NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy

by Aethyna May 10, 2023 | 1 Votes | 97 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

Genres:

Adventure

Graphics:

Labels:

Investigation , Storytelling , Cyberpunk , Visual Novel

Platforms:

Publishers:

Dream Harvest Designed to help govern the city of Catena and to aid the people with their needs, you play as a newly-released and highly-advanced AI developed by Mindcore Corp that is tasked to make oftentimes impactful decisions in a Reigns-styled manner that will affect the city and Mindcore, along with the public’s perception of you. Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy is a fully-voice-acted visual novel that’s set in a cyberpunk world where you play as a newly-released and highly-advanced AI developed by the brilliant engineers at Mindcore Corp. Designed to help govern the city of Catena and to aid the people with their needs, you’re tasked to make oftentimes impactful decisions in a Reigns-styled manner that will affect the city and Mindcore, as well as the public’s perception of you.

Plotline

You are "Archtype", or “Arc” in short, a newly-released and highly-advanced AI developed by the brilliant engineers at Mindcore Corporation, led by Estoval. You’re designed to help govern the city of Catena and to aid the people with their needs, whatever that may be.

However, things aren’t that simple in this cyberpunk world and there are many who seek to bring you down. Who can you trust?

Gameplay

NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy is a visual novel and hence, it’s naturally text-heavy. The game comes with fully voice-acted dialogues so you can just sit back and listen to the characters talking as opposed to reading everything. However, there are bits in between the dialogues that aren’t voiced because they are, for instance, internal monologues or expository writing.

As a visual novel as well, you are expected to make decisions whenever a scenario presents itself, whether it is to participate in a blackmail attempt of the CEO of Mindcore, or to simply rat out an intern who is engaging in some unsavory sexual behavior during working hours. The game features a Reigns-like decision-making, which in turn, is based on Tinder’s “swipe left or right” system, whereby you’re only given one of two choices to make.

Every decision you make has an impact on the story, whether immediately, where you can then read about the impact of your decision, or later down the road. However, there’s a bit of a downer here – apparently, the ending for the story is the same regardless of your decisions so although the story may have some changes here and there based on your decisions, ultimately, none of them really mattered at the end.

Similar to Reigns as well, your decisions will usually change one of the four main factors that determine whether you’re a good AI that is doing what it is supposed to do or not. They are, Capital (how well you are at deciding things that will help Mindcore earn more revenue), Reputation (or a.k.a. public perception; naturally, people are hesitant whenever new and more advanced/powerful technologies are released), Order (how well you’ll maintain order in the city), and lastly, Power (your capacity and influence; think of it like your energy that you’ll use to execute or operate various tasks).

Most of your decisions will only affect any of these factors slightly, but you’ll do well not to choose decisions that will reduce any of these factors down to zero, lest you get a game over. However, considering that most of the options you’re given aren’t exactly on the extreme ends of the decision spectrum, it’s probably very difficult to fail the game.

However, this brings me to one of the main downsides of the game – due to the over-simplified presentation of the choices and sometimes, the issues you have to solve, you are often given no clue as to what a decision would entail, even if both decisions seem like probable choices. For example, during the healthcare worker scene, she was complaining to you about how tired she was and you’re given two advice options – to hire more workers or take a holiday.

Of course, both are valid options and it would be great if you could choose both (you can’t), but if you chose the first, she will then tell you that hiring new staff is out of her hands plus even if she could, they don’t have the credits to do so. The decision also seeming resulted in a slight reduction in your Reputation among the public. Crucial information like this would have been helpful had they been provided ahead of time, especially considering that you are supposed to playing an advanced AI that should already have this info, so you can make a more informed decision – or at least let you ask more follow-up questions so you can find out more before deciding.

This isn’t the only instance in the game and well, it does feel like you’re forced to make a decision in a rather blindfolded manner.

Graphics/ Sound

As with most visual novels, the graphics and sound play a major role in helping set the atmosphere for the brilliant storytelling, and in NeuroNet: Mendx Proxy, the team behind the game has truly outdone themselves. Not only does the visual novel feature cyberpunk-themed graphics and art that are gorgeous to behold, but it also comes with dialogues that are fully voiced by quality voice actors and actresses, making each moment believable and relatable.

Conclusion

In short, NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy is a brilliant visual novel that spared no expense in composing its compelling storytelling, designing its breathtaking visuals, and having its dialogues all fully voiced by quality voice actors and actresses. It offers an adventure worth experiencing, that’s for sure!

However, the lack of obvious cues as to what a decision may entail, especially when the issue presented came with little to no additional information, can make decision-making in this game a bit frustrating. Plus, there’s also the fact that regardless of what you chose, there’s only one ending in the game that made it a bit underwhelming, particularly when you’d think your decisions will affect the ending since they do change the storyline in several ways.

Although the quality of the visual novel may justify the high price tag for some, it may deter a number of players from splurging on this when you consider the fact that since the game doesn’t have multiple endings, it loses out on that replayability factor that many other visual novels have.

New Game Added: NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy

by Aethyna May 10, 2023

Designed to help govern the city of Catena and to aid the people with their needs, you play as a newly-released and highly-advanced AI developed by Mindcore Corp that is tasked to make oftentimes impactful decisions in a Reigns-styled manner that will affect the city and Mindcore, along with the public’s perception of you.