'The Occupation' Is a Timely, Slightly Too Paranoid Thriller

New Stories
1

The Occupation may not be the future of the immersive sim, but it feels like a glimpse of what it could be. In ways exciting, and disappointing. When I think back on the keystones of the genre, games like Thief and System Shock 2, I think about feelings of freedom and experimentation and more recent entries like Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided tried to woo players by making their worlds even larger and more sprawling. But all of The Occupation, White Paper Games’ independent offering in the genre, takes place across four buildings.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/gya7m3/the-occupation-is-a-timely-slightly-too-paranoid-thriller
2

I understand why this game would make you think of the Patriot Act but I think it’s actually taking aim at the British National Cyber Security Strategy.

3

I’m partially very interested in this because it seems to be the closest thing yet to Warren Spector’s “One City Block” idea for immersive sims.

1 Like
4

You should take a look at The Consortium (and then The Consortium: The Tower, though I haven’t had a chance to play that), both of which attempt to make that game a reality. That said, I make the case in my #1 entry here that Hitman (2016) might be the best example of that pitch in a surprising way.

4 Likes
5

I backed both of those way back when and adored them both! And now I want to play Consortium again. :slight_smile: