A new video game Kickstarter campaign has been launched for a game described as Die Hard meets the original Deus Ex, and it looks the part. The game is titled Consortium: The Tower, and it’s a “fully standalone, single player, first-person sci-fi immersive simulation.”

The game is set almost entirely in a massive skyscraper in futuristic London, and sees you (playing as you but controlling someone in a parallel world—trippy, right?) and a team of officers trying to stop terrorists who have invaded the skyscraper and save the hostages they’ve taken. It allows you to play however you choose, whether that be using blunt force, stealth, or simply words to talk your way through the situation. The choices you make throughout the game alter how your story plays out, meaning there’s plenty of replayability as you go back and try things differently with each playthrough.

You can read much more about Consortium: The Tower and also see the Kickstarter campaign video and some gameplay preview videos below.

This game is actually the second in a planned trilogy. The first game also was made with the help of Kickstarter, but was much smaller than this sequel is planned to be. This is the first time I’ve heard of the games, and am not only excited to eventually try the first game but am especially excited to play the sequel, which looks like a wild ride.

Here’s some info on the game:

PLAY YOUR WAY:

The experience of The Tower is one of absolute freedom of movement, speech and action, within a single-location, sandbox environment. There will be no cut scenes, and full control will never be taken away for “gamey” reasons. Immersion is absolutely paramount, and to that end the world within the Tower will feel realistically alive and reactive to however you choose to approach each and every situation.

A branching, “waterfall” narrative and dialogue system should appeal to those looking for a truly replayable experience, and will ensure that your decisions are plentiful without feeling cheap or obvious.

Diplomacy is a key way of traversing the narrative. Choose to speak anytime and anywhere with the push of a button. While rather difficult, you will be able to play through the entire experience without raising your weapon. Trick, bribe, scare, hire, or simply convince potential combatants to disarm, all while developing relationships with your crew, other Consortium officers, the London Police, and any other characters you meet throughout the experience.

The Bishop’s arsenal of customizable, futuristic gadgetry gives him immense freedom of movement. Run faster, jump higher, glide through the air, breathe underwater, and fall from great heights, all while exploring every nook and cranny of the Tower.

The Bishop can also utilize highly experimental, potentially dangerous stealth technology, such as invisibility and sound dampening.

Find yourself in the middle of intense firefights, and choose to either kill or incapacitate all those in your way. The Consortium officers working with you will praise you for using non-lethal means, but will react with increasing alarm should you too often resort to murderous violence. There may also be other factions interested in aiding you through the Tower, should the Consortium turn its back on you.

As with CONSORTIUM before it, many events within The Tower will play out regardless of your interaction with them, creating an environment cultivated for immersion and replayability. Your chosen actions (and inactions) within this environment will cause ripples, dramatically impacting the unfolding narrative in major ways.

IMPACT ON THE WORLD

We aim to simulate not just the Churchill Tower, but the people inside it and the world around it. In many ways, we are striving to realize the “One City Block RPG” idea purposed by Warren Spector.

This 2042 is connected on an unprecedented scale. Due to the unusual nature of the Churchill Tower hostage situation, there are literally billions of people watching your every (visible) decision unfold. We want you to feel as though your choices as Bishop Six carry weight on a global scale, and that those choices actually mean something.

Crowds have formed around the tower, hundreds of police and reporters are on the scene, and you are at the centre of it all.

THE SETUP

The Tower is a role-playing game in which you play as yourself, and you are being given the opportunity to physically control a man in a parallel world. His code name is Bishop Six, and he’s a field agent for the Consortium, a powerful peacekeeping force in the not-quite-utopic future of 2042.

When a hostage situation suddenly erupts within London’s monumental Churchill Tower, Bishop Six and a team of Consortium officers are sent in to subdue the terrorists, and rescue the hostages. It sounds simple enough, but when the layers peel back you’ll find that they just keep peeling. Everyone seems to want the Bishop on their side, but none are very keen to reveal just what “their side” truly stands for.

Discover the source of an unnatural earthquake originating from below the Tower. Find out what’s really behind the Tower’s malfunctioning builder nanites. Befriend or manipulate the London Police to your advantage, or have them turn against you. Attempt to uncover the truth about the Consortium King (a sentient A.I., and the source of our connection to their world), his creator, the terrorists, your crew, and the Tower itself. Even gain the attention of a mysterious benefactor whose “alternative” ideas and perspectives will begin to make you question your definitions of “friend” and “foe.”

We’re excited about creating an atmosphere where you’re in the middle of a conflict for your trust and loyalty, with multiple sides struggling to keep your attention.

To further complicate matters, an old enemy of the Consortium tells us that within this “great tower” a global event is about to originate. The King demands our help in dealing with this, claiming multiverse-scale destruction if we refuse. Does his understanding of who we really are affect his judgement? And is the Consortium really the selfless peacekeeping organization he claims it to be?

If interested you can read much more about the game, see what rewards are available, and perhaps throw a little coin their way if interested in helping the game get made over at its Kickstarter page.

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