Survive the horrors of hidden roles in Project Winter
Spies and lies
In this winter of our discontent, one question burns brighter than any other. Has Harry poisoned the tea?
That's the kind of question I hope to be asking in Project Winter, an upcoming multiplayer social survival game where some players play traitors to a gang of stranded survivors. It's billed to enter early access in early 2019, and has already set my mind a-scheming.
Here's the trailer, though it's more 'bleak diatribe about the awfulness of humanity' than 'here's what you'll get up to in our fun video game'.
The narrator lays it on thick, doesn't he? My favourite bit is where he tells us we know what we really are, and the next frame made me mentally scream the word 'BEARS!'.
Developers Other Ocean Interactive sum it up like so:
"Project Winter is an 8-person, multiplayer game focused on social deception and survival where players are randomly assigned to the role of Traitor or Survivor. Players must gather resources, repair structures, and brave the wilderness together - but beware of traitors within the group who will be steadily gaining strength as the match progresses and whose only goal is to stop the survivors by any means necessary. Communication and teamwork are essential to the survivors’ ultimate goal of escape."
I'm always dubious about how well hidden roles can work when you can't see people's faces, but maybe this time things will be different. I'm imagining pressing dangers will force people to split up, leading to moments like "I know we need firewood, but there's no way I'm heading into the wilderness with HIM." Or maybe two traitors manage to organise a three-person expedition, butcher the third hapless survivor, then come back and try to spin a tale about how he got mauled by a bear.
Potential! I sense it. Here's the Steam page.