The Eighties called. They want their game back. Seriously, Bootleg Systems looks like something that neon obsessed futurists would come up with if they had today’s technology. And I’ll be honest here. I think it looks beautiful. There may not be a whole lot to the story, but the gameplay looks fantastic. If you happen to like first person shooters with platformer elements.
Apparently Bootleg Systems is set sometime in the future that’s left the Earth completely uninhabitable and most of the humans have left it to find another planet to live on. Enter Genuine Systems and one of their “Resource Allocation Managers” named Logan Blake (I smell Cyberpunk influences already). Anyway, he’s brilliant but somehow the plans to revive our home planet have been stolen by the titular company. It’s up to him to take it back and save the day. Or something.
The core gameplay has our buddy Logan infiltrating Bootleg Systems armed only with something called a “clone gun”. Think of this as something similar to the portal gun from Portal. It’s more of a tool than an actual weapon. Use it to clone something on the screen and start pumping out girders or whatever. Seriously, the developers must have a thing for these things as they use it a lot in the pitch. And you can upgrade it to enhance its powers. Pretty cool actually.
Aside from this clone gun the other main thing that stuck with me while checking Bootleg Systems out was the neon landscapes. It actually looked like it could be a Tron-esque shooter with the pretty lights and black backgrounds. Which is what really made me think back to that decade. That, and the music. Yeah, it was like a trip back through time to a much more surreal gaming experience. And it’s worth checking out.
Track the progress of the Bootleg Systems Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
