2064: Read Only Memories
Top 10 Best Cyberpunk Games of All Time
2064: Read Only Memories is a heavily narrative focused game, and one with quite a memorable cast of characters to boot. This one lays heavily on the cyberpunk themes and even draws inspiration from 80s adventure titles like Snatcher. 2064 takes place during the Christmas season of the same year in Neo-San Francisco, where a company called Parallax has created a line of programs that integrate into people’s smartphones known as ROMs (Relationship and Organizational Managers). You play as a young journalist trying to track down a missing Parallax engineer, along with the help of Turing, a self-modifying robot and the world’s very first sapient machine.
Gameplay is fairly straightforward in 2064, employing the general adventure game standards of investigating areas, building an inventory, and talking to the world’s many characters. What really makes the title stick, however, is how emotionally resonant its story and characters can be. There’s true cultural and racial diversity in the 2064’s cast, something not often seen in games. More than that, however, the title uses this diversity to explore identity and class politics, with a futuristic cyberpunk backdrop as the basis. This is one story you won’t soon forget.
