Thursday, September 22nd 2011
'Warco', the First Person Shooter Without a Gun
Well, this looks different to your standard gaming offering. Warco, short for "war correspondent", is a game that's a first person shooter, but without a gun. Instead, you play journalist Jesse DeMarco thrust into the middle of battle, armed only with your wits and your trusty video camera, who is tasked with documenting the horrors of war. You then have to edit your footage into a compelling news story, ranging from all-action shootouts to quiet moments, as you discuss the events of the day with your fellow journalists. This appears to be more a trainer for how to be a war correspondent than a game, as it's the brainchild of Tony Maniaty, an Australian journalist who has reported from regions like East Timor and post-Soviet Eastern Europe.
Defiant Development's Morgan Jaffit had this to say about it:
YouTube gameplay video
Source:
Ars Technica
It's been a great partnership, with Tony giving the game a great grounding in the real world issues of war journalism, Robert lending his structural and cinematic eye, and Defiant helping to channel that into something that's interactive and engaging. It offers a new perspective on a familiar theme, which enables us to use the tools and techniques of other FPSes to build a completely different kind of narrative and experience. From a design perspective, that's what excited me.However, a game that looks a lot like an FPS, yet doesn't allow the player to actually fire any bullets is a hard sell to publishing executives - and terribly frustrating for anyone who mistakenly buys this expecting to fire guns at baddies. This leads on to the obvious question of who is the target market for this product? It doesn't seem clear. The game has been in development for four months now and the developer is currently in talks with several publishers. So, can a unique game like this succeed in the highly competitive world of video gaming?
It's also about navigating through a morally gray world and making decisions that have human impact," he explained. "It's about finding the story you want to tell, as each of our environments is filled with different story elements you can film and combine in your own ways. It's both a story telling engine and an action adventure with a new perspective.
YouTube gameplay video
46 Comments on 'Warco', the First Person Shooter Without a Gun
And give them paper cuts with the photopaper.
I dont know what to make of it, worth a try i guess but is it compelling enough to keep playing?
Wait, this has a LOT of potential to get bashed by the media just as shooters. "Morality" and such, y'know. Filming people get killed in the most spectacluar way etc.
I'm getting a bit sick of shooter clones with the same kind of gameplay.
Looks interesting. I would have to try a demo first, to see if it would hold my interest... :ohwell:
@Defiant Development, if they come this way, READ> "gimme a demo to play with!"
I've also had similar thoughts about Tomb Raider game that plays like Mirror's Edge. Same adventure game, just through the eyes of our heroine. It worked in Mirror's Edge, why it couldn't in Tomb Raider. Or even better, 3rd person as usual and if you beat it on Hard, 1st person mode unlocks so you can play it again, using different perspective. That would be awesome.