Review Submitted By: Virtuality
Author Status: Player
Started on CyberSphere: 2005
Submission Date: Sep 15, 2006
TMC Listing: CyberSphere
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Virtuality]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
In CybersSphere, you inhabit the dark futuristic city of New
Carthage, or the tunneled sleeves of low-orbital space station L4.
Life in New Carthage is typical cyberpunk, great gap between the poor
and the rich. The rich are played by game administrators, while the
poor are usually the players, while not necessarily that rules apply
to all.
You’re a desperate low-life punk no matter with what history you
start. You live in the misery of low-rent cube hotels, or with the
roaches in standard apartments, owned by Russians. The game will offer
you chances to join the Yakuza, which though a legit corporation in
Japan is considered still illegal mafia in the rest of the world. You
can also join the Italian Mafia, in either way you are doomed to do
dirty courier jobs or assassinations.
Your weapons are swords, handguns, rifles, knives, exotic and melee
weapons. Martial arts or plan brawling. You're boosted up with over
the counter and illegal drugs. Ripperdocs would sell you chrome in
their dark underground clinics, practicing with no license but the
filthy clinic they operate in. Cybernetic implants are in a great
variety, most of it borrowed from Shadowrun and Night City. Gangs rule
the north and south of New Carthage, pimps would sell you prostitutes
for entertainment. You can chat with other players In Character at any
of the several bars in the game. Non player characters would throw you
a random word on the street, shopkeepers would service you in any of
the several shops in the game.
Good part is that you can evolve, you can rent a shop and start
selling gear you stole with your Thievery or that of the suits you’ve
mugged along in the back alleys behind the luxury bars. You can play
as a techie who produces weapons which will be used by other players.
Recently the game added the feature allowing you to also produce
several types of armor. Combat system is complicated and
sophisticated, rolling a dice for variety of chances, armor, skill,
weapon, room-type, etc…
The city is rich in chances and with the right type of roleplaying
you can soon rise from the mud of the poor and own a shop, have
friends, become a headhunter or a chrome-doc in less than a month.
Cyberspace cowboys have a large MATRXI to explore, hack and rule the
meatside world. Chances are that other players would hunt you down,
but if you team up with the right set of friends – you’re most likely
to prevail. Corporations would also want to mess you up – since this
is the main theme in cyberpunk: Corporations versus Everyone else.
A fair amount of plots pop-up, managed by the administrators of the
game, other plots are player-organized. In either way, if you’re a
good roleplayer chances are great that you will have fun.
Character generation is automated, you’re given an amount of points
you distribute among the right stats and skills. You choose advantages
and depending on the Tier of character generation you pass through,
you can also start the game with a pretty good set of credits, gear
and even a shop with the rent paid in advance.
Player kill is often a subject to make you feel sad if you attach
yourself to your character too much. So try to take this as a game,
murder happens often in CyberSphere, so pick up your friends and
skill-set.
I’m in the game about one year now, and I’ve died a lot and also
killed a lot, but most the fun is to live in a cyberpunk world as it
is. Roleplaying is the key.
