Asura Kagawa
- A Swiss corporate nightmare wrapped in alpine cyberpunk.
- The blend of corporate strategy and RPG mechanics creates a fresh identity.
- Every executive becomes another political obstacle to overcome.
A Swiss corporate nightmare wrapped in alpine cyberpunk.
The Capitalism simulation strategy is probably the hardest genre to pick a game from, especially when you're looking for a story-rich experience. Victoria 3 has been a leading name in this category, alongside the recently released News Tower, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, and Discounty, which came pretty close to being decent releases.
That's about it, though. As a result of the fact that fans of this genre do not receive frequent releases, whenever there is a new game that appears under this category, everyone is eager to find out how wonderful it can be.
Consequently, when the Holonoptic was initially released by the indie developer Glazial in April, the game indicated its potential, even though the reception was not particularly overwhelming.
The blend of corporate strategy and RPG mechanics creates a fresh identity.
Holonoptic is a futuristic sci-fi corporate simulation RPG strategy that scratches the right itch and keeps you coming back. The characters and the story are genuinely compelling, offering a surprising amount of freedom to play the game and interact with the world and the characters in almost whatever way you choose.
Holonoptic combines economic simulation and RPG elements into a unique experience of alpine-cold corporate backstabbing. As CEO of a derelict company, you must deal (or side) with rogue corporate AIs, rebellious labor unions, and globalist aristocrats. The steep learning curve hides impressive gameplay depth.
The game doesn't hold your hand, and the often-confusing UI doesn't make it any easier to wrap your head around the deep game mechanics that allow you to engage fully. I'm hopeful that continued development irons out some of this because once you do get a feel for the expansive options Holonoptic offers, it is genuinely impressive.
Holonoptic is defined by experiences arising from emergent narrative formed by the interaction of different game systems. The game has a lot of moving parts under the hood, and they collectively work to bring you Certified CEO Grindset Experience.
Corporate life quickly descends into controlled chaos. This is the game where you actively choose a midlife crisis and can't quit your caffeine addiction because the stuff is so good. This is the game where you hit fat blunts (looted after evicting squatters from your HQ basement) for three days to reach the required level of dissociation before the monthly board report.
This is the game where you are pushed to manipulate your stock to reach at least a token of control over your own company without the board stepping in to pull your leash. This is the game where you can choose to develop AI to run your corporation under the explicit reasoning of "what's the worst that's gonna happen?".
Every executive becomes another political obstacle to overcome.
Your "party members" - lower executives - are, without exception, trying to push their own agendas and won't hesitate to push them at your expense. A lot of times, you'll have to choose between them and sacrifice someone.
Choices matter; multiple endings are well-telegraphed and fairly different, adding overall replayability. UI still feels clunky at times, but patches have been coming at a reasonable pace since the beta stage, and the overall experience is much smoother now. Micromanagement rewards patience rather than perfection.
Holonoptic is a well-developed, quite mature experience so far. There is a lot of micromanagement, but that's where management simulation fans will actually like it.
It is a mix of an economic manager and an RPG in the sense that you play a role you choose and manipulate "skills" and "stats" of your "party", and kind of a visual novel - the story is interesting, characters are deep, humorous, and not preachy, lots of irony.
The micromanagement doesn't need to be extreme; Holonoptic is pretty generous with deadlines and profits. It's up to you to decide how much of a perfectionist you want to be.
Somehow, it reminds me of Terra Invicta - not by gameplay, but the overall feeling of controlling characters, sending them to missions, growing them, and building your own story with it.
Holonoptic pulls off something rare; it actually earns the "sim meets story" label instead of just slapping the two together. Your path is yours; be anyone you want to be, and follow any ideology you can think of - there is a path for you to choose.
