‘VA-11 Hall-A’ a cyberpunk game with plenty of heart

You must take down patrons orders, mix them ’ the right drinks and listen to their stories

There's a famous painting by US-artist Edward Hopper called Nighthawks . It's an oil-oncanvass piece that shows a 1940s American diner at midnight, with the lone waiter watching over three mysterious customers.

A big part of the charm of this painting is the air of mystery around it. Who are these people? What has brought them to this diner so late? What stories do they have to tell?

VA11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (also written as just Vallhalla ) is basically this painting turned into a videogame.

You play as Julianne Natalie Stingray, a bartender at the titular VA-11 Hall-A bar in the cyberpunk dystopia of Glitch City.

Throughout the course of the game, you'll be interacting with all manner of fascinating customers who stumble into your bar, from police officers who have just come off their shift to civilians seeking an escape from the world outside to a hyper-intelligent robot who is also a pop musician.

Your job is straightforward: take down their orders, mix them the right drinks and listen to their stories.

It's a simple enough system and no more complex than the game I reviewed last week, Headliner.

Unlike that game, however, the stakes here are incredibly low and there's not a lot of challenge to make the “right” choices, which might put a few people off.

Then again, Vallhalla is obviously more interested in its character interactions than its raw gameplay and its here that the game truly shines.

You'll meet a lot of new people throughout the course of the game and the branching conversations you can have with them not only reveal their own stories but also teach you a lot about the world which you live in.

There's a lot of laughs to be had, but plenty of emotional moments too. It's clear that a lot of heart was put into this game and that just makes it all the more enjoyable. VA11 Hall-A is available for PC, Playstation and Nintendo Switch.

You play as Julianne Natalie Stingray, a bartender at the titular VA-11 Hall-A bar in the cyberpunk dystopia of Glitch City