![]() As I learned more about the title and its influences I was eager to get an opportunity to speak with the creator about his project. Being a fan of film noir and tales of espionage I was drawn in by the moody atmosphere and the mix of retro-futurism with classic 50’s and 60’s art deco. Amidst this trend I have seen people creating new and unique settings for their stories to take place in, and when I saw the neon soaked cityscape that Ellis Tucciwas crafting for his upcoming title, I wanted to learn more. It seems as though immersive sims have seemingly taken off in popularity in recent years following the success of Gloomwood and the boomer shooter renaissance bringing classics like Deus Ex and System Shockback into the public zeitgeist. This tense time in world history is the setting for the upcoming stealth immersive sim Spectra, which will see players take the role of a Soviet agent in an alternate history 1972, tasked with infiltrating the fortress city of Hiawatha. One era of history that surely inspires dread in those who lived through it is the Cold War conflict that saw the US and Soviet Union locked in a series of proxy wars and acts of espionage in an attempt to further their ideological and geopolitical goals. I made liberal use of this myself but there was at least one alternative way to deal with a set enemies if you were looking around the environment.Spectra: Ellis Tucci Brings the Horrors of the Cold War to the Immersive Sim Genreįear takes many forms and comes in many sizes, and while the landscape of indie gaming is filled with various instances of extreme examples, ranging from psycho killers to mutant creatures, one can argue that our world can be just as terrifying if not more. With a cane sword in hand you can do a special charge strike that can instantly down an unaware enemy. That’s not to say you can’t make quick work of enemies if you get the chance. Your character can fight, but if you're spotted you can pretty quickly find yourself surrounded and be in a very dire spot. This UI element will show you how well you are hiding in the shadows, and you’ll have to keep an eye/ear out for any nosey surfaces that could draw enemies to you. You have some mobility options like being able to mantle over some objects, but the biggest point highlighted in the tutorial is the orb that lives in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. The demo began by introducing some early movement options and explaining the mechanics. It's just you, the eerie streets of the city and the curiously dressed creatures on patrol. On the design of Gloomwood this is a static, handcrafted, world so nothing is randomly generated. I’ll try to use clips from the current build (the art style for the game changed in the past year or so) so you may notice a difference compared to that earlier thread.Īs a refresher from that thread Gloomwood is a new Immersive Sim that draws inspiration from some of the classics, namely Thief and System Shock 2, where you take control of a character thrust into a hostile town where you need to focus on survival in the classic sense. There was no gameplay recording during the demo but a couple glimpses of Gloomwood from the developer Dillon Rogers and other New Blood staff on Twitter that I’ll be including to give some context. I’ll be sure to include any previews/interviews as they release but for now it’ll just be my own thoughts until those go up. I had already written about Gloomwood here on ResetEra but since the gameplay demo the thread about came from an older build (even at the time the video was mistakenly released) I wanted to start from scratch now that myself and others have gotten some hands on the game at PAX East last week. ![]()
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