I was excited to learn about No Umbrellas Allowed, "Cyberpunk Pawn Stars" is a helluva sell. After playing it over the span of a week though my initial excitement did falter.

The biggest issue I have is how the story and the game interact with each other. Often it feels like a decent day of gameplay will suddenly be sidetracked by two people you've never seen before telling you this morning's news headlines. The story itself takes a shockingly fence-sitting approach to what is essentially a brainwashing dystopia. All you or your quirky robot sidekick have to input are quips. I won't give any spoilerific information on the ending I got, however, the ending I wanted did cost more than I had and I was able to just take out every single loan available and use that money to buy the ending I wanted without repercussion.

I enjoyed the gameplay itself, esoteric career simulators are an unavoidable force slowly taking over our lives, but getting a good deal on a piece of jewelry is undeniably satisfying. I'm surprised how many games are still to this day jumping on the "Papers, Please" bandwagon, and whilst some of them are very fun none of them have ever quite reached the synergy of story and consistently engaging gameplay achieved by the godfather of this subgenre.