“Yer a loose cannon, but dammit if you don’t get results.” Except those results will be worth nothing if the general public turns against your team. Welcome to the psychological noir-detective thriller, Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived.
Critique Gaming casts players in the role of a (presumably) grizzled police detective tasked with uncovering a terrorist plot. As if that weren’t enough, the reputation of the police force is constantly under scrutiny from the public. Bust too many heads and the press will turn against you, but be too lenient and the terrorists win. Just another morally dubious day of psychological manipulation and empathy in the city.
Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived trods the familiar path set by other ethics challenging indies in the vein of Orwell and Papers, Please. Sometimes the choice that gets the best results isn’t necessarily the most moral, or even the most legal. As time continues to tick down, players will have to find a balance between doing what’s right and doing what needs to be done. The distinction between the two isn’t always clear.
A Critical Look at Social Issues
“We think that we can make a good game that can make a difference in the world. We feel that games have now reached a point at which they can enact change, if only in gradual increments,” Critique Gaming Creative Director, David Moscovici said.
The game’s art direction fits seamlessly into this world of gritty extremes. The design team rotoscoped the thousands of photos taken of the game’s actors to achieve the perfect sketch-drawn style, presented in stark black and white.
Gameplay takes place primarily in the interrogation room. Each suspect reacts differently to different “methods” of questioning. Players must determine the most productive method of extracting information as time continues to run out.
The job isn’t all about intimidating suspects and courting public opinion though. There are also some management aspects of the game. As the leader of the police task force assigned to investigate the terrorist conspiracy, players have a lot on their plate and a finite amount of resources at their disposal. It all cumulates into what promises to be a highly stressful, but in all the best ways, experience.
Uncover the conspiracy for yourself December 5th on PC, Mac, and Linux. The Nintendo Switch version is expected in the Spring of 2020.
