Over the weekend Tallboys’ upcoming game, Militsioner, blew up. The game is definitely intriguing, but now it’s also highly-anticipated, and it’s really not hard to see why once you’ve watched the trailer. Be warned, once you’ve watched this you’ll want to wishlist the game on Steam. Here’s a link to do so.
If you’re not one for videos, or you want to know what’s going on, here it is. This is a game in which you play as a criminal in a small town. You’re trapped here, but there are no walls. In fact, you’re free to try to leave whenever you want, it’s just that a giant policeman is going to stop you every time you try.
The Militsioner is that giant policeman, and his attitude towards you will change depending on what you do each day. If you just walk around the sandbox world, complete with cars, and don’t try to escape, he might be nice to you. If however, you try to get out of the town, and force him to look for you or come after you, then he’s probably not going to be very kind to you at all.
Over the course of the game, you need to set up a way to escape without the Militsioner seeing you. If you can do that, then you can be free once more. The trouble is, the Militsioner really doesn’t want to let you out of his sight. He’ll pull out a flashlight to search trains at night, and even get up from where he’s sitting if he clocks you running away in the distance.
Of course, you can use the Militsioner’s own giant humanity to your advantage. For example, he needs to sleep at some point, which is when you can make a break for it, or move to a new area entirely and hide. I don’t know exactly how the mechanics work, but I imagine that you can also trick the Militsioner with some automated processed that occur in the world, and will distract him for a short time.
I can’t wait to play this game. It seems to be the only truly unique indie that I’ve seen this year. Most games borrow from a genre or other similar titles, but this is a genuine first. The concept of being watched by a giant policeman might sound crap, but in practice it’s clearly very good.
