Neon Hope blends Android: Netrunner and the Arkham Horror LCG into an optimistic cyberpunk co-op card game
Play your cards right to avert a dystopian future.
An upcoming card game looks to mix the cyberpunk strategy of tabletop all-timer Android: Netrunner with the cooperative narratives told in Arkham Horror: The Card Game, wrapped up in a more optimistic vision of the future.
Neon Hope tasks up to four players - or just a single player in a solo mode - with averting the impending dystopia caused by behemothic technology companies. Rather than the hacker-versus-megacorp competition of Netrunner, here the players are on the same side, working together to steer the future towards a tech-filled utopia.
The game’s creators at Hopeful Games outline its setting as mixing the anti-capitalist warnings of traditional cyberpunk with the positive vision of the solarpunk subgenre, which seeks to imagine a world where humankind can harness the environment in a sustainable way by utilising concepts such as renewable energy and living in harmony with nature. The game is set in a futuristic version of Berlin, offering a more European-flavoured sci-fi setting compared to the American lens of many classic cyberpunk games, which also have a spotty history with orientalist tropes.
The inspiration of the Arkham Horror living card game comes through in Neon Hope’s story-driven episodic scenarios, with players’ decisions branching the interactive narrative in a number of directions. That potential variety is also delivered through the game’s more than 400 cards, each illustrated by the game’s artists in keeping with the cyberpunk-solarpunk vibe.
Hopeful Games plans to crowdfund Neon Hope on Kickstarter in early 2025, with the team currently testing its prototype at events. Print-and-play and digital Tabletop Simulator demos for the game can also be found over on its Discord channel, if you’re curious to give it a go for yourself.