Spoilers for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follow.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a fantastic little show that has been extremely well received, currently ranked the 46th best anime on MyAnimeList. Fans of the show have gone on to look for a similar buzz from other sources, as seen by Cyberpunk 2077’s record player counts shortly after the release of the show.
There is, however, a wealth of fantastic cyberpunk games outside of the CDProjekt’s franchise that may better scratch the itch Edgerunners has left so many gamers with. Read on for our five favorite cyberpunky games.
Cloudpunk
For me, one of Edgerunner’s biggest strengths is that it dedicated time to portraying the difficulty in just getting by in a hyper-capitalist dystopian hellscape. The struggles of everyday people, the impossibility of upwards mobility, and the violent ways in which social classes are maintained all make the world feel that much more grounded, and increase the importance of any act that opposes the system.
While I found this mostly lacking in Cyberpunk: 2077, Cloudpunk is devoted to portraying cyberpunk society from the perspective of regular residents. You play as Rania, a delivery driver just trying to make it from one day to the next. The narrative of Cloudpunk is mostly told through some excellent voice acting as you deliver packages all through the city of Nivalis- from the towering executive districts all the way to the uninhabited underbelly of the city. For those who were super hooked on the narratives and mysteries of Edgerunners there is perhaps even more to chew on here.
The existence of flying cars means that Nivalis sprawls on a vertical plane as much as it does horizontally. The rich and powerful literally live above the less well-off, a simple yet effective way to visualize the kinds of class dynamics seen in Edgerunners. Despite this, Nivalis has to be one of the most beautiful cities in gaming. Absolutely drenched in neon and smoke, Nivalis’ verticality dwarfs Rania, even in her hover car. Where other cities still have the option of looking to the sky for relief from the sights of the city, Nivalis’ urban views have no such escape, towering into the heavens, and cascading into the depths. Cloudpunk is voxel-based, perfect for the scope of the game as making deliveries has you constantly on the move meaning intricate details are less important than the overall impression the city makes. This trick means that Cloudpunk really shines in long views and in motion, as hover cars buzz over every inch of the city.
For Edgerunners fans who got hooked on the narrative and its depiction of class, and fell in love with Night City, Cloudpunk is a game you cannot miss. Hell, even writing this has me longing to explore Nivalis again.
Ghostrunner
David’s Sandevistan allows for some of the coolest moments in Edgerunners. If you found yourself wanting more time manipulating cyberpunk action after Edgerunners, Ghostrunner is easy to recommend. You play as a Ghostrunner, essentially a robot cyber-ninja, who has been reprogrammed by the rebels of Dharma Tower.
Ghostrunner is the most action-focused game on this list and it provides that cool factor that you can pretty much only get from the cyberpunk genre. You face enemies with guns while your only tool of destruction is a sword so getting close requires clever use of the freerunning skills at your disposal, as well as the ability to slow time to the point that you can dodge bullets.
It cannot be overstated how plain cool Ghostrunner’s action is, dodging bullets in slow-mo before slicing your enemies in two with a futuristic cyber-sword is pretty much nothing but cool. Fans of the action in Edgerunners can certainly get a kick from this.
Citizen Sleeper
2022’s visual-novel-esque Citizen Sleeper has a similar focus to Cloudpunk, in that it portrays the everyday lives of people in a cyberpunk society. The challenge of the game is found in trying to achieve the narrative goals, whilst sustaining yourself by working to pay for meds, food, etc. In fact, much of the game’s message is that, for some, the chance to simply live and struggle on with the rest of us, is a blessing.
A Sleeper is a corporate-owned android working in space, who has been given the digitized consciousness of a human being, who is “sleeping” on Earth. The main goal of Citizen Sleeper is to survive as a Sleeper who has escaped from their corporate owners.
The struggle of the Sleeper might interest fans of Lucy’s story in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Both the Sleeper and Lucy have corporations claiming ownership of them, trying to deny them the opportunity to live and pursue their dreams. Anyone looking for a plotline similar to Lucy’s with more depth should give Citizen Sleeper a whirl, it tells a fantastic story and invites the player to think about some difficult questions.
The Red Strings Club
While Edgerunners is a fantastic little snapshot of almost everything great about the cyberpunk genre, it overlooks the fact that punk is queer, and that cyberpunk specifically opens the door for loads of interesting queer stories. A few of the games in this list have queer representation of some kind but The Red Strings Club is the game that I really want to draw attention to.
Over the course of The Red Strings Club, you play three characters, two of which are together. This means that you get to experience the highs and lows of a queer cyberpunk relationship from both sides, and have some form of agency over how both of the characters relate to each other.
As well as being a great follow-up for fans feeling starved of queer cyberpunk stories, The Red Strings Club shares a tragic ending with Edgerunners. If, for some reason, you enjoy having your favorite cyberpunk characters torn away from you, this definitely provides the same emotional bombardment.
Transistor
Supergiant’s 2014 delight, Transistor, isn’t overtly cyberpunk, but its mood and visuals are close enough to feel cyberpunk-adjacent. Transistor makes a great follow-up to Edgerunners less for its cyberpunkiness, and more for the interesting ways that two of Edgerunners' strengths are presented. Transistor’s version of the Sandevistan functions almost identically to how it’s presented in Edgerunners, with actions being shown in slow-mo, before then playing out in real-time. In Transistor, Turn() is so powerful that it practically changes the rules of the game from real-time to turn-based.
Transistor’s music is embedded in its world in much the same way that popular tracks from Edgerunners like I REALLY WANT TO STAY AT YOUR HOUSE are actually in-universe tracks from the 2077 radio. In Transistor, you play as the singer Red, and several of the tracks are Red’s own work. While Transistor might not be the most cyberpunky follow-up to Edgerunners, fans who are looking to obsess over in-universe music, and creative slow-motion action might find what they are looking for here.
