The game takes place in a single government building, in real time over four hours, the game advances without input from the player, but almost all in-game actions can affect the game's story. The game is set in late 1987 within the same universe as White Paper Games' first title Ether One. The game doesn't have a health bar or energy system, when the game needs to punish the player it does so by using up the player's time, for example if a player is caught doing something they shouldn't, they are taken to a security office and lose 15 minutes of game time, which shortens the time available to achieve the main aim of the game, obtaining knowledge.
Reviews View More
This is a very interesting stealth game that's in the first-person, much like games like Thief, however, the focus here is of espionage and in regards to England in 1987 and the anger against Immigrants, which mirrors many current political issues in the country where I live.
It starts out covering the events the led to this women being cornered in her home by a man who looks like he just screams 1950s, interviewing her and claiming that this act is what the country needs, to bring stability and that there are "people on our doorstep who want to harm us" all of which are weak and yet common arguments you hear all the time in nationalist circles. First you play as her attempting to download the data from the servers and failing, but after that you play as a journalist who is investigating the man who accused of bombing the facility and investigating his claims of innocence along with the company and the "Union Act" that it is attempting to get the public to vote for, but you soon find that things aren't what they seem.
The retro feel of the game is welcome, especially as I was born in 87 and I remember using Floppy Discs for PCs, but the music is also fun too. The AI is interesting as even if you aren't caught in a room where the alarm is going off, the guards will still regard you with suspicion because these alarms weren't going off BEFORE you arrived here.
The negatives are the few bugs still in the game where I've been caught in a wall, but it was rare and if you mess up, you need to restart that chapter which can be a real pain if you messed up one thing and now you have to go all the way back through unskippable sequences. However, the characters are fun enough that it doesn't bother you too much.
If you are interested in some more information, please have a look at my stream
I personally had a lot of fun streaming this and even did a second playthrough so I could get all the evidence needed for the interview and put the people on the backfoot with evidence.
It starts out covering the events the led to this women being cornered in her home by a man who looks like he just screams 1950s, interviewing her and claiming that this act is what the country needs, to bring stability and that there are "people on our doorstep who want to harm us" all of which are weak and yet common arguments you hear all the time in nationalist circles. First you play as her attempting to download the data from the servers and failing, but after that you play as a journalist who is investigating the man who accused of bombing the facility and investigating his claims of innocence along with the company and the "Union Act" that it is attempting to get the public to vote for, but you soon find that things aren't what they seem.
The retro feel of the game is welcome, especially as I was born in 87 and I remember using Floppy Discs for PCs, but the music is also fun too. The AI is interesting as even if you aren't caught in a room where the alarm is going off, the guards will still regard you with suspicion because these alarms weren't going off BEFORE you arrived here.
The negatives are the few bugs still in the game where I've been caught in a wall, but it was rare and if you mess up, you need to restart that chapter which can be a real pain if you messed up one thing and now you have to go all the way back through unskippable sequences. However, the characters are fun enough that it doesn't bother you too much.
If you are interested in some more information, please have a look at my stream
I personally had a lot of fun streaming this and even did a second playthrough so I could get all the evidence needed for the interview and put the people on the backfoot with evidence.
Esse jogo faz coisas muito interessantes, erra em algumas coisas, mas ainda assim se arrisca e experimenta com coisas que ainda quero ver mais nos jogos.
Vejo um potencial muito forte nesse estúdio!
Vejo um potencial muito forte nesse estúdio!
OOOOOOOO this is a hard sell. There is so much to love with this, the amount of interactivity is really making me feel immersed, but as others have mentioned its undercut by a fair bit of bugginess that prevents it from hitting the high notes that it really deserves to hit.
A few times I got spotted through a closed door, and one time the guard stood at the entrance way repeating the same lines, and wouldn't leave. It caused me to have to just run out and get spotted, but I ran away and there were 0 consequences from that anyway? I've had issues printing things since the UI wouldn't let me print (which is integral to the game's progress). Otherwise, the game's voice acting and characters are a bit choppy, but easily looked past.
With all that said, I think I'd recommend this in a deep sale. I got this via Humble Choice, and I'm going to keep playing this (hence my recommendation). The concept of everything running in real time is great, it's one of the few games that make me feel like I'm really investigating with actual time working against me (like dead rising!). I do wish there was a mode which let you quick save though, the game either requires you dedicate time to it, or you leave the game running if you need to do other stuff.
I just wish it had a bigger budget to make the game a bit slicker and to meet their ambition, hopefully White Paper Games get more to work with for their future games!
A few times I got spotted through a closed door, and one time the guard stood at the entrance way repeating the same lines, and wouldn't leave. It caused me to have to just run out and get spotted, but I ran away and there were 0 consequences from that anyway? I've had issues printing things since the UI wouldn't let me print (which is integral to the game's progress). Otherwise, the game's voice acting and characters are a bit choppy, but easily looked past.
With all that said, I think I'd recommend this in a deep sale. I got this via Humble Choice, and I'm going to keep playing this (hence my recommendation). The concept of everything running in real time is great, it's one of the few games that make me feel like I'm really investigating with actual time working against me (like dead rising!). I do wish there was a mode which let you quick save though, the game either requires you dedicate time to it, or you leave the game running if you need to do other stuff.
I just wish it had a bigger budget to make the game a bit slicker and to meet their ambition, hopefully White Paper Games get more to work with for their future games!
resident evil, but without zombies or guns. that's all i got, this being my first walking sim game.
not horror though. politics. the story is engaging enough to keep you going, but i do wish it was more fleshed out to up the stakes.
speaking of which, i actually failed the mission 🤷🏻♀️ left the building prematurely (semi-accidentially) and was missing an object. (you get an alternate ending)
nonetheless this was fun for the relatively brief ride that it was. the puzzles aren't hard by any means, but that's where the real-time element of the game kicks in, forcing you to work against the clock as you traverse the locations picking up clues towards your end goal. (no major pressure tho, you get an hour of to half an hour of ingame time, meaning you need to be aware of the time, and space things out properly rather than run against a ticking clock)
-------------------
Windows 10, Keyboard & Mouse
not horror though. politics. the story is engaging enough to keep you going, but i do wish it was more fleshed out to up the stakes.
speaking of which, i actually failed the mission 🤷🏻♀️ left the building prematurely (semi-accidentially) and was missing an object. (you get an alternate ending)
nonetheless this was fun for the relatively brief ride that it was. the puzzles aren't hard by any means, but that's where the real-time element of the game kicks in, forcing you to work against the clock as you traverse the locations picking up clues towards your end goal. (no major pressure tho, you get an hour of to half an hour of ingame time, meaning you need to be aware of the time, and space things out properly rather than run against a ticking clock)
-------------------
Windows 10, Keyboard & Mouse