Yerba Buena sprouts up on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Steam demo also available for game-within-a-game physics puzzler set in 1970s San Francisco

Cloning technology may be progressing, but the best we can ever hope for is duplication. If we ever want to reproduce something as complex as movement, we'll need games like Mad About Pandas' newly released Yerba Buena to let us do so virtually instead.

Barb is a 26-year-old woman living in 1976 San Francisco. Or at least, she THINKS thinks she is. Really Barb and her friends Russell, Wanda, Jorge and the other locals in the neighbourhood around the titular park are really just NPCS unwittingly inhabiting an "abandoned game world." Ignorance is bliss until various elements in the city begin glitching uncontrollably, while a "dangerous gang of bikers with superpowers" begins wreaking havoc on the streets and an "sinister plot" fueled by "greed and destruction" threatens to destroy everything they know and love from within. Fortunately, Barb comes upon a unique device called the Oscillator that lets her capture and store the "movement and physical traits" of certain objects, then reapply them to glitched elements in order to manipulate the environment. Players will need to make strategic use of this new tool to help Barb expose the truth and fight the corruption spreading through the city.

As with the German developer's previous title, the narrative-driven Hitchhiker – A Mystery Game, Yerba Buena is a low-poly 3D adventure with a distinctive art style. Here, however, you'll do much more than sit in cars and chat with people, as you can freely roam the city (anywhere impenetrable force fields allow) and used your newfound ability to "solve mind-bending environmental platforming puzzles." Using the game's "Copy and Paste mechanic," you simply aim your gun-like Oscillator to capture the "desired trait or movement vector of objects around you," then shoot to recreate them wherever the game permits. Suddenly you can "give a table the bounce of a trampoline, hurl entire buildings across city blocks, or turn solid walls into thin air." Experimentation is not only encouraged (this is a game world, after all) but will be required, as you must plan your movements and timing as the obstacles get increasingly more complex, such as stacking properties and having limited steps to carry your captured traits. Helpfully, an in-game tutorial will walk you through the mechanics involved before setting you back out onto the San Francisco streets to confront the threat to your beloved city. 

You can capture every aspect of Yerba Buena now, as the game has launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam for Windows PC. Or you can take aim at a smaller slice first through the playable demo also available on Steam. 

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