Memories Become Commodities in Adrift

21 Aug, 2011

This past week was a gaming journalist’s dream come true or living nightmare at Gamescom, depending on which way you look at it. From a slew of interviews, trailers, screenshots, and press conferences, we got a look at all of the upcoming blockbusters. The big guns were definitely out, and there were no prisoners taken.

While the big triple-A titles might have completely stolen the show and sent everyone else packing, a few rising stars made a big enough impression to capture some attention. In between some intriguing new arcade titles to the titles that we can’t make heads or tales of, a little studio named DONTNOD turned heads with its project-in-progress Adrift.

It’s a melding of Deus Ex and Assassin’s Creed in the strangest way possible. In a world called “Neo-Paris,” it’s the year 2084, and the setting looks eerily like a mash-up between Blade Runner and Deus Ex‘s stylish techno-future meshed with the old world charms of days gone by. The Assassin’s Creed part is the whole idea of accessible memories, and these memories can be bought and sold like a tangible object.

“Augmented reality and memory manipulation have taken control of peoples’ lives,” said Dontnod’s description of Adrift. “You can now digitize, buy, sell, or trade your own personal memories.” It’s starting to sound like an iTunes Store strapped to a bigger network. Maybe it’ll be called “iMemory”?

“The last remainders of intimacy have been swept away, in what appears to be a simple extension of the development of social networks and geolocation at the beginning of the 21st century,” continued Dontnod. “The ‘surveillance society’ has been accepted by the citizens themselves, in exchange for a few technological benefits. It is a reality that no one even thinks of challenging anymore.”

An interesting premise, to be sure. It can serve as a warning to our current times, and it looks like it has some great potential if done correctly. In a closed-doors preview with GameSpot, Dontnod revealed much more about their upcoming title.

The all-important memories in question are recorded using something called a SensEn, a brain implant that everyone living in neo-Paris has. Every event, interaction, or thought the wearer has is recorded. It probably would come in handy now for those of us scrambling off to college or even the new school year, but we’re guessing if you don’t pay attention in class, having a SensEn wouldn’t help you at all.

According to Dontnod, the premise was inspired largely by today’s rapidly growing social networking, the constant sharing of information such as photos, what we are feeling when we are feeling them, and the sharing of locations instantly, wherever we are. It’s all about instant sharing, and Dontnod took that idea and ran hard with it. In the world of Adrift, everyone wants to see and experience everything, and that intimate connection is instantly gone. So what do you do when you want to experience it but don’t have the time to go there yourself? You buy it, and the memory is yours.

Creative Director Jean-Maxime Moris wasn’t shy to admit that the inspiration came from George Orwell’s 1984. “You saw that the game takes place in 2084 and that is, of course, a direct reference to George Orwell and 1984,” said Moris. “2084 is the next step. This is a society of control. This is a much more horizontal society, and where the control is much more diffused and blurry. Is it the government? Is it a corporation? We don’t know.”

Don’t go running away screaming because you don’t want to be taught a lesson in morality though. It wasn’t meant to be that way, said Moris. It’s a game designed to make us think, and to make us wonder, “What If?” “This is not a game that says, ‘this is the way it is, and you should all be afraid, run for cover and burn your smartphones,’” he said. “This is a game that presents you with some material and lets you decide for yourself. We just think that memories are actually the last things we have.”

In a backstory as such, we already can feel that it’s going to have a lot of narrative elements. Looking at the art design for the game, it’s quite clear that there won’t be any problems when it comes to the aesthetic appeal. It’s an oddly enchanting mix of the wildly new technology mixing with the old facades of Paris’ tired chateaus, tiled rooftops, and gothic architecture. It will definitely rival the aesthetic appeal of Deus Ex, and might even give next week’s mega-release a run for its money.

Now, one thing that wasn’t detailed at all was gameplay. How do you propose to move such a narrative forward? Are we talking stealth action? Puzzles? Action-adventure? Or something like Metal Gear Solid where it’s a movie with five minutes of gameplay? Well, said Moris, it’s going to be along the lines of action-adventure. “…our game will be extremely well anchored in known action-adventure codes, so you’ll have a lot of combat, some light exploration, platforming, and puzzles,” said Moris. There’s also going to be some “key gameplay innovations,” but he kept pretty tight-lipped about that.

One of Dontnod’s biggest influences came from Irrational’s original BioShock. Moris said that the game “was an extremely good game, and a visceral and immersive one. But you play it for a few hours and you realize there’s much more to it.”

Is this title something to get excited about? Yes. And in case you want some proof of just how beautiful the world is going to be, watch the debut trailer for Adrift here: