I've only had my cyberpunk ripperdoc license for a week and the mob are already coming after me because I spent all my money upgrading my friend's robotic arms

I've always been a fan of the idea of Cyberpunk 2077's ripperdocs and their many counterparts across fictional cyberpunk dystopias. It's a lovely bit of backwards-working worldbuilding: you want every thug and gangster on the street to have a metal limb and robot eyes because it looks rad, but how do you explain where they're getting it all? Back alley black market cybernetics doctors performing elaborate surgeries on the cheap, of course!

I was delighted, then, when I saw that upcoming sim Steel Soul Shaper is giving these unsung heroes of the violent crime community the spotlight. Putting you in the shoes of a cyberware surgeon opening a new shop in an unfamiliar district, it goes in-depth on both the nitty gritty of repairing and modifying a customer's implants, and the tribulations of running a small business in a techno-hellscape.

Trying out an early build of the game, I found myself quickly drawn in. A major portion of each day is spent simply chatting to the visitors to your shop, and Steel Soul Shaper does a very efficient job of getting you invested in all their little stories.

Pit fighter Komarov, for example, is the kind of underdog I can't help but root for. He comes in for a tune up on his cybernetic combat arms before a big fight, and though it's laid on a little thick (showing me a photo of the adorable little daughter he's fighting to feed isn't so much tugging at my heartstrings as yanking them with both robotic hands) he's lovable right from the off.

Others are less pleasant but no less interesting. At one point, a local gang member comes in to inform me he'll be collecting protection money from now on, adding some financial pressure but also fleshing out this grim new district I've found myself in. Then an irritating government-sponsored robot quizzes me on my devotion to the local authorities, injecting a fun bit of political satire into the day. Here and there, new customers come in for quick fixes and mods, lingering just long enough to show off their endearing quirks.

And then a rather well-to-do lady arrives, reeking of trouble, and lets me know she manages Komarov's opponent in the upcoming fight. If I sabotage his arms before the match, she'll give me a big payout. If I don't… well, she won't be very happy. With that protection racket hanging over my head, I won't deny an easy payday is tempting.

Big moral choices like these seem to be a key part of Steel Soul Shaper, and I really like that it's not just picking dialogue options, it affects the more mechanical side of the game too.

When you're tweaking and fiddling with a customer's cyberware, the item is laid out on your table to be dissected into parts. Removing a casing to get at a microchip or burnt out motor inside is pleasingly tactile, and the more I play the more options I unlock, from applying spray paints and decals to scrubbing viruses out of on-board software.

That means that sabotaging Komarov's arms isn't just a button I can press, it's a physical act—I have to actually insert a rogue module while I'm pulling his limbs apart to clean up the parts and weld over the cracks. Somehow, that makes it feel far more nefarious.

And there are more subtle moral complexities to the job, too. Completing a particular customer's request only requires doing the bare minimum, and with a choice of different parts to use, it's very possible to send someone off with a cheap second-hand battery ready to fail in a few weeks, or equally to cut into your own profits by installing custom improvements instead. How much impact this actually has down the line I'm not yet sure, but the quiet implications were enough to invest emotional meaning in all this tinkering and bean-counting.

In the end, I send Komarov off not with an unwanted part, but with fully upgraded arms at no extra charge, more invested than ever in the outcome of his bout. It leaves me worryingly low on funds for the next time the gangs come to collect, and potentially with a powerful new enemy when his opponent's manager finds out, but in the world of cybernetics I figure you've got to embrace humanity where you find it.

How that all shakes out… well, I wouldn't want to spoil, but needless to say I'm left keen to play more and find out exactly how deep both the storyline and the repair work can get over the course of a full game.

If you're intrigued, you can try the game for yourself right now too. Though it doesn't yet have a demo, it does have a playtest you can opt into on its Steam page, which seems to cover much the same ground as the build I played. There's no application process or waitlist or anything—just click the button and you can install it. And what better way to get into the right mindset for Steel Soul Shaper than feeling like you're messing around with a piece of unfinished software?