Games that pulled off the "*punk" aesthetic well. - inb4 "none of them"

[TFT-A9]

So a lot of people (rightfully) despise the *punk (steam, cyber, magic, whatever) aesthetic because it's been done to death and not in good ways. I personally think there are a few games that pull it off with remarkable skill.

e.g.: I think Thief II: the Metal Age does a really good job of it, as does Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. I can't think of many others in that vein that pull off steam/magicpunk, but I could be wrong. Deus Ex does a good job with cyberpunk IMO, but I hear mixed opinions of Cyberpunk 2077. The Shadowrun games come immediately to mind but seeing as how I've only played the SNES and Genesis Shadowruns I don't know how well the newer games handled it.

Anyone else have suggestions/shopping lists/want to tell me I'm wrong for X reason?

 

[Y2K Baby]

Minecraft 2.

 

[Chaos Theorist]

The game is eurojank but it has a nice dieselpunk aesthetic

 

[Crabbo]

DmC pulled it off well, as it was shallow and produced by a corporation to appeal to angsty people who wanted to feign rebellion against a higher power while consuming a product.

 

[crocodilian]

When I read "punk" I think of games that aggressively and loudly strive to be distinct, as if rebelling against what's standard.

Jet Set Radio, Um Jammer Lammy, Mad Panic Coaster, killer7, Omikron the Nomad Soul and Postal come to mind. They're very different games but, from what I can tell, their developers wanted to make something that's never existed before and will likely never be replicated. This is evident in the visuals and atmosphere they provide.

 

[TFT-A9]

When I read "punk" I think of games that aggressively and loudly strive to be distinct, as if rebelling against what's standard.

Jet Set Radio, Um Jammer Lammy, Mad Panic Coaster, killer7, Omikron the Nomad Soul and Postal come to mind. They're very different games but, from what I can tell, their developers wanted to make something that's never existed before and will likely never be replicated. This is evident in the visuals and atmosphere they provide.

It would probably be a better use of the term, honestly. I liked Omikron, it managed to do nearly EVERYTHING in one game. Fighting? Yep. FPS? Yes. RPG-esque character advancement and dialogue? Sorta. Robots, magic, reincarnation and demons all in one? Yes. Very weird game but in a good way.

 

[MrTroll]

MGS5 because you can have a horse poop on your face and that's extremely punk.

 

[Y2K Baby]

honestly. I liked Omikron, it managed to do nearly EVERYTHING in one game. Fighting? Yep. FPS? Yes. RPG-esque character advancement and dialogue? Sorta. Robots, magic, reincarnation and demons all in one? Yes. Very weird game but in a good way.

Bruh moment.

 

[TFT-A9]

Bruh moment.

What? It was fun. The dialogue trees only get a sorta because they're inconsequential overall but everything else felt like some effort was expended.

 

[crocodilian]

It would probably be a better use of the term, honestly. I liked Omikron, it managed to do nearly EVERYTHING in one game. Fighting? Yep. FPS? Yes. RPG-esque character advancement and dialogue? Sorta. Robots, magic, reincarnation and demons all in one? Yes. Very weird game but in a good way.

I thought it was interesting to explore at least once. I wouldn't recommend it nor call it a good game, but it is unique.

 

[TFT-A9]

I thought it was interesting to explore at least once. I wouldn't recommend it nor call it a good game, but it is unique.

I've played way worse. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else even really try to tie all that together in that fashion. It's not an instant classic or anything like that but it was a ride.

Something else just came to mind: Grim Dawn. Kind of a "powderpunk" feel to it. About as fun as a Diablo clone can be expected to be.

 

[Pissmaster]

Came here to mention Shadowrun SNES. Terrific atmosphere, terrible combat mechanics. Didn't stop me from playing through it at least three times, though.

Shadowrun Returns doesn't capture the grittiness of the world nearly as well. There's just something about it that makes it feel... I don't know, bland? It's just missing a certain something.

 

[TFT-A9]

Came here to mention Shadowrun SNES. Terrific atmosphere, terrible combat mechanics. Didn't stop me from playing through it at least three times, though.

If the SNES mouse (which actually was a thing) were enabled for it, it would have been a bit less janky I think.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

I liked Omikron, it managed to do nearly EVERYTHING in one game. Fighting? Yep. FPS? Yes. RPG-esque character advancement and dialogue? Sorta. Robots, magic, reincarnation and demons all in one? Yes. Very weird game but in a good way.

It did literally none of those things well.

On topic: Arcanum (Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura) did steampunk mixed with fantasy really really well, back before "steampunk" was the dead meme it is now.

 

[TFT-A9]

It did literally none of those things well.

It tried. (Except the dialogue. That felt like something that just didn't matter at all.) I appreciated what they were trying to accomplish and still managed to have fun with it. That and I had nothing else to play that summer.

 

[Maskull]

Popping by to say that the punk suffix is fucking terrible and a shallow way to define an aesthetic styling.

 

[Lopt]

Never liked cyberpunk anything but Va11halla made it very palatable and realistic to me. Though it's a bit less on the punk side of things

 

[Fagnacious D]

Quarantine does a pretty good job.

Locked in a shitty city where crime is rampant and people treat the vehicles like bumper cars.

 

[Damn Near]

It did literally none of those things well.

On topic: Arcanum (Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura) did steampunk mixed with fantasy really really well, back before "steampunk" was the dead meme it is now.

Arcanum was one the great old PC RPGs. Huge replay value, but magic characters were overpowered like crazy vs gunslingers

 

[TFT-A9]

Popping by to say that the punk suffix is fucking terrible and a shallow way to define an aesthetic styling.

It's become such an ubiquitous term by now that I forget what we even called these kinds of things before.

Quarantine does a pretty good job.
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Locked in a shitty city where crime is rampant and people treat the vehicles like bumper cars.

I remember getting that in a shareware collection a long time ago holy shit.