Forget the Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism, or the moral quandaries of transhumanism proposed by Eidos’ Deus Ex, because Daedalic Entertainment wants to take a very different approach to the subject matter. Prepare to dive into a world where the value of your life is measured by the memories stored on physical media, and the shape of your reality is built around the duality of virtual worlds and a real life governed by corporatocracies. This is the basic premise for the very intriguing looking State of Mind, which is prepping for release on Xbox One, Steam, PS4 and Nintendo Switch in early 2018.
Daedalic Entertainment recently opened up the Steam store page for State of Mind, showcasing some of the screenshots and giving gamers a brief look at the game via a trailer. You can check it out below.
One of the playable characters that players command is an accident victim named, Richard Nolan, who is a journalist from Berlin. He’s suffering from fragmented memories and must attempt to piece his memories back together using a virtual world in a futuristic society. The third-person adventure centers around Nolan attempting to reconnect with his family.
However, Richard isn’t quite as sympathetic as you might imagine. You can check out some gameplay of State of Mind below, courtesy of AdventureCorner.
There are also other playable characters, such as Lydia, but we don’t really get much background on her character, other than that she’s seemingly having an affair with Richard.
The gameplay and setting reminds me a little bit of Dreamfall Chapters, given that you have multiple characters under your control, each with their own unique motivations and stories set within an interesting world.
The game’s low-poly art-style is offset with a richly textured assortment of HDR dynamic lighting modules and advanced shaders utilizing physically-based rendering. It’s an interesting look given that the mood of the scenarios ebb and flow depending on illumination, light placement, and post processing effects.
There are some basic puzzles available as well, but they look like the kind of logic puzzles that would easily suffice most console gamers.
You can learn more about State of Mind by visiting the Steam store page. The game will also be available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
