Tag: République Episode 1: Exordium

It's a surveillance society, and we're all just living in it. At my day job, I have to admit that I happily contribute to it. Other times I do wonder about the implications of it all, and the folks at Camouflaj obviously do too. Their sci-fi stealth survival game République explores the positive and negative aspects of omnipresent cameras and a connected civilization, and does it with a storytelling flair few mobile games have managed to date.If setting the mood of a video game was a college course, République Episode 1: Exordium would be the professor. You meet the game's protagonist, a girl named Hope, when she calls you for help. She may or may not have read something she shouldn't have, which is against the rules in the (apparently near future) city of Metamorphosis. The Orwellian buzzwords fly during the opening scene of dialogue - Recalibration, The Arrival, etc. - but it's clear Hope is in trouble, and only you can help."The reason you can help is both a plot device and a nifty gameplay mechanic. It turns out you are hacked into the surveillance system of this particular totalitarian nightmare through Hope's cell phone. You can hop from camera to camera to see where Hope can't, looking ahead to help her evade her captors.And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Using the special OMNI software, you can not only see how the cameras are linked together, but you can also pull off useful tricks like unlocking doors, seeing through walls to find the guards, and finding items like pepper spray. You'll also find pieces of propaganda that fill in the game's world and work as currency you can trade for additional abilities, like scanning the guards' email and causing distractions.