Neocab
Explore the relationship between emotional health and employment.
We meet protagonist Lina en route to her new life in Los Ojos, California. Known as Automation City, most of its workforce has been replaced by AI designed by megacorporation Capra. Lina’s never been to Los Ojos, but she’s planning to be the city’s only human cab driver.
NeoCab may take place in a dystopian future, but the setup addresses contemporary issues. Capra could well be an analogy for the Googles and Amazons of today. Soon after Lina arrives, her best friend Savy disappears, and she has to dive deep into the workings of Automation City. All the while, she has to make a living, and so you balance your search for clues with your job. You choose a passenger on your map, meet them at the designated pick-up location and then drive them were they want to go. Each night you’re trying to keep your car’s battery charged, hit your income quota, and maintain a four-star customer rating to avoid losing your job.
TAXICAB CONFESSIONS
“We want to emphasise the value of interpersonal connections,” creative director Patrick Ewing tells me. “Throughout the game people ride with Lina repeatedly because the automated rides aren’t working for them. They want to have more conversations.” Meanwhile Lina’s ability to empathise with others can take a toll on her personally. Locked in a confined space with a stranger, conversations can get awkward, and by selecting Lina’s answers and monitoring her emotional well-being you constantly ride the line between a good rating and speaking up for yourself. In order to tell what Lina is feeling, you can check her Feelgrid, a wristband that communicates her emotions through colour. Once Lina is intensely angry for example, her Feelgrid will turn red, telling you it’s time to do or say something that may calm her down.
“We’ve taken inspiration from Papers, Please in giving you a choice between the actions you need to take in order to be successful at your job, and the things you’re prepared to make sacrifices for because they’re right”
This can include small things like choosing to avoid a parking ticket that would result from meeting a passenger at their requested location, to helping a young woman get away from home even though her mother holds the NeoCab account she used to request a driver.
Chance Agency also turns a critical eye to automation, and throughout the game you will have just as many people arguing the cons of self-driving cars as the pros. “Cars are dangerous and I do believe automation will eventually decrease the mortality rate,” says Ewing. “Driverless cars, the core catalyst of the events in NeoCab, will replace a large number of drivers within the next five to 15 years. That’s going to happen in the near future, and cyberpunk is supposed to be a way to portray that extreme we could be headed towards.”
Ewing also acknowledges there’s several ways to look at the gig economy. “I use these services myself and have friends who are drivers. Formal interviews and informal chats form the backbone of my research. Again, you need to acknowledge the conditions these people are working under. We want to offer hope – Lina’s work may be undervalued, but she can still enjoy it, be good at it and make a difference to someone else.”