Dense highrises with neon trappings, heroes with cybernetic modifications, and oppressive and omnipresent megacorporations have become common imagery in video games. From the high-profileCyberpunk 2077andStarfield’s Neonto the smaller experiences likeCloudpunkandCitizen Sleeper, cyberpunk is a popular genre for games to clothe themselves in.Solace Stateis the latest title to join this near-futuristic field.
Made by independent Canadian studio Vivid Foundry,Solace Stateexplores the coming-of-age tale of its protagonist Chloe across a 3D visual novel set in the city of Abraxa. Chloe must navigate the powers at play in Abraxa to find her missing friend and mentor Rebecka. She is also tasked with uncovering the reason for the unprecedented military lockdown of the Zircon Hill neighborhood, using street-level organizing and her unique “iconohacking” abilities.
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When Vivid Foundry started work onSolace State, the currenttrend of cyberpunk gameswasn’t even on their radar, said executive producer Tanya Kan in a recent Game Rant interview. It was just the right setting for the story they wanted to tell–a story of individual people working together against mammoth systems that use and abuse the citizens to keep the neon city bright. Kan explained the importance of the genre to Chloe’s story.
“I think it’s really all about putting the punk back into action…The most important part of it is thatpunk is queer. It is about people on the fringes, and we’re really highlighting that. What we really thinkSolace Stateis, is a going back to the roots, right? What is cyberpunk other than the use, overuse, and sometimes misuse of Asian cities that are extremely dense, high rises, right? What happens if we strip that away beyond just the aesthetic itself? What are we actually focusing on? And it’s really about people on the fringes who are trying to change the system.”
For studio Vivid Foundry, many of whom are marginalized in some way, cyberpunk dystopia reflects daily life in a stylized mirror. Kan said that cyberpunk is “in the daytime now.” The kinds of themes and struggles common in cyberpunk stories are very reminiscent of what many people experience in their daily lives, she explained. And that, she thinks, is why cyberpunk narratives are getting so popular.
Kan thinks that, in part, the world has become more cyberpunk becausetechnology evolves faster than law or society. In part, it represents the increased control businesses have over their employee’s lives while workers struggle to make ends meet. And, of course, part of it is the aesthetic sense that the modern world is on the cusp of a nebulous notion of being futuristic. This all fuels a desire to be more punk, she said. All those situations give people deep anxieties, and those anxieties come out in the media people create.
“I think there is that sense of uncertainty, discontentment, and struggle with how we’re navigating these issues. I’m thinking about how quickly people’s minds can change, just because they’re discombobulated effectively with the amount of social media that we get … So I think cyberpunk has really been a way for us to navigate that discomfort. And also the friction that we come across, when we have a clash of really separate ideas, like a clash of ideologies more than anything else. People feel like they don’t really know who to turn to.”
If that sounds very political, Kan agrees. A lot of the broad strokes of cyberpunk as a genre have very overt political messages baked into them–corporations acting as oppressors of people, wealth disparity, erosion of rights, and rebellion against that system are part and parcel of the genre. Science fiction at large hasdeep political roots, and cyberpunk, to be cyberpunk, has to be political. Vivid Foundry as a studio doesn’t shy away from the political, in fact leaning in on it in games likeSolace State. Kan spoke to activists and community organizers as well as drawing from her own political science background to develop her cyberpunk world and its inhabitants.
Much ofSolace State’s early inspiration came from literature. The genre itself traces back to 1980s American-Canadian author William Gibson, author ofJohnny MnemonicandNeuromancer. Among Kan’s inspirations was also the nonfictional account of young queer women’s history in activismRebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americasby Jessica K. Taft. She then informed these inspirations by talking to activists around the world dealing with the “daytime cyberpunk” issues posed in today’s world.
Kan is also keenly aware that there is backlash against video gameswhose choices are seen as political, let alone games actively portraying activism. She wasn’t overly concerned with that, however. BothSolace Stateand the cyberpunk genre at large have strong ideological statements baked into them by their nature, but so does most media, Kan argues. Media carries the values of those who make it, and those values are political statements.
“Perhaps while I was still in high school, I might not have been realizing that things are political, that everything is actually political. But I think even in university, and certainly years and years in the workforce, there are just some people who are just given different opportunities. It could be economic. It could be anything. It helps us to understand that rather than just push it aside out of fear. I think that’s actually what really drives me forward in the creation ofSolace State. It’s really recognizing that it’sbetter to stare into the systemsthat have been troubling us and find it wanting, and to just tackle it directly.”
Though, she admits, she’s not shy about taking a social media break to avoid the discourse of the day. A cyberpunk protagonist like Chloe might find such an escape harder to achieve.
Solace Stateis available on Steam and Xbox Series X/S.
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