blues & bullets

It’s a black and white noir story with a few shots of colour think Sin City, or, if you had the misfortune to encounter it, Xbox 360 clunker, The Saboteur. you’re a cop in the big city, and life is tough. (Imagine we’re saying this next bit in a gruff, voice over.) santa esperanza is dark. It’s cold. It’s rotten to the core. And it’s your job to fix it…

I just got chills. how do i fix the city?
There’s corruption at the heart of this game murders, shoot-outs and a mass kidnapping of children are polluting the city like a plague, and it’s hard to know who to trust any more. As a detective, your decisions influence the story as it unfolds episode-by-episode: investigate, interrogate and discover new leads.

So what makes it noir ? it’s not just because it’s black-and-white is it?
No. obviously the cool aesthetic is important but it’s part of an overall atmosphere. the setting a little bit of Se7en, a pinch of True Detective, and a smidgen of telltale Games on a foundation of ’30s gangster Chicago is added to high contrast and colour to capture the film noir feeling.

Telltale Games, eh? is that why it’s in episodes?
that might well have been an influence, but the developer has told us that it’s a fan of the constant twists and cliffhangers that episodic narratives can provide. It also encourages discussion what decisions have other people made, and how is that affecting the story?

Can i play it now? Please, please, pretty please?
No. remember, you’re grounded for that thing  you did with the jam and the goats and that poor, poor vicar. besides, the game doesn’t come out until May 2015 and even then, that’s only episode one. we don’t know how often, or how numerous, those episodes will be. the developer has told us that it’s making good progress on its debut chunk, even after taking on the ambitious task of including motion capture in the animations. In the meantime, the studio is about to release Funk of Titans on Xbox one a grooved-up, 1970s-styled action-platforming game about the Greek gods and demi-gods. As fun as it looks, we prefer our action a little more hard-boiled.