Can you escape a town watched by a giant policeman?
Upcoming immersive sim Militsioner looks fascinating
The police are a fairly easy threat to bypass in most immersive sims: just wait for them to walk a few steps. But what if a policeman is hundreds of metres tall and towers over the entire town? That's the setup for Militsioner, a fascinating-looking upcoming game about trying to flee a town where everyone thinks you're guilty of a crime and a vast policeman is keeping an eye on you. Check out the new gameplay trailer, which demonstrates how we'll be able to speak into our microphone to interact with townsfolks and the colossal copper.
"You're arrested on this ordinary day in the provincial town where the Giant Policeman lives and works," say developers TallBoys. "You haven't broken the law, have you? Of course, someone must have been telling lies, but absolutely everyone thinks you're guilty. Don't stick around for too long."
So we're trying to escape before we're arrested, while the big bobbie is out to stop us. But while he's colossal, he seems relatively human - not always watching, and willing to chat.
"In order for the policeman and the environment to understand the player correctly, we are working on a system that will correctly process the player's responses based on the context," TallBoys say in a dev blog. "It is important that it does not make stupid mistakes or create obstacles, as the answers will influence the mood and attitude of the Militsioner towards the player." Hell, would I even tell if his reactions were faked and arbitrary?
They noted on Twitter that they are planning to include "alternative text input as an option and possibly even a classic dialog system." But I'll definitely want the experience of talking to him myself.
The game proved controversial in Russia for casting the familiar folkcore figure of a giant cop as a sinister figure. Apparently the state-owned news channel Russia-24 questioned if it would instil a fear of people in uniform.
Militioniser will be on Steam whenever it arrives.