The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a surge of interest in wildlife poaching and conservation, with the UN suggesting that so-called ‘wet markets’ for illegally exploited wildlife may have facilitated the transfer of COVID-19 to humans. There’s no virus to contend with in Heart Shaped Games’ We Are The Caretakers, but it’s a timely project nonetheless – a story about interspecies empathy in an age of mass extinction. Set in the fictional realm of Shadra, the game puts you in charge of teams of rangers who explore regions confronting poachers and tending to the Raun, a sorcerous blend of rhino, elephant and walking energy resource.
It’s an easy game to break down by influence: XCOM’s army management layer (there are also alien visitors to wrangle with), a mission-based campaign reminiscent of Warcraft and a JRPG-style turn-based battle system. What makes it fascinating – art director Anthony Jones’ beautiful Afrofuturist character designs aside – is how it combines all this with research into real-life conservation. Among other things, the game draws on lessons from the WWF’s third Asia Poaching Prevention Conference in Nepal, where Heart Shaped Games not only interviewed rangers but followed them in the field.
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Denne historien er fra July 2021-utgaven av Edge.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION
No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.
TOWERS OF AGHASBA
Watch Towers Of Aghasba in action and it feels vast. Given your activities range from deepwater dives to climbing up cliffs or lumbering beasts, and from nurturing plants or building settlements to pinging arrows at the undead, it’s hard to get a bead on the game’s limits.
THE STONE OF MADNESS
The makers of Blasphemous return to religion and insanity
Vampire Survivors
As Vampire Survivors expanded through early access and then its two first DLCs, it gained arenas, characters and weapons, but the formula remained unchanged.
Devil May Cry
The Resident Evil 4 that never was, and the Soulslike precursor we never saw coming
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare has made a deeply self-conscious game, visibly inspired by some of the best-loved ideas from Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
SKATE STORY
Hades is a halfpipe
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII
Firaxis rethinks who makes history, and how it unfolds
FINAL FANTASY VII: REBIRTH
Remaking an iconic game was daunting enough then the developers faced the difficult second entry
THUNDER LOTUS
How Spirit farer's developer tripled in size without tearing itself apart