters started to work better for me. The “aha!” moment of remembering Dorothy’s usual drink after spending a day or two away from the game was incredibly rewarding and made me realize how much I enjoyed the company of certain customers. Though my Steam play clock has the game at 8 hours, I took over a month to actually finish the game as I played bits here and there. In between more action-oriented gaming experiences, it was often refreshing to put on Jill’s apron and sling drinks for 15-30 minutes at a time.

    VA-11 HALL-A for the most part makes lives up to its odd-but-fascinating premise. The game’s tagline is “Cyberpunk Bartender Action” and while it certainly makes good on that, it utilizes this conceit to tell an honest story about everyday people. Though it doesn’t succeed entirely, I can’t help but appreciate the experience all the same. Jill may not be the badass cyberpunk hero that Glitch City needs, but she can at least mix drinks and change lives.

    Other reviews for VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (PC)

      Affection Without Romance: An Exploration of Subjectivity and the Emotions that Pull Us Together 0

      Playing VA-11 Hall-A (hereon: VallhallA) around the release of Cyberpunk 2077 is an interesting proposition; we see a similar Cyberpunk world to be explored and two methods of doing so that could not be more different. In the former, we have a hyper-focussed concentration on a small bar just off of the main street in the dystopic Glitch City; in the latter a sprawling open world that takes you up to the very top of top of looming skyscrapers and down below into the ripperdoc dens of Night City. ...

      6 out of 6 found this review helpful.

      Welcome to Vallhalla where the drinks are sweet 0

      This statement is true no matter where you live.I’ve seen many different takes on the visual novel formula but I haven’t quite had this kind of reaction since Analog: A Hate Story. From what the developers set up in the prologue game that they put out 2 years ago I knew this was my kind of narrative. No one has quite tackled being a bartender in a video game before. It is the future where corporations are running the world. In no other place is this more prevalent than Glitch city. ...

      2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.