What would the sprawling metropolises of a cyberpunk dystopia smell like? If you look beyond the gleaming skyscrapers of point ‘n’ click adventure VirtuaVerse’s futuristic city, it probably contains whiffs of the industrial odour of diesel and metal, tinged with the stench of rotting food and sewer drains.
Even through its pink and blue neon-lit structures, the place is overwrought with gloom and grime. You’ll see puddles of toxic spills from the perpetually torrential acid rain, decaying posters and messy graffiti on oil-stained walls, and bags of garbage spilling over sidewalks. It’s an abysmal place to be in, particularly so in the slums and back alleys – the city’s sordid underbelly where criminal gangs gather, and the homeless scavenge for leftover food and drugs in dumpsters.
