You could be forgiven for not remembering ION LANDS’ Nivalis, an open-world cyberpunk follow-up to Cloudpunk, where players can manage their own business. Announced in 2022, it was delayed past 2025 to accommodate fully voiced characters, but those results have borne fruit. In a new gameplay showcase, we get to see some of them in action, including Ava, who accompanies the protagonist.
A few characters include Thaddeus Carminus, a grizzled cook in Meridian Market; Salt Pete, who claims there’s more to Nivalis’s oceans than “sentient slime, junk HOVA’s and ancient, God-like AI’s dreaming dark dreams”; and Nixxy, an IRL streamer with AR glasses. Last November, the developer promised about 135 fully-voiced primary and secondary characters, amounting to some 200,000 words, so you can imagine the scale.
Of course, throughout the showcase, we see the player setting up their noodle, including assigning shifts for the working schedule. There’s also the Relationship Matrix, which lets you see what other characters think of you, and the various gorgeous sights that the city has to offer in the early game.
All this is well and good, but what about a release date? In a separate Steam Community post, ION LANDS said it’s “entering the final stretch before we can finally open the doors of Nivalis to everyone who’s been following this journey with us.”
It’s still refining certain aspects, including the voice-over, and explicitly stated that the footage isn’t final. But in terms of really highlighting the atmosphere and ambience, it’s pretty compelling.
Nivalis is scheduled to release sometime this year for PC. Stay tuned for more updates.
