Late To The Party Is A Spy RPG From Makers Of Unrest

Now, the party don't start 'til I walk in, but Late to the Party has started its Kickstarter campaign. I'll break it down, it's a Cold War espionage RPG from the makers of Unrest, with a similarly flexible story. Tick tock, on the clock there's 18 days to go for the Kickstarter. But the party don't stop no, there's a trailer and pitch video below.

Whoa-oh oh oh.

It was only yesterday that I was sat at home, reading one of this week's coming articles, and wondering why there aren't more Covert Action-style games. Sid Meier may have been disappointed with it, but its depiction of spywork and dynamic-ish story make it still relevant today. Late To The Party aims to do something similar, including wiretapping, arrests and a tiny amount of combat, though its Kickstarter page cites Alpha Protocol and Planescape: Torment as its influences.

I'm going to blockquote a part of the page, because it offers the specifics as to how the game works that the pitch video lacks:

Every NPC has two opinion values - Disposition, or how they currently seem to feel about you, and State, or what they seem to be feeling generally. Furthermore, each of your dialogue options is marked with an Intent that describes which direction that option is taking the conversation in.To give an example:

• You're meeting with a fellow KGB agent. This agent already hates and mistrusts you, but is smart enough to cover it up.
• To you, his Disposition appears as "Polite." However, he's clearly a little on edge, and his State is "Tense." Rather than let him be, you decide to probe at the source of his tension.
• You select a dialogue option that seems to be subtly looking into his attitude, but just to be sure, you check the Intent. Which - sure enough - is marked "Pry."
• A few probing questions later, and the facade drops, altering his Disposition to "Contemptuous" and his State to "Irritated."

Finally, a videogame where people can react to me with the same feelings of contempt as I encounter in real life.

Adam enjoyed Unrest with some misgivings, praising its setting and its writing. If you felt similarly, take a look at Late to the Party's Kickstarter page. $15 CAD (around £8.48) will net you a copy of the game on its projected release date of October 2015.