Gamescom 2017 round-up: Part 2
Unknown Fate
by Matthias Glanznig
Unknown Fate is a 3D first-person adventure game developed by MarsLit Games, a small Italian indie studio founded by two brothers, Andrea Farid Marsili and Marco Karim Marsili. At gamescom, Andrea Farid showed us several parts of their first game. Although it is made for virtual reality (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, OSVR), a VR device will not be required and we saw the regular PC version.
Richard is the main character. One day he passes from the real world into a surreal universe. At first, it feels like a very strange and unfamiliar place to him, but the more time he spends there, the more it becomes obvious that everything here is somehow related to his former life. Most of his dark surroundings feel like a weird mix of dream and reality. He also experiences memories from his life, shown in black and white. Many details here, like a shooting gallery in an amusement park, are a reminder of things we have seen in the surreal world. In order to return back to reality, Richard needs to understand how everything is connected.
One thing is certain: Unknown Fate is not going to be a traditional adventure game but it’s not going to be a walking simulator either. Exploration is an important aspect, and you will have to do a lot of puzzle-solving. Sometimes even jumping is required to overcome an obstacle. Over the course of the story, Richard learns new powers that allow him to interact with the environment in different ways. These abilities are relevant for certain puzzles. For example, through telekinesis he can move heavy objects, or he can shoot energy balls in order to activate certain mechanisms.
While story, exploration, and puzzles are the key features of Unknown Fate, there are also going to be a few opponents to defeat. According to Andrea Farid, these confrontations are closely linked to the protagonist’s past and feel sort of like puzzles themselves. However, we only saw glimpses of these action elements and not enough to form a more elaborate opinion. The trailer released for gamescom below offers a clearer picture of the type of gameplay we can expect.
Visually, the game looks quite decent, especially if you consider that most of it has been done by only two people without much prior experience in this field. Although sometimes still a bit rough around the edges, the dreamlike environments create a promising dark atmosphere and the art style is consistent and original. Overall, we definitely enjoyed the presentation.
MarsLit Games intends to release the game soon, maybe even this year. Published by 1C Company, Unknown Fate is going to be available with optional VR support on Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Inmates
by Matthias Glanznig
Before our Blackenrock appointment, publisher Iceberg Interactive showed us a playable build of their new first-person horror adventure game from Armenia, called Inmates. Game developer Davit Andreasyan was present and told us that he had been working alone on it for 26 months. Currently he is aiming for release on PC in fall 2017.
Inmates tells the story of Jonathan, who finds himself alone in a prison. At first, he doesn’t seem to know where he is, or what brought him to this dark and very unfriendly place. A headache and dizziness plague him. While exploring the environment we get to know him a bit better, for example through personal notes and pictures that can be found in many places throughout the prison. Over time, surreal events become more and more frequent, including Jonathan experiencing hallucinations of other people. Of course, we’ll have to wait for the final version of the game to see how it all adds up.
According to Andreasyan, Inmates is inspired by horror adventure games from the 1990s and movie classics like The Shining. A psychological type of horror can be expected, one that does not depend on jump-scares. Aside from story, exploration and puzzles, there is not going to be much action in Inmates, except maybe the necessity to hide in a few situations. Unfortunately, we can’t say a lot about the complexity of its puzzles yet, as we didn’t see much of that personally. However, playing through the game is supposed to take around five hours.
Given the fact that most of the game was developed by only one person, it may not come as a big surprise that the graphics and animations are still rough around the edges at this point. And while there is English voice acting guiding us through the horror scenario, some of the voice lines did not sound very convincing at all. Still, the more important question is how the horror actually plays out, and it would be a bit premature to say much about that, as gamescom is not the best place to really experience suspense and fear. We are nonetheless very curious to see how the horror and atmosphere will work, and whether Inmates is able to distinguish itself from other horror games in a positive way.
My Memory of Us
by Peter Färberböck
According to Juggler Games, their aim is to create outstanding narrative games with engaging mechanics. Their showcase for that strategy is a game called My Memory of Us, about two children, a girl and a boy, trying to flee their war-torn country together. We were able to take a look at gamescom.
The game is more of a narrative puzzle-platformer and less of a classic adventure game. Still, My Memory of Us does have a quite a rich story in which an evil king starts a world-spanning war and robot soldiers invade the protagonists’ country. Groups of people are forced to resettle and now have to live behind high walls. Not coincidently, the robot soldiers look like Nazis (in the style of the anime Jin-Roh) and the featured areas within the walls very much resemble Jewish ghettos in Poland. As the developers themselves are from southern Poland, it is quite clear that the game is really about Jewish kids fleeing a Polish ghetto during World War II. There will even be quite historically famous Jewish Poles featured in the game, such as orphanage director Janusz Korczak and resistance fighter Irina Sendlerowa. Still, Juggler wanted to stress that this is not a game about the Holocaust, because they want no age restrictions for the game. Instead, this is a pseudo-fictional setting filled with strange machinery.
Players will control both kids, able to switch between these two anytime. However, progress is not that easy because the girl is afraid of the dark and the boy has their only light source. He can also climb, while the girl is taller and can run faster, which also applies when they are together holding hands. Therefore, cooperation between them is needed all the time. My Memory of Us is divided into 3 acts with a total of 18 levels, and usually the children will solve environmental puzzles to clear the path and get rid of the robot soldiers. The game also has some boss fights, but once again, these are also about solving puzzles. You can choose between mouse/keyboard and gamepad controls, though for now it will only be released on PC.
During the estimated play time of 3-6 hours, the action will be accompanied by a great contemporary original soundtrack. It is very much in the style of Jewish klezmer music with great clarinet tunes. There will be English voice-overs during cut-scenes, but none during gameplay as the NPCs only talk via symbols in speech bubbles. The graphics are beautiful as well, as Juggler is utilizing a black-and-white style just like cartoons or Polish comic books of the ‘50s. Sprinkled throughout will be some red splotches of colour, symbolizing the maturing of the children.
After one and a half years of work, the release of My Memory of Us is now on track for a Q1/Q2 release next year.
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