Plenty of BGSU students explore bars in the real world, but how many have explored bars in the virtual world? “VA-11 HALL-A” is a bartending simulator set in a futuristic cyberpunk city state available on GNU/Linux, MacOS and Windows platforms.
“VA-11 HALL-A” goes beyond its premise of a drink mixing simulation, by sharing the developers reifying experiences of living through a currently ongoing real societal collapse in Venezuela. Savvy Players will have to mix drinks trough food shortages, corporate war, riots and MegaChristmas (the game’s corporized version of Christmas) struggles.
Along the way Players must learn their regular customer’s preferences and listen to their stories, or consequently not earn tips and bonuses when they are paid at the end of the day. Without earning more than their normal wage as a bartender, player
characters will be unable to pay their bills, be evicted and end in an even worse scenario then they started in!
“VA-11 HALL-A” is focused on simple gameplay that revolves around individual stories, centered on MegaChristmas season events and not action. There are no time limits or punishments for incorrectly mixing drinks as long as the player does not serve them to customers. This laid back gameplay ties in with the slice of life atmosphere of the game. While the over 20 drinks a player can brew all have their own unique perpetration steps and in game guide is available to assist forgetful players.
By far the biggest factor in a player’s success is their ability to tap into their customer’s cues, as what the customer really wants is not always what they specifically ask for. Some customers are straightforward and will only order specific drinks and others are more obtuse, ordering drinks as complex as a plum floating in perfume served in a man’s hat. Drinking Culture and safety also play an important role. Even in a cyberpunk future, making sure only the right people get the right alcohol in the right amounts remains important in the player’s role of cyberpunk Bartender. The player also gets some chances to customize their menu with specialty drinks, and secret recipes, however this is a rather small part of the game.
“VA-11 HALL-A”’s art style is deliberately based on a turn of the century aesthetic and has superb animated pixel art throughout the game. Its music is more contemporary, but is stylistically excellent, fitting right in with the gritty, high tech low life bar setting. An interesting feature of “VA-11 HALL-A” is that the player must manually load the jukebox with music each day before work, thus choosing the soundtrack themselves.
“VA-11 HALL-A” is not for everyone. It definitely isn’t appropriate for younger players or those with conservative mindsets. However If you’re looking for relaxed gameplay with a tense story and an interesting Atmosphere, VA-11 HALL-A is probably one of the best releases 2016 is going to give you.
“VA-11 HALL-A” is produced by Sukeban games which is located in Venezuela and published by Ysbryd Games. “VA-11 HALL-A” is not sold in physical stores, and is only available through online stores, with the developers preference going to sales on the itch.io platform, which includes the OST for free and includes a steam key. The game is also available on Steam, but purchasing on Steam does not include the itch.io bonuses.
