Wow. This has the potential to be a truly amazing game, with serious societal implications. I hope it lives up to my expectations - I’m definitely getting it.
This looks interesting, i might get it. I think i would enjoy the game a lot if it had some XCOM type of strategy elements but it definitely looks very promising as it is, will see if Steam will have some sort of offer on the game during xmas. Maybe.
I got it the other week and it is astounding. It haunted my dreams and made me feel like I was suffocating in misery, but that’s what makes it so great.
It has an oppressively atmospheric visual style and the game mechanics force you to make difficult decisions. Empathy is rewarded and punished at the same time, as is callousness. I’ve never played anything like it.
I am desperate to get this game. I saw an early let’s play before the release and it is one of my favorite type of games but instead of the typical zombie apocalypse uses a much more tense and immersive setting.
Yeah sounds waaaaay fun. No thanks
Great game. The single save slot is key here, so you can’t undo your choices.
The game is primarily set up in three phases: a mad rush for resource gathering while it’s warm, trying to deal with not starving and freezing to death while it snows, and bandits in the last stage as people get more desperate. During the day you can fix up your house, and craft items you need, while at night you can send out a person to scavenge, trade, (or if your people get desperate steal/kill) from other people on the map. Each map may contain danger in the form of snipers, or bandits, or other civilians if you’re playing as a crazy person with a knife.
I managed to have a successful playthrough, saved the starving homeless man, the woman at the supermarket, freed a person from the psychopaths in the hotel, and helped out my neighbors, but ended up accidentally killing an armed civilian on one of the maps (he looked like a bandit), which of course made the house sad.
What’s nice is that the characters have different personalities, so the actions you take can spiral them into depression, or really just highlight how much of a monster they are, I’m looking at you Talented Lawyer Lady, please stop quipping that we don’t need to help out our neighbors.
This does sound interesting to me, as does The Curious Expedition.
I am rubbish at playing games that have permadeath though (so, just rubbish?). I tried XCOM like that and I just don’t want to play because I know I’ll screw it up and have to go all the way back to the beginning. I’m okay with it in something like FTL (at which I am also rubbish) because at least I haven’t invested too much time in each play through.
You start with three people and people will randomly ask to be taken in as the game progresses. If a person dies, it makes the game harder, but isn’t necessarily a game ender. In my successful playthrough I had two of my best scavengers die due to people with assault riffles, but I had a thief, a skill-less but nice principal, and a morally suspect lawyer take their place.
XCOM was easy thanks to quick-save unless you want to be hardcore about it and never use it. Then permadeath is a thing. But honestly i abused the crap out of quicksave and quickload because i didn’t want to deal with the frustration, i just wanted a fun game to play.
I played through, savescumming whenever I got pissed off with unlucky rolls. Drove me nuts whenever a point blank shot with a shotgun or whatever would incredibly miss and get me killed.
I guess that you could just go back to a really cautious approach and not run and gun at all, but that would be no fun. And I get too attached to the squad members.
Anyway, I started an ironman campaign but I just can’t get enthusiastic about playing knowing that I’ll screw up somewhere and likely lose after investing hours, then have to go back to the start.
I did have issues in XCOM with plenty of BS rolls. I would have 90% odds on a shot only to have several members miss, which is frankly absurd. At higher percentages it should be counted at least as a partial hit rather than a miss, but whatever. Quickload fixes everything.
This is of course why you turn your assault people into cyborgs by ripping off their limbs and dropping them into a giant robot platform.
If you get attached to your characters I would also suggest Valkyria Chronicles for turn based action. Just be prepared for some cheesy cut scenes.
Every human being should be forced to play a game like this, maybe we would be less apathetic about what our leaders do in our names. Not everything has to be fun, some things develop your humanity and make you a better human being.
/sermon
Implying that every human being has “leaders”, which is a rather rude insinuation. But I agree with the rest of what you said.
It’s worth reading this comment from someone who lived in Sarajevo during the siege. They share their thoughts on the accuracy of what the game portrays. There’s some good discussion in the replies too.
Fascinating.
This game portrays people as getting colder and more selfish as the time went on. It was exactly the opposite. Everyone shared everything. People helped each other in ways they would never do today.
That would have been engaging to show as well – have the game become more heartwarming as people became kinder during the game, but more poignant as well when those people died. I don’t know whether it would have been received as unrealistic and saccharine, or as hopeful and uplifting.
The developer’s replies to that comment are interesting as well, though, explaining that some people have the opposite experience in similar wars.
Anyway, looks great. Will get.
SuperBunnyHop made an excellent YT video about anti-war games in general:
This game is definitely on my list. Everything I’ve heard has put me in mind of Cory’s short story After the Siege, so I look forward to being horribly depressed (like when I play Papers, Please).
It’s also available from GoG if you don’t like Steam.
