What’s worse than being caught on an alien planet? Being caught on an alien planet beneath capitalism.
That’s your plight in Alien Squatter, a brand new survival RPG by A. Hagen and Shea Kennedy. You’re an alien making an attempt to make it on the streets of Earth. It’s out now and I prefer it.
I’ve seen extra homelessness sims than you’d anticipate during the last 12 months or two. Some are plain tasteless. The higher ones, like Change (which Alice Cubed performed with its developer at Rezzed), are realistically upsetting and irritating even with solely a fraction of what individuals actually occurs outdoors.
Alien Squatter sidesteps both camp with its bizarre alien future setting and ambiguous tone. Earth is packed filled with aliens, some within the fancy metropolis of Privilege, most solid out into the slummy hellhole you’re making an attempt to flee. Each day you roam the neighbourhood scooping cash, meals, and junk from the bottom, aiming to avoid wasting up sufficient to blag your means into Privilege with a faux ID. Food turns into power if you sleep, which helps you to stroll round for longer or participate in additional tiring actions. This is a giant deal as a result of in case you run out of power you’re dragged to the clinic, the place unhealthy issues can occur.
It feels faintly unseemly to suggest a game about being homeless as “fun”, however Alien Squatter pulls it off with out difficulty. It’s deliberately foolish and mildly humorous, however it’s additionally actually laborious, and the wacky pastel-coloured aliens and excessive dystopia jokes sit between night time time flavour textual content the place you are worried about your neighbours dying, and the very actual chance of getting your organs harvested in case you go out.
“Evocative descriptions bring the dystopian world to life,” says its retailer web page, “It’s a really terrible place!”. That oddly cheerful vibe sums it up completely.
Alien Squatter is on the market now on Steam for £4.79/€4.99/$5.99.
