Sir, You Are Being Hunted creates a world of British, Vaudevillian styled, science fiction survival. A world where the dapper mechanized gentlemen hunt humans for sport.
Currently in development by Big Robot, Sir, You Are Being Hunted is released as public alpha on the 19th of August.
You take the role of a sir or madam, the victim of an experiment gone awry and forced to gather resources and salvage the parts of the strange device that brought you to this mysterious dimension and stranded you on the hostile archipelago inhabited by robotic huntsmen, with only your disembodied butler or assistant offering audio guidance.
You will be hunted throughout the five generated islands of this world. Dapper, top-hat wearing, shotgun wielding robots, accompanied by their metallic hunting hounds and aerial reconnaissance balloons will track and search through the fields and mountains to bring you to a swift end.
The experience is a mixture of charming and terrifying. I can’t help but smile whenever a game re-creates the tea drinking, tweed wearing British persona, but it becomes less endearing when murderous robots are chasing you through the ploughed fields of the island with their eerie red stare.
Throughout your time spent with Sir, You Are Being Hunted you are fleeing from robots, hiding in the bushes and shrubs or in ruined buildings, scouting out patrols and dangers, and scavenging teas and marmalade from the empty robot dwellings (they are all out looking for you, sir). From the very moment I spawned in the world of Hunted I was able to explore and travel at will. The developers Big Robot have said that “freedom is key” in their game, and it certainly shows.
A game that revolves around being hunted can’t be tied down by linearity, you need the freedom to escape, explore and overcome your hunters.
Not only do you have the freedom to explore the world around you, but a procedural generated world means that each expedition into the wilderness is a different one. With a choice of island environments, you will find yourself crawling through corn fields and bushes, crossing streams and taking cover and finding respite in the ragged rocks of mountains and shores.
The three environments that are currently in the game are rural, fens, and mountains, but with industrial, castle and more biomes conformed for future updates.
Each biome has a different atmosphere and plays in a different way. Rural there are places to hide and lose line of sight, but you will have some trouble scouting, fens are mostly flat so you can scout easily but can also be spotted easier too, and mountains allow you to gain the advantage of elevation but becomes difficult to traverse.
The scavenging system is designed in a way that makes you want to gather and loot as much as can, but old school inventory mechanics keep your hoarding desires in check. You will have to decide what resources are important and do some clever “inventory Tetris” to maximise your backpack.
A 5×10 area is all you have to work with for an inventory, and each item takes up a different amount of space. With a multitude of items like weapons, ammo, traps, tools, distraction devices like bottles and stones, food, and your main objective, the device pieces, your inventory can become full and cluttered very quickly.
The scavenging mechanic is further complicated by the factor that loot and items do not re-spawn. If you get greedy in the early game, a little trigger happy and burn through your ammo, you will find yourself crippled in the end game as I was. After haphazardly eating every piece of food I can find to keep my vitality up, I ended up starving to death when I revisited an area. Only take what you need. Survival 101.
There are less common buildings like public houses and places of worship that will harbor better loot, but also spawn less commonly.
You can utilise camp fires to cook the tasty game you find through your journeys, beware however, smoke and light will alert your hunters to your presence, so do what you have to do, and then get moving.
After playing the alpha build of Hunted for a few hours I am incredibly impressed by what they already have to offer at such an early stage. I have not felt tension and atmosphere like I have with Hunted in a long time. The feeling of being hunted sticks with you, my heart was still racing some hour after shutting down my PC, and not just because I’m a massive pansy.
Sir, You Are Being Hunted has already delivered an experience that is rarely felt in games, and there is still a lot to be added. Definitely keep an eye on this title, and on Square-Go for more coverage in the future. Go ahead to http://www.big-robot.com and purchase the alpha access yourself.
