4.5/5 ★ – JudgeDredd35's review of VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action.

Just finished this game last night and man what a blast! So I bought this game on a whim as I heard some good things and after playing the Coffee Talk Demo, I wanted to play something like it. VA-11 HALL-A is set in the future in Glitch City, you play as a Bartender named Jill, in a Cyberpunk future and must serve the many characters who come into the bar! So let's plugin and talk about this game! This game is just filled with interesting characters that you meet along the way, with interesting stories to uncover. I'm not a fan of visual novel games, as I can't get into most of their stories, but this game really had a fantastic story that I loved playing through. The world that Sukeban Games has created is fantastic and is rich with atmosphere. The game mostly moves your character between the bar and her apartment, to which you can read forums and newspaper articles on her phone. These are very interesting to read, not overly long and allow you to learn more about what happens outside of the bar without ever really going out of the bar. Gameplay mostly has you read dialogue just like any other visual novel game, the interesting twist in this game is how you can mix drinks for your partons just like a real bartender. The mixing system can come off complicated at first but you quickly get used to it and mix drinks with no issues. The game doesn't have traditional dialogue choices, however, the drinks act as dialogue choices in a way as some patrons will tell you exactly what they want, others will hint at what they want and some will say they want one thing but really they want something else. You get paid at the end of each night, with a perfect service bonus if you serve all drinks correctly to what the patron wanted. The money can be used to buy things for Jill's apartment but also is needed to pay her various bills such as rent. Graphically the game has a 16-bit, anime art style which really gives this game a unique look to its world and characters. The soundtrack is also phenomenal with some very techno but also relaxing tracks in it. You also get to pick a personal playlist to play in the bar each day which really allows you to tailor the game to your musical tastes which is a nice touch. One last good thing is how the game references so many other Cyberpunk media, to the likes of Akira, Robocop, Deus Ex and more. It's a visual treat for any fan of the genre like I am. Only negative was there was a bug on pc that would happen occasionally where my mouse cursor would lag when moving it around the mixing station, which was frustrating as that is your sole controller in the game. But otherwise, this was a fantastic game with a story that took me 15 hours to complete, so you definitely get your money's worth. I highly recommend it!