412 years have passed since The Ark first took flight in what became known as The Exodus, and still its journey has no end in sight. Many have given up on the idea they'll ever get to the promised new home, and some outright treat any stories of both the old and the new worlds as myths, refusing to believe in anything beyond Object 6's vast metal walls. The world inside is formally called the Nomach Autonomy, and its capital is known as the Urb. It is the safest place on the ship, but owes that status to the iron-fisted rule by the descendants of Azar's officers. Their resource-saving measures include a total ban on natural procreation, with every Nomach Urbanite being vat-grown, and keeping three-quarters of all population at any one time in cryosleep, with people rotating through their "Long Sleep".
Around it lies the Near Radius, where Nomach outposts are ringed by the shantytowns of "getters" - the descendants of those who sneaked on board Object 6 in spite of its tight security measures, and are treated as second-class citizens ever since. The rest of the ship is The Dump, being a place where the various life support systems have failed over the hundreds of years of travel and many of its inhabitants mutated due to space radiation leaks. Moreover, even the people living in the outposts can still get afflicted by the deadly somatic psychosis if they are unlucky enough to make contact with the mysterious, seemingly supernatural anomalies that occasionally spring up on the ship.
Your protagonist, KZ0012, starts off as a Nomach private, one lucky enough to both survive the explosion in the cryosleep chamber that claimed the lives of many fellow sleepers, and to come away from the contact with an anomaly with an "insomnia" - a benign form of somnatic psychosis where the afflicted doesn't lose his mind, and gains the ability to interact with the other anomalies in a way no-one else can.
The development has taken 8 years, and during that time the game has been Kickstarted not once
, but twice (not counting the initial failed attempt, which used to be co-op oriented). The game was finally released on PC through Steam on 28th September, 2018.
Tropes present in this game:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Averted in the release version of the game, where traders bought certain items for a higher price than they sell it, allowing you to buy something, sell it back, and make a profit.
- Artificial Stupidity: The AI of the enemies in release version is frequently lacking, and will often stand still while getting shot from outside their sight range. Another frequent release bug had civilians walk into walls.
- Attack Drone: Present. Many of these were constructed alongside Object 6, and are still around. Many of Object 6's regional security systems went haywire, however, thus forcing you into combat with such drones whenever you trigger them.
- Back Stab: You can perform executions with melee weapons after sneaking up to an enemy.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Averted. It's taking The Ark more than 400 years to travel, during which time many of its systems had fallen into disrepair. Yet, for many there's still no end in sight.
- Critical Hit: Every weapon has a chance of scoring one, which usually does 150% damage.
- Dialogue Tree: Present, and you can get extra options based on your skills or background.
- Fetch Quest: A lot of the side quests fall into this.
- Fictional Currency: The territories under Nomach control use their coupons in all exchanges.
- Generation Ships: It's been 412 years since the ship has been in flight. While regular cryosleep amongst Nomach citizens helps them to live about twice as long as a regular human would, there has still been enough time for several generations to change. Amongst getters, who have no access to such luxuries, even more generations have passed.
- Heavily Armored Mook: The elite fighters of each faction wear armor thick enough to shrug off bullets.
- Hollywood Hacking: Hacking into the ship's various computer consoles is one of the skills you can develop. Mechanic class obviously starts off with a hefty advantage here.
- Hollywood Silencer: Here, the loudness of the guns is described by "Stealth reduction on shot" stat, with the quietest guns not reducing it at all.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: You can carry a thick metal shield to protect yourself from both melee attacks and from light arms. Likewise, it can be paired with both melee weapons and pistols.
- Mercy Kill: There are several occasions where wounded or captured rebels ask you to shoot them rather than allow them to face the justice of Nomach. It's up to you whether you go through with their request.
- Mile-Long Ship: Object 6 is designed like a flattened cube, with each side being many kilometers long. It's large enough that there are plenty of cars inside, with asphalted motorways for them.
- Police Brutality: Nomach troops certainly don't treat dissenters well. At one point, you see a captured rebel with his hands tied, who's been beaten so badly his nose had been completely smashed in and described as looking like a swamp of blood. He asks you to shoot him when he notices you.
- Random Encounter: Can occur while you are travelling on the world map.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: There are some advanced revolvers like "Drake D.", named after a famous officer. That one has been modified to fully reload in just a few seconds, and also possesses a fully anatomical grip.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: The game is quite cynical about its "People's Fury" rebels. Then again, the totalitarian Nomach officials are hardly painted in the best light either.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: There are plenty of these amongst various factions.
- Take Cover!: Averted. There's no cover system, even though you'll likely spend a lot of time avoiding bullets behind carefully placed obstacles anyway.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Your character needs to eat and drink every once in a while.
