Daily Archives: February 6, 2021

There's about six endings available in Cyberpunk 2077, depending on the choices you make during crucial dialogue scenes and within side quests. During Act 2, it's recommended to complete as many side quests as possible to ensure you have the maximum amount of choices at your disposal once you actually go on to meet Hanako at Embers.

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Some of the side quests have a very strong effect on the ending of the game, while others just make smaller appearances in various forms, either during the ending scene or the end credits. Without engaging in any side quests, your options will be limited to either trusting Arasaka to handle the situation or to simply end things on your own term. Here's which quests to complete at the very least to open up your choices. Warning, spoilers ahead!

Starting off with a minor one, the Peralez couple will contact you sometime during Act 2 to ask for your help in an investigation. This will put you in touch with River Ward as well, which will help you finish his storyline later. The Peralez initially want a simple investigation into the death of the previous mayor, but they will contact V later on for more pressing concerns.

The actual main quest of the Peralez couple has you investigate their lavish penthouse for potential signs of intruders or burglars. It turns out that the family has been under close surveillance for a long time, but an unknown entity that could either be a corporation, their rivals or even a rogue AI as suggested by Johnny.

As you advance through the quest, it becomes a possibility that Jefferson's wife Elizabeth Peralez is actually in on this whole mission and seeks to use mind control on her husband. With that, you're given a choice on what to tell Jefferson himself when you eventually meet him.

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As a result, you will receive a call from the Peralez during the end credits, and even later down the line in Act 2 depending on the choices you made. It's unclear what happened to the two of them, but if you let Jefferson know he was being watched and controlled, he will come to even suspect his own wife as well.

River Ward is an NCPD detective you'll likely meet during your dealings with the Peralez couple, a set of quests which will become active once you're deep in Panam's side quests. After helping him investigate the fate of the previous mayor, River will take a liking to V and call them back for some help regarding a personal matter.

River's side quest is quite dark and involves rescuing his missing nephew Randy from the claws of a child abductor. By examining the dreams of the abductor through a braindance sequence, River and V will have the chance to determine where Anthony, the criminal, could potentially still be holding Randy and the rest of the abducted teens.

It's important to find all possible clues to be able to narrow down the right farm. Once you arrive to Edgewood Farm, prepare to disarm a bunch of turrets and landmines which are scattered around the perimeter. You can get inside through several ways, including the roof which has a hole in it.

Inside, you'll find Randy and the rest of the kidnapped teens. After rescuing them, and finishing the quest line with River, as well as romancing him, River will most likely appear in the end credits scene in a call. If he was contacted during Act 3 and V is allowed to return to her life in Night City, River will be at V's side and is one of the few NPCs who will not leave Night City.

Judy Alvarez is met already during Act 1, so getting to know her won't be a challenge. However, how you handle things afterwards will determine whether or not Judy will stick around with you until the end. Make sure to help her find Evelyn Parker during Act 2 and try to be compassionate and kind towards her, even when she's untrusting of you.

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Judy's story culminates in getting revenge against Clouds, the club that essentially failed to save and protect Evelyn Parker. Help her achieve her revenge by siding with Judy and taking down Maiko when she turns on you upon threatening the Tyger Claw bosses.

The final step in Judy's story line is her romance quest Pyramid Song, which will have you join her for a dive within the nearby dam. Make sure to scan as many clues from her past as possible during the dive, and if you're playing a female V, choose to romance her later on once you've returned to the shack for the night.

Judy will appear in the end credits no matter what ending you chose if you completed her quest and romanced her. If you chose to call her before the final quest, and if V is allowed to return to her life in Night City, then you'll wake up next to Judy at V's new mansion at the top of the city. Unfortunately, Judy has set her mind on leaving the city, a decision which won't change even at high affinity levels.

Kerry Eurodyne is Johnny's former band member and one of the few people that remain of the original Samurai group. Johnny will have you contact him by sneaking into his mansion in North Oak, where you'll need to prove to him that Johnny's living inside your head.

Kerry's quest line is perhaps the tamest of all the romance quest lines. Many of his concerns have to do with music and his own career. Join him and the rest of the band for a final Samurai concert where Johnny will take over V's consciousness, after which Kerry will contact you for a few additional quests involving the girl group Us Cracks.

After helping him meet the Us Cracks girls, Kerry's quest will culminate in a trip on a lavish yacht that travels past Night City's shore. Help him destroy the yacht thoroughly, and if you're a male V, you can make a romantic advance here, as well as previously when meeting him at a club with Us Cracks.

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Kerry will also call you during the end credit scenes, but much like River and Judy, he can also appear at V's mansion if you choose to call him before the final quest in Act 3. Kerry, just like River, has no plans to leave the city and will remain by V's side even as they go on their final mission, if V was allowed to come back to Night City.

The romance options aside, one of the most important quests is that of Johnny's and Rogue's. Johnny is basically the second main character of the game, so ensuring that you have a good relationship to him by the time Act 3 rolls around is absolutely crucial. In order to do so, you need to complete a few of his personal quests.

Make sure you collect all of Johnny's clothing items, his gun, as well as his car. Collecting most of them will still raise your affinity level with him enough to unlock this ending. When Johnny asks you for favors, such as contacting Kerry and going on a date with Rogue, make sure to agree.

As for top fixer Rogue, if you've completed Blistering Love and allowed her and Johnny to go on a date, she will become an option for the final mission. At the rooftop when V must make a decision on how to handle things, choose "I think you and Rogue should go", which will essentially have Johnny take control of V.

Once inside Mikoshi, you have another choice to make. You can either have Johnny sent back to Night City to live in V's body, or allow V to live out their final days with their loved ones. With Rogue gone, V will now be the top personality at the Afterlife.

Panam Palmer and her nomads are another significant part of the game and its ending. You'll meet her shortly before chasing after Anders Hellman and a Kang Tao vessel, thanks to Rogue. Panam's quest line is incredibly long but quite linear, and will have you complete personal missions for you and helping the Aldecaldos.

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Finishing this quest line and reaching Queen of the Highway with Panam is probably the most important quest to finish before entering Act 3. That's because the Aldecaldos are now in V's debt and will become an option to call up when you find yourself at the rooftop with Johnny and have to make a decision.

If you choose the Aldecaldos over Johnny and Rogue, and don't wish to trust Arasaka or end things on your own, Panam and the rest will help you enter Arasaka and more specifically Mikoshi. However, in the process you will lose Saul, when you enter the fight with Adam Smasher.

Choosing the Aldecaldos will also allow you to leave the city with the nomads and Panam, rather than staying behind. If you chose Johnny and Rogue instead of the Aldecaldos, but decided to call Panam instead and romanced her, she'll be at V's mansion and announce that she's leaving with the rest of the nomads.

Next: 10 Hidden Plotlines Everyone Missed In Cyberpunk 2077

How Mario Party Has The Worst Evolution As A Gaming Series

Tea lover and video game obsessed writing enthusiast with her very own Overwatch team, Anastasia writes about games that leave an impression on her and make her come back time and time again.

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Cyberpunk 2077: Every Side Quest Story That Can Affect The Main Games Ending - TheGamer

With a focus on high-tech combined with low-lifestyles, there are a variety of ways games can introduce players to the cyberpunk genre. There are plenty of video games that allow players to explore some truly amazing cities, each with unique spins on the tropes associated with the genre.

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While some games take a more directapproach filling cities with surveillance and citizens addicted to bio-augmentations. Other games showcase the early moments of a cyberpunk city, by focusing on social and political commentary. With so many games in the cyberpunk catalog, finding some of the best examples of cyberpunk cities can be daunting.

Once the automotive powerhouse of the world, Detroit now houses a major cybernetics plant, or at least that is how Quantic Dream imagines the city. Detroit Become Human takes place in the year 2038, and the city is everything players would expect from a cyberpunk world.

Relationships between humans and androids reach a boiling point. A "Red Ice" epidemic plagues the city and plays a vital role in the story's plot. Though Detroit Become Human follows a more linear world map design, there are a few missions that allow players to experience an early stage of cyberpunk. In the game, Detroit may look like a regular city, but the underlying societal struggles and conflicts are common gateways into the genre.

The Union Aerospace Corporation base (UAC) on Mars, from Doom 2016, may not initially seem like a cyberpunk city, however, it fits the bill. After an energy crisis on Earth, an Argent fracture is discovered on Mars that could power the planet indefinitely. The only problem is it will literally siphon that energy from Hell itself. Since cyberpunk corporations hardly ever think beyond profit, the UAC is built around that fracture.

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Unethical technological advancements, such as grafting biochemical weapons onto demons become a norm. It is up to players to rip and tear their way through the demonic hordes after Lazarus energy consumes the facility.

Watch Dogs: Legion takes place in the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom, London. The city has been overrun with an authoritarian police regime, called Albion, as well as organized crime syndicates.London is brimming with social and political unrest, as citizen's entire lives are monitored constantly. Players will have to brave the all-seeing surveillance systems and private militaries that control the streets.

Hengshais a vibrant city during the day, evenholding the nicknamethe Jewel of the Yangtze River. However, at night it is teeming with underworld nightlife. Hengsha is the heart of the global augmentation industry, so players can expect to find streets filled with nightclubs and augmentation chop shops. The island city is even divided into several levels and city districts.

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The upper and lower levels are completely different from one another. Lower Hengsha is brimming with crime and poverty. A private security force has checkpoints on every corner. Upper Hengsha has plenty of grass and trees and all sorts of vibrant life with snobbish citizens. Though Deus Ex: Human Revolutiongives players plenty of freedom of choice, the city life is a stark reminder of what cyberpunk worlds are really like.

Built out of an abandoned subway system under Crescent City, the Subway Town in RAGEis a prime example of cyberpunk innovation. Subway Town is the largest settlement in the Eastern Wasteland. The post-apocalyptic city still retains most of its vivid neon lights and trance-inducing subway music. There are plenty of bars and garages built from discarded rail cars and way stations. Death races and holographic games of dice are just a few attractions players may come across. That, and a former tech hub and lab overrun with giant irradiated mutants just a few miles above the city.

Underground fight clubs, holographic closed-circuit cats, and tons of unethical technology makeRengkok from Ruiner an amazing cyberpunk city. Webs of bullet trains connect the main city hub to each production facility, factory, and warehouse.

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The train system makes the city huge in comparison with other games. Players can stumble across a variety of dystopian characters and creatures. The city itself is owned by a failing conglomerate known as Heaven. When it comes to one of the best cyberpunk metropolises, Ruiner has players covered.

One of the most recent additions to the cyberpunk genre is Cyberpunk 2077's Night City. The city sprawls across the world, and various layers of depth make the open-world game a great addition to the genre. During the day, the city can pass for almost any other, but much like its name, the city is all about the nightlife. Neon signs and billboards cover the concrete jungle, and all manner of ripper-docs and garages are on every corner. Arms dealers, corporate peons, and bio-augmented gangs are waiting for players to find and challenge them.

Cloudbank is where the majority of Transistor takes place, and home to the protagonist Red. Like many cyberpunk cities, Cloudbank is full of tall buildings, with multiple levels. Cloudbank is made up of several districts, that players can explore.

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Unlike other locations in the genre, the city operates on a voting system to ensure that "everyone has a voice." If citizens want the sky to turn green, it will. This political structure also leads to a lot of volatility. Though Cloudbank may seem like a utopia, the semi-autonomous robots killing citizenswould say otherwise. These robots can self-upgrade and evolve, when they were originally used only to repair anomalies throughout the city.

The setting of both Mirror's Edge: Exordium and Mirror's Edge Catalyst, the City of Glass is a symbol of corporate power in a cyberpunk world. The city is pristine to the point of being almost entirely featureless. However, the towering buildings and sleek designs cannot hide the true tone. The City of Glass stands at the forefront of the digital revolution. As such, most citizens are connected to the Grid, a citywide surveillance network that connects everything in the city.Players are able to experienceGlass from a first-person perspective. Explorationand parkour are essential to completing missions and fighting enemies in the city.

Set in 2056, Shadowrun: Hong Kong takes place in the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone, which is completely controlled by corporations. Due to corporations having control of the city, the governing bodies are made up of the Board of Governors and the Executive Council. The city itself is composed of multiple districts.Like other games in the genre, crime is prevalent and varied. From white-collar crime to street-level crime, gangs and foreign syndicates have operations throughout the city. Players will have to make their way through the city by completing jobs that increase in difficulty and complexity.

NEXT: Cities Skylines: 10 Must Have Mods For A Cyberpunk City

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Camisha Pisenti is a freelance writer, streamer, and gamer, based in Dallas, Texas. During her time as a streamer, she has had the opportunity to develop content about a variety of games. A graduate of The Art Institute of Dallas she received a degree in the Media Arts and Animation program. When she is not writing, she can be found gaming or annoying her family dog.

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10 Best Cyberpunk Cities In Gaming | Game Rant - GameRant

Cyberpunk is the fusion of "low life and high-tech." Here are some of the worst video games involving the cyberpunk genre.

As the gaming world continues to debate the merits and misgivings of the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077, it's time to consider where the game ranks in the pantheon of all-time cyberpunk video games. Stripped down its essence, Cyberpunk is the fusion of "low life and high-tech," the retro-futuristic result of which can be found among innumerable video game examples.

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While Cyberpunk 2077's overall narrative has been praised, the technical glitches have driven gamers mad, especially given how much time and money went into the making of the game. To see if it makes the all-time worst cyberpunk games, scroll below.

Released by Sega and Capcom in 2001, Heavy Metal: Geomatrix is a 3D cyberpunk fighting game for Sega and Dreamcast that did not resonate among fans and critics alike.

Based on the Heavy Metal comics, the game features four large arenas that serve as battlegrounds for the main characters. Fighters are fused with hulking metallic technology as they fight in dark industrial settings. The game received a paltry 3/10 from Game Informer, a 3.4/10 from GameSpot, and a 4/10 from CVG.

Save for Blade Runner, video game adaptations of popular cyberpunk movies and TV shows haven't been well received. One glaring example is James Cameron's Dark Angel, released on PS2 and Xbox in 2002.

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With a D+ grade from GameRevolution, 3.8/10 rating from GameSpot, 4/10 rating from IGN, and 48/100 Metascore, the game was criticized across the board for its weak and repetitive gameplay, glitches, blindspots, poor story, and inferior stealth mode.

Another risible cyberpunk video game dismissed by almost everyone who played it was Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death, the ancillary tie-in with the 1995 Sylvester Stallone cyberpunk action flick.

The third game in the series, Dredd vs. Death is a first-person shooter that offers single and multiplayer modes as Dredd tries to conquer the evil corporation filled with vampires and violent ex-cons. The game earned a 3/10 from Eurogamer, 4/10 from Maxim, 2.5/5 from Nintendo Power, and 5/10 from IGN.

Boasting a 3/10 Edge rating, 4/10 IGN mark, and a 43/100 Metascore, MindJack is a third-person shooter released on PS3 and Xbox 360 that did not strike a chord among cyberpunk enthusiasts.

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The story follows Jim Corbijn, a special agent with the ability to hack into the minds of his AI foes. When Jim is dispatched to District 7 to investigate a shooting, he becomes involved in a government conspiracy called Project MindJack, which further endangers his life.

Released by Time Warner Interactive in 1994, Rise of the Robots began as a PC fighting game that made its way onto various video game consoles. Players assume the role of a cyborg called ECO35-2 and fights various cohorts en route to the final boss (The Supervisor) of the evil ElectroCorp.

With 2/5 ratings from AllGame and Next Generation, the game also received a 5% on Amiga Power and a weighted average of 4/10 from EGM.

Another abysmal cinematic cyberpunk title translated to the gaming industry includes Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Action Movie. The movie drew such poor reviews that its designer, Propaganda Code, shut down after its release.

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Based on the 1981 William Gibson vignette, the point-and-click game drew a 1/5 rating from Mac User, 2/5 from AllGame and CGW, and 3/10 from Edge. The game was panned for its poor gameplay and a lack of imagination, with Hardcore Gamer calling it one of Sony Imagesoft's worst titles.

While it fared a bit better for PC users, the N64 edition of the Japanese cyberpunk game Daikatana earned a lowly 42/100 Metascore. However, it also garnered 3.7/10 from GameSpot and 3.87/10 from EGM.

The story concerns Hiro Miyamoto, a swordsman in 2455 Japan who must find the cure to a global pandemic while rescuing a colleague's kidnapped daughter. The game was panned for its mediocre graphics, stodgy gameplay, and forgettable settings.

Developed by Creative Reality in 1994, DreamWeb is a top-down point-and-click PC game featuring distinctive cyberpunk iconography. The story tracks a barkeep named Ryan living in a dystopic future metropolis who is cursed by the bizarre dreams of a force called DreamWeb and must defeat the seven evils that operate the program.

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DreamWeb earned poor reviews upon release, including 1.5/5 star-reviews from Dragon and Adventure Gamers, as well as 2/5 stars from Adventure Classic Gaming.

With a 34/100 Metascore and 2/5 GamePro rating, Bomberman: Act Zero is one of the all-time worst cyberpunk games ever made. The standalone entry in the series was blasted by fans and critics for extended loading times, poor soundtrack, boring and repetitive gameplay, and uninteresting camera angles.

The game revolves around Bombermen, technologically-enhanced entities forced to do battle with one another underground and find their way to Earth's surface. If a player dies, they go back to the first of 99 levels.

Given its pedigree and overwhelming fanfare, the original Akira video game proved to be one of the biggest disappointments in the gaming industry up to that point. The game drew poor reviews across the board, including a paltry 17/40 grade by Famicom Tsushin.

Meant as a marketing tie-in with the film of the same name, Akira was too rudimentary to make much of an impact in the gaming world. Players assume the role of Kaneda, a motorcyclist out to clear his name following the military abduction of his friend, Tetsuo.

NEXT: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Akira

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10 Worst-Ever Games In The Cyberpunk Genre, Ranked | ScreenRant - Screen Rant

The Shoot to Thrill side job in Cyberpunk 2077 will challenge players' trigger speed but can lead to powerful rewards and some much-needed Eddies.

Cyberpunk 2077 is filled with different missions, side jobs, and gigs to finish. It is easy for players to feel a little overwhelmed at the start of the game, but some of these tasks are certainly worth doing and doing well as soon as they appear in the game. The Shoot to Thrill side job is something players should do as soon as possible as it can give an Epic M-10AF Lexington Pistol if the player finishes in first place. This powerful weapon can be very useful in the early stages of Cyberpunk 2077.

The Shoot to Thrill side job is offered by Wilson, the gun store owner near Vs apartment. It will only be available in the game after the Playing for Time main story quest is completed. Players will need to wait until Wilson contacts them on the phone and informs them about a shooting contest that he is holding in his gun store.

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Agree to take part in the contest, then head to the 2nd Amendment gun store right beside Vs apartment. The quickest way to get there is to fast travel to the building's teleport point, then walk down the stairs and around the balcony on the left. Players can onlyfast travel between teleport pointsinCyberpunk 2077, so it may be necessary to open the map, find the nearest fast travel location, and drive there to interact with it and fast travel. When players go inside the gun store and speak with Wilson, they can start the contest.

Players will need to walk to the predetermined booth on the range and draw a weapon for Wilson to begin the countdown. It is possible toshoot any target on the range, and players are not limited to shooting just the targets in their own lane. While powerful, revolvers force the player to reload too often, losing time to spend shooting targets. There will be a pistol on the counter of the range that players can use, but the ideal weapon is any Lexington Pistol variant due to the magazine's size.

A final, yet vital, aspect of winning this contest is to shoot each target as many times as possible. Simply shooting them once will not be enough to get first place, and players should try to land four to five shots on each target before they disappear. After testing, there does not seem to be a set number of shots the player needs to land to get first place, but landing 100 shots will guarantee a win. It is a good idea to save the game before starting the contest if a repeat of the side job is required.

When the contest is complete, Wilson will announce the winner. If the player comes first, the prize is $500 and the Epic M-10AF Lexington Pistol. Second place will result in a higher Street Cred reward for the mission. Third place or lower will result in the player only receiving the default Street Cred for completing the gig.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions in development.

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Cyberpunk 2077: Shoot to Thrill Gig Guide | Game Rant - GameRant

Whatever happened to The Future? Youre living in it s orry for the mess; we werent expecting company. Just clear a spot among the discarded red hats and empty Mountain Dew liters and have a seat, because were going to talk 1990s cyberpunk cinema.

Back in the 90s, we had a different vision for The Future (aka the 2000s). Yes, it was also dystopian AF, but at least it looked cool and the tech was awesome. Instead of sleek black-leather suits and flying cars, what do we have in 2021? Neon Crocs and Bluetooth butt plugs. Lame.

Here are nine movies from the 1990s that predicted The Future, both boldly and brainlessly. They dont all fit within the critically determined cyberpunk genre, but we were certain that critics would have been erased from the bloodline by now, so dont sweat it.

Fun fact: Keanu Reeves' 1995 cyber-thriller Johnny Mnemonic is set in 2021.

Virtuosity (1995; Prime Video, PopcornFlix)Virtuosity is simultaneously Denzel Washingtons worst movie performance and Russell Crowes best Traci Lords, too. Washington plays an L.A. cop tasked with taking down Crowes SID 6.7 (Sadistic, Intelligent, Dangerousha!), a virtual-reality serial killer whos now hamming it up IRL. SID 6.7 is a composite program of historys worst scumbags (Hitler, Manson, Hannity, etc.) and Crowe is obviously having a blast as a cutthroat cartoon. The rest of the movie? Virtual shite.

Sandra Bullock in The Net, a flick ahead of its time!

Strange Days (1995; VOD)Set on the eve of Y2K, 1995s Strange Days envisions a Los Angeles that looks like a budget Las Vegas Blade Runner experience. In this glittery warzone, hustler Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) sells literal memories extracted from peoples brains as the street drug of choice. Cool setup, but the digital heroin plot devolves into a standard murder mystery, leaving Juliette Lewis as a Courtney Love/Shirley Manson-esque rock star belting out PJ Harvey tunes to (almost) redeem this mess.

Hackers (1995; VOD)Hackers is so '90s it hurts. Teen computer hackers Zero Cool (Jonny Lee Miller), Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie), Cereal Killer (Matthew Lillard), and others are caught breaking into a corporate supercomputer for kicks. This alerts these nicknames The Plague (Fisher Stevens), an evil hacker who had nefarious plans for said supercomputer; soon, the gang is on the run, skateboarding and keyboard tapping like the wind. Floppy disks were never so sexy.

Stallone. Snipes. Stupidity.

Demolition Man (1993; VOD)America 2032 is a crime-free utopia where all restaurants are Taco Bells. Sounds great until 1996 psycho criminal Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) escapes cryo-prison, grabs some museum guns and starts shooting everything up (this flick is an NRA wet dream). Soon, unfrozen 90s cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is dispatched to fight ultraviolence with ultraviolence, because thats always the answer. D-U-M-B, but Demolition Man is as prescient a comedy as Idiocracy.

Freejack (1992; VOD)In the distant future of 2009(!), rich fat cats achieve immortality by purchasing new bodies prior to their past deaths via time travel just go with it. Racecar driver Alex Furlong (Emilo Estevez) is snatched right before a 1991 crash by body-napping mercenary Victor Vacendak (Mick Jagger), but escapes, thus becoming a Freejack (lest you thought this movie was about pity handjobs). If you buy all 98 pounds of Mick Jagger as a threatening villain, Ill go on. No? Cool.

Cyberzone (1995; Prime Video)Robot hookers and Marc Singer? How did this escape the 80s? Los Angeles is underwater and Phoenix, AZ is a coastal capitol in 2077 (sounds about right), and bounty hunter Jack Ford (Singer) has been tasked with tracking down four female pleasure droids whove gone missing between Jupiter and the undersea New Angeles, now an ultra-Christian stronghold. Yup. Cyberzone looks like it was filmed over a weekend for $700, but at least theres gratuitous bot nudity.

Fatal Conflict (2000; Prime Video, Tubi)Criminal siblings/lovers, sentenced to a prison planet in 2029, hijack a space freighter and set course to crash it into Los Angeles (filmmakers who work in L.A. apparently really hate L.A.). To stop them, pilot Sasha Burns (Kari Wuhrer) infiltrates the freighters inmate population armed with just a gun, flawless beach waves, and an industrial-strength tank top and shes still a more believable badass than Mick Jagger. Upside: Were only eight years away from prison planets.Visit billfrost.tv for more trenchant television coverage.

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After World War III nearly wiped out all of human existence, the remaining civilizations united together under the banner of the Planetary Alliance Commission (PAC). People were divided into sealed provinces rather than nations and left generally to their own devices with one big caveat: financial backing comes from PAC. To earn it, a province must demonstrate its value to PAC, prove its worth through feats of scientific discovery or social engineering. How they achieve that is left up to the provinces.

Ashiva grew up in the slums of the South Asian Province. With the development of a powerful AI called Solace, citizens of the SAP were separated, the genetically desirable moving up into the elite towers and the rest condemned to a slow death by governmental neglect in the Narrows. With her cybernetic armcourtesy of a scientifically gifted Narrows dwellershe scrounges and steals and scrapes by. Secretly, she works for a group of freedom fighters scattered to the winds but waiting for the signal to reunite and overthrow the corrupt leaders of the SAP.

Which brings us to the beginning of Olivia Chadhas new cyberpunk young adult novel Rise of the Red Hand. Kid Synch, the rebellious son of an Uplander, gets embroiled in the middle of a massive conspiracy at the heart of Solace. He teams up with Ashiva and her adoptive sister Taru to stop mecha soldiers, skeezy scientists, and a virulent pandemic from destroying the Narrows and everyone in it. These three teens must choose who lives and who dies, or have the choice made for them.

Readers arent told exactly where in South Asia Rise of the Red Hand is set, but with the names and non-English words my guess is the Indian Subcontinent. This far into the future, and with historic borders dismantled, it makes sense for the feel of the setting to be regional rather than specific. Its also a rather clever way for a diaspora author to replicate that experience. The people of the SAP may be living in the general vicinity of their ancestral lands, but they are also a diaspora. They have been displaced and corralled, their unique regional traditions erased or left behind as they are blended together in the melting pot that is the SAP. They retain bits and pieces, slang mostly, from a culture that they can no longer access.

The setting is more than an interesting backdrop. The behaviors, objectives, and motivations of the characters arent rooted in a Western/white mentality but a South Asian diasporic one. Theres a great moment when Ashiva sees the American Province representatives and uses it as a way to knock American superiority down a few pegs. Of course the Americans would use their funding to create identical, beautiful, emotionless clones, and of course Ashiva would roll her eyes at them playing into their own stereotype.

The rest of the worldbuilding is just as fascinating. The Planetary Alliance Commission has a strong colonialism vibe. They swooped in to take power from independent nations, and the people they rule over have no say in the any of it. They control the Provinces by controlling their funding. They issue dictates that must be obeyed but offer little support or guidance for how. This allows provincial leaders to exploit the hell out of their people while simultaneously enforcing a growing colonial hegemony. Ultimately the PAC benefits from that exploitation.

Ashivas concerns revolve around the SAP, but she is keenly aware that the root of the problem is the PAC. She cant dismantle a global superpower, but she can use her cybernetic arm to assist the underground revolutionaries trying to take power from the SAP and return it to the people. Perhaps exposing the corruption and hypocrisy rotting the SAP from the inside out to the rest of the Provinces will cause some damage to PAC as a bonus.

This is the kind of story that requires a lot of background information in order to work. Chadha does a good job of dispensing that information out in such a way that it allows the narrative to breathe without slowing down the plot. We get to see the desperate poverty of the Narrows through Ashivas POV, the plastic pleasure of Solace through Kid Synch, and the blacksite hell that is the Void through Taru. Like the setting, each main character feels organic and true to the story Chadha has created. This is a world where alliances are hard won and peace is temporary. Families are forged and shattered. Friendships are tested by the drive to survive. The secondary characters dont quite get enough fleshing out, but they serve their purpose well enough.

There were a few elements I struggled with. A couple of lines of description veered a little too close to fatphobia for my taste. And I wouldve liked more openly queer characters. I also dont think the romance did anything for the plot. The only chemistry I felt between the two characters was purely platonic. Especially since a character has a whole discussion about how they havent had time for love since theyre so busy trying to survive. It added nothing and couldve been excised without derailing the story or the characters motivations.

Cyberpunk, with its wild contrast of mind-bogglingly advanced technology against the crumbling infrastructure of society, is the perfect subgenre to explore the chaos of the world today and predict the world of tomorrow through a YA lens. We dont get much cyberpunk in young adult fiction these days, despite the obvious need. Wouldnt it be nice if Rise of the Red Hand kickstarted a new trend?

Rise of the Red Hand is available from Erewhon Books.Read an excerpt here.

Alex Brown is a librarian by day, local historian by night, author and writer by passion, and an ace/aro Black person all the time. Keep up with her on Twitter, Instagram, and her blog.

Read the original:

Cyberpunk Freedom Fighters: Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha - tor.com