Well, now we know what “Project Birdseye,” is. It’s [REDACTED].
Seriously, that’s it’s name. Striking Distance Studios, makers of The Callisto Protocol, must have known they were teeing up all kinds of who’s-on-first jokes when they named their newest game at Gamescom 2024 on Thursday. It launches Oct. 31.
Q: Tell us about your latest game?
A: It’s [REDACTED].
Q: So you can’t you tell me the name of your game?
A: I just did! It’s [REDACTED].
Q: Just tell me, what is the name of your game?!
A: No, What is the name of the guy on second!
Q: Who is on second?
A: Who is on first!
Q: I don’t know!
Both: Third base!
OK, vaudeville reveries aside, Redacted is indeed the name of the game, and it’s an isometric dungeon-crawler roguelike, set inside a sci-fi prison that is overrun with zombies. It’s not necessarily a sequel to The Callisto Protocol, which was altogether a different game, but it is set within the same universe and also involves the Black Iron Prison on the Jovian moon, scene of a “biophage” zombie breakout, as well.
The difference in Redacted is that the player character is a prison guard, and when all hell breaks loose the objective is to make it to the last remaining escape pod. Along the way they’ll battle not only mindlessly slobbering infected prisoners and guards, they’ll also be confronted by three uninfected “rivals,” boss-level foes who are likewise bent on taking the escape pod for themselves. Their progress to the pod is charted on a timeline at the bottom of the player’s HUD.
This race to escape sets up the “run” that is at the heart of any roguelike, with Striking Distance leaning hard into replayability, builds and re-specs, and acquiring and upgrading gear to make the next run even more successful. There’s even a chance to “fight your last corpse” — i.e. take on the zombied form of your character where you last went down in the game, in order to recover something you lost when he died.
“This game is all about fighting, dying, dying again, dying some more, and adapting,” Striking Distance said in a news release.
As you can see in the trailer, visually, Redacted takes on a comic-booky cel-shaded illustration style. The game was in fact already shown back in March, somewhat as a trial balloon, just under the name Project Birdseye.
Striking Distance built Redacted ‘from the controller out’
“We’re big fans of comic books and graphic novels, we also wanted to have a little bit more of a fun and irreverent tone in this game,” Striking Distance boss Steve Papoutsis said. “So we gravitated toward the style that you see in the game.”
When viewer reaction came back positive, Papoutsis said, the studio decided to go forward with finishing out the game.
“When we first started thinking about this project, we started prototyping from the controller out. We were really interested in creating fast, responsive controls that worked for melee and for shooting, and our energy mechanic,” he explained during Xbox’s Gamescom 2024 livestream on Thursday.
“As we were developing that, we then talked about the types of games we liked. We found ourselves playing a lot of roguelikes,” Papoutsis added. “What we liked about that particular style of game was the replayability and the experimentation that occurs. So you have strategic and tactical choices.”
How will progression work in a roguelike such as Redacted?
Redacted’s upgrade trees — comprising 115 perks in all — are called “Experiments.” They will be supplemented by a system of in-world metacurrencies to buy permanent upgrades (skills). There’s also a slew of different suits and costumes, that not only differentiate the character visually, they provide a buff effect. All of this is meant to improve and adapt the character to the relentless, die-and-its-all-over, run ahead of them.
“As we say on the team, ‘Death is the opportunity to come back stronger,’” said creative director Ben Walker. So, perfectionists out there, you are not likely to get this right on the first try. But when you do make it to the escape pod, don’t worry, you can come back from that finish with everything you’ve earned and upgraded to try for an even better run.
A stats-aggregating screen will break down a player’s playing style and tendencies, useful for highlighting what worked or contemplating a different build. The “redacted” component of Redacted comes from unlocking portions of the Rivals’ dossiers; learning more about who you’re up against, paragraph by paragraph, unlocks another set of buffs.
Redacted, published by Krafton, will launch Oct. 31 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
Featured images via Striking Distance Studios
