Cyberpunk adventure Read Only Memories has a cyberdemo, cybertrailer

Read Only Memories2

I hereby declare that today is International Cyberpunk Day. *Blows party horn, which unfurls into a miniature trenchcoat and flicks rain everywhere*. Earlier today I mentioned that Satellite Reign was heading to Steam Early Access in December, and now I'm going to go on about something similar you can play in the meantime. Well, I say similar—while it might share a similar aesthetic, Read Only Memories is a cyberpunk adventure game in the Snatcher mould. The above trailer hit all the right notes for me, so I'm very much looking forward to its release in March next year. But wait a minute, didn't I say something about playing it now? Yup: there's a demo, available here.

The demo contains a "final(ish) version of the game’s Prologue & Chapter 1", and it's available for Mac and Linux as well as Windows. You might know developers MidBoss as the organisers of GaymerX, and Read Only Memories seems particularly inclusive in that regard. While it's the sort of adventure game that doesn't show the player character, you'll be able to choose from a variety of personal pronouns when you start the game.

Here's Read Only Memories in MidBoss' own words:

"Read Only Memories is a new cyberpunk adventure that takes place in Neo-SF, 2064. Based on 90’s point & click adventure games like Gabriel Knight and Snatcher, Read Only Memories is all about exploration and puzzle solving. The deeper you dive into the mystery of your missing friend and this new unknown ROM, the further you get entangled into the deepest scandal to ever hit Neo San Francisco. In a city packed with danger, and filled with Hybrids, Humans, ROMs and Brain Controlled Androids, the question is: Can you survive in Neo-SF?"

Remember: in the future, every city worth its salt has the word 'Neo' in front of it. Neo Ipswich. Neo Wolverhampton. Neo New York. (Thanks, IndieGames!)

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in Adventure
The character takes a test in a school room.
Expelled! review
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Inside
Limbo and Inside studio demands compensation from co-founder Dino Patti for alleged 'unauthorized use of Playdead's trademarks and copyrighted works'
Two characters sitting on a bench talking
Wanderstop review
Zoe showing off in front of Mio
Split Fiction review
Rusty Rabbit chomping a carrot like a cigar
Rusty Rabbit turns Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu into a fluffy bunny
Latest in News
An edited Microsoft/Steam logo, illustrating the potential future integration Microsoft has for an Xbox app.
Microsoft crawls back to Steam ahead of schedule by leaking a screenshot of an app where you can launch Steam games through Xbox
Dancouga blasting the heck out of Mazinger Z in crossover mecha fighter Iron Saga VS
This fighter is Marvel Vs Capcom for classic mecha anime sickos, launching into early access with a strategy RPG story mode on its heels
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
Microsoft announces DirectX Raytracing 1.2 claiming 'game changing' performance benefits but it looks like the important stuff is already in Nvidia's RTX GPUs, even the old ones
Lenovo Legion Go S in someone's hands with an apartment behind it
The first non-Steam Deck SteamOS handheld is now available for preorder, and Lenovo may be aiming for the ROG Ally X's throne
Scorched person with their hands on their head
Ghoul players in Fallout 76 are starting to place their camps in the most radioactive areas of the map, and regular humans aren't happy: 'I had to inject 30+ radaway into my veins'
The "mind blown" meme from Tim & Eric.
Friendship ended with human race: Boffins declare the 'meme Turing test' has been passed, and AI is now making funnier captions on average than you useless lumps