The most striking element in Rendezvous is its absolutely stunning neo-retro visual design. Developers Pendopo Creations have mastered blending old-school pixel art with modern rendering techniques, placing minimalist character sprites into gorgeously drawn environments. It’s as if the King’s Quest titles got the Octopath Traveler treatment: dynamic lighting, bloom, reflections, and incredibly smooth animations make every environment spring to life and ooze with cyber-noir charm.

Glowing billboards and cityscapes that sprawl into the distance make Neo-Surabaya feel expansive and lived-in. The level of detail is impressive, and goes a long way to build a world that feels at once familiar and foreign. Tidbits of lore are sprinkled throughout the game (an advertisement at a train station, a riot outside an office building, a passing conversation) and the snippets of Indonesian language cement the feeling that you’re exploring a dystopian Java. The soundtrack is right on point as well, with heavy synth chords providing depth and layers to this capitalist technocracy.

At its core, Rendezvous is an old-school adventure game. Setyo wanders each environment with an objective in mind, and needs to present the right items at the right time in order to achieve it. Most goals are straightforward: you’ll need a ladder to get over a fence, and a blanket to protect from the barbed wire at its peak.

Some of them take longer, and involve backtracking between NPCs and locked barriers a few times to uncover everything you need. Items don’t tend to spawn until you need them, meaning you’re discouraged from leaving the critical path to hunt for secrets. It’s a sweetly nostalgic style of gameplay, but lacks some of the more modern conveniences such as a dialogue history log.

A particular scene midway through an intense chase sequence involved flipping a series of colour-coded switches in the correct order. The dialogue in Rendezvous doesn’t explain things well, which, when combined with no way to re-read previous dialogue, lead to the game effectively soft-locking me out of completing the puzzle. Even after I had reset the game and read the puzzle explanation more carefully, there was no clear solution. I eventually guessed the answer from an obscure environmental clue, but rather than feeling relieved it was more of a “seriously? that worked?” kind of vibe. Stumbling across solutions like this feels less like a challenge and more like guesswork.

Things are similarly frustrating when it comes to the game’s action sequences. Setyo has access to a few combat manoeuvres, including a basic punch, a dodge roll, a sprint, and a weapon attack (if you have one equipped). You can also hold a button to crouch, which prevents enemies from detecting you… mostly. Rendezvous is not consistent in signposting which enemies should be avoided via stealth, and which will need to be beaten in combat. Getting it wrong will end with you taking damage at best, and at worst lead to an instant “Busted!” message necessitating reloading a checkpoint. It’s also difficult to tell when stealth is working effectively: at some points you need to hide behind obstacles in order to avoid the enemy’s gaze, while at others you can crouch-walk happily into a floodlight without detection. It’s simply a matter of trial-and-error, which would be less of a nuisance if checkpoints were more generous.

When it comes to actual combat, it’s a simple affair. Apart from the opening combat tutorial you’ll rarely do anything but hammer the hit/shoot button until the baddie dies. There are a few weapons to pick up in certain chapters including a gun and a laser sword, which are admittedly awesome despite not adding much mechanically. Thankfully, you’ll collect enough health bandages and medkits throughout the game to mitigate any damage you’ll take while simply running past most enemy encounters.