Grey Britain: The Game
By raidingkvatch 4 Comments
This was inspired by the long walk back from my girlfriend’s house which gave me time to listen to Gallows' album Grey Britain almost in it’s entirety which inspired what I think (or did at the time, I've chosen not to think too hard about it since in case it now seems crap) would be an waesome game:
The protagonist is a guy with long dark straggly hair, wearing a leather jacket zipped half-way on top of his bare chest; black jeans and a pair of black DM boots.
The opening scene is a bar fight, in which someone pulls a knife on the protagonist, resulting in the protagonist breaking the assailants arm and head butting him simultaneously. Protagonist uses this knife to cut open his hand and drink the blood before spitting in the face of an oncoming security thug, sucker punching another and striding out of the bar. This sequence exemplifies much of the game fluidly transitioning from gameplay (fighting people in bar) to intuitive QTEs (disarming knife-guy) to cutscene à la MGS4. In terms of fluidity there would be some kind of fight mechanic, where if the player performs a relatively simple counter at the attempted stabbing then the QTE is triggered, other similar events would happen throughout the game.
I should explain that the basic premise is the United Kingdom in a state of riotous disarray as described by Gallows, the inciting incident should be something obvious creating some kind of mutated zombie freaks (or something less clichéd, but I can’t think of anything). The protagonist can choose from numerous paths, either seeking to get to truth, attempting to aid those in need and restore order, or just revel in the chaos and accelerate the country’s downfall. The character himself starts of from a pretty instable position of anger and violence and is a distrustful cynic to begin with, however his personality can be altered according to the player’s actions.
The game takes place as a journey across Britain starting in the small city of Carlisle (just cuz that’s where I live) and ultimately leading to London via other major cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham etc. Along the journey the player encounters various groups of people ranging from Raiders/Reapers intent on destruction to people just trying to survive to those trying to preserve some sense of civilisation and help those in need, the player’s actions affect how other characters respond to him i.e. raiding a hospital is going to make Raider’s more likely to trust you, but “good, honest” people will regard you with hostility, this is affected by geography and the size of your reputation - a small time thief in Carlisle may not be trusted in Carlisle, but in other parts of the country no one will know. The player could also affect people’s opinions of him through Mass Effect style dialogue which has the mood, or general gist of a response rather than the dialogue verbatim - if you’re rude or aggressive obviously people are going to like and trust you less.
Another idea I had for a gameplay mechanic is some kind of anxiety system where when the protagonist is in secluded areas, especially at night them the protagonist becomes anxious which has a negative effect on combat and on dialogue options available. The player should also be made to feel more anxious through use of sounds and visuals in a similar way to how The Path becomes much more tense the longer the player runs.
An image I had in my head for a possible ending is the protagonist with a group of thugs swarming on innocents outside of the Houses of Parliament which is on fire, with the protagonist just revelling in the chaos and the violence.
This is an extract from my blog
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