Pox

About

Pox is an indie sci-fi interactive fiction game set on a futuristic city-planet in the year 2119. You play a teenager arriving on Pox for a fresh start, only to uncover a dystopian underbelly beneath its polished surface. The story unfolds through dialogue and decisions that shape your character’s path, with branching consequences affecting relationships and survival. Exploration and moral dilemmas take precedence over combat, focusing on how you navigate a society built on deception. The game’s strength lies in its sharp writing and layered worldbuilding, blending cyberpunk aesthetics with grounded human struggles. Player choices often lead to unpredictable outcomes, with some paths opening new opportunities while others trigger permanent setbacks. Released in 2019 for PC, it caters to fans of narrative-driven experiences but leans into mature themes and ambiguous endings that set it apart from more conventional visual novels.

Storyline

200 years in the future, the sprawling city-planet of Pox is the hub of all interplanetary commerce and culture. It's beauty can only be experienced in person, and opportunity awaits any and all that visit it's surface. ....At least, that's what the travel ads always say. On your 18th birthday, you decide to move out of your parents' house and make your own way in the universe. You bought a ticket with the money you've saved up, and set out to start a new life on Pox. But things just don't seem to go your way. Pretty soon you find that the acclaimed "Paradise Planet" is definitely not what it's hyped up to be.