What makes you feel uncomfortable? For me it’s 70’s movies, especially the foreign ones. There is something about that decade that makes me nauseated and terrified. The graininess, the colors; even the oranges and yellows, all dark and dirty. The image that sticks is of a living room; beige walls, brown ceilings, door frames of a darker shade, and a white fur rug underneath a glass coffee table. The owners - lying on the floor - dying. The woman’s right hand clutches the fur rug. It isn’t white anymore.Imagine a game where you play a torturer for the government. The intro opens in a room with two chairs, one of which a man is strapped to. He is terrified, unable to take his eyes off the rust-colored hammers and pliers on your left side. On your right is a calfskin attache case, with brush metal instruments fit snug in their compartments.
Your goal is to get a confession. Use the construction tools to be brutal. Use the instruments for precision. Whatever style you choose - perhaps you choose both - the scenario will end the same way every time: Cassandra, a colleague, will ask you to step outside because she has to tell you something.
“We fucked up. This man is innocent.”
Your in-game character will walk back inside the room, will either apologize or close the attache case and leave. As the player, you have to look inward and answer one question: did you enjoy torturing your victim?
As the game progresses, you transition between work and home. You’re a family man; your wife Madeline and daughter Zoe know you work for the government and that you roll up your sleeves because sometimes your office can get a bit stuffy, not because you don’t want your cufflinks to catch on your victim’s open wounds.
When you’re not home, your bosses assign you bad guys, each one having a piece of information that, according to your superiors, will prevent the loss of innocent life while killing the ones that need killing.
You have various tools and objects you can use on your victim, employing a sub-targeting system for focused punishment. Deprivation is another option - perhaps one has a high tolerance for physical pain but loses the threshold when he’s being starved. Sometimes pulling up that second chair and asking questions in a calming voice will do the job. Offer a cold smile that says this is my cooldown period; if I don’t get what I want when this smile fades, you’re going to beg me to feed you a bullet. And if you do too much damage, well, that’s what medkits are for.
Perhaps you - the player - cannot tolerate this kind of violence. If that’s the case, there is always the option to dodge your responsibilities and ask your colleagues for help.
Perhaps there is an especially uncooperative case, a Mr. Moncrieff. He is high priority, but the only things coming out of his mouth besides teeth and blood are screams.
When you’re not putting the cursor over tools, you are home playing husband and father. It’s a change of pace and intensity, allowing the player to relax and not worry about health meters, time limits and such. Perhaps there is a scene where Zoe comes home way past curfew. Your wife demands an answer, to which Zoe responds with an unoriginal “just out with my friends, ok.” Zoe storms off. You step inside her room, pull up a chair, and in a calming voice ask her to tell you the truth.
“We were hanging out at my boyfriend’s place.”
“Who’s we?”
“Natalie, Emma, the usual gang.”
“The thing is, how come this is the first time I’m hearing about this boyfriend? Does daddy have to get his baseball bat?”
“Jesus, dad. Lighten up. Alex’s father and uncle were hanging out with us, so we didn’t drink or do any drugs, ok.”
At work, you begin to think of ways to break Moncrieff, which has the added headache of being an off-site assignment on the other side of the country; this also means you cannot ask your colleagues for help. They say he’s one tough turd. Medical reports say a good many of his bones have been broken at least once, and he has had numerous surgeries to prolong his existence. You begin like you always do - applying either charisma or bruises.
When both options fail, you investigate his personal life and come across a childhood friend he hasn’t spoken to in years. You put on your hat, flip your collar up and shadow this woman. You create a situation where an accidental bump turns into a friendly conversation which turns into a casual friendship by proximity - like having someone you regularly talk with while doing laundry but never see outside this routine. After you’re satisfied, you return to Moncrieff.
“Alma says she might go back to school. She also recalled for me her childhood ambitions, that she was going to grow up to be a famous painter while her best friend would become a famous violinist. I’d be surprised if you could still play after we’re done here. The thing is….”
The game will never judge you, will never take your decisions and place you on the appropriate binary path. You can make choices that affect how you complete cases, but only one story is being told. For the people who like torturing the bad guys, they may believe that every time flesh is split open secures our country’s safety. For those players who cannot stomach the atrocities, while you cannot go against your superiors, you can ask for help. Your colleagues are not heartless. They are your friends, and know you must be going through a difficult time.
After all, you did torture an innocent man.
For the players who feel uncomfortable, the Moncrieff assignment may have taken a lot out of you. You question the actions of your colleagues and your own. Perhaps you feel we have gone too far. You formed a friendship under false pretenses, and you ask yourself if you were ready to have a third chair in the room. Can you continue doing this? Have the punishments you’ve inflicted been a necessity or a pleasure? Are there better ways to get a confession? Does anyone truly deserve this kind of treatment?
The phone rings. It’s Madeline. You tell her to slow down, what’s wrong.
“Zoe said she was almost attacked by Alex’s father and uncle. She was walking home and they came up to her and they cornered her and she got away before they could…please come home.”
Hours later, Cassandra picks you up from the airport. Instead of taking you home, she takes you to work. Easy, babe. We have a surprise for you.
She takes you to the room from the opening scene. Inside you find two men strapped into chairs.
“I stopped by your house to drop off your air mattress,” Cassandra says. “Your wife told me everything. A couple of us did the legwork. Now all you have to do is roll up your sleeves.”
She closes the door, leaves you alone with the two men.
What do you do?
