At first glance, No law it may seem like it's on a different scale Popular gritty first-person sci-fi RPG in cyberpunk style. But the upcoming single-player first-person shooter unveiled at Game rewards on Thursday, coming from a small studio: Neon Giant, a Swedish developer Climbing. About 24 Neon Giant developers are creating an open-world game.
No lawThe take on the cyberpunk genre – they call it “cyber noir” – leans more towards immersive simulation and story-driven, according to its creators. Players take on the role of a man named Gray Harker, a former military veteran who is trying to leave his old life behind for a more peaceful existence. When this plan fails, Harker turns to his training in covert operations and cybernetic technology to exact retribution in the city of Port Desir, a lawless port city. (Okay, maybe a few laws; murder is still considered bad there.)
Neon Giant describes the game's setting as “a world built on neon cheapness rather than regulation.” The developer emphasizes the game's responsiveness to player choices, the effective decisions players can make, and the many ways to solve problems. Whether you choose stealth or brutal combat, the players' choices will have a ripple effect on Harker's story.
“No law represents the next step for us as a studio,” said Claes af Büren, Managing Director of Neon Giant, in a press release. Climbingwe've laid a solid foundation for our approach to worldbuilding, systems, and storytelling. This new project takes everything we've learned and applies it to a completely different experience—bigger, more reactive, and more personal than anything we've done before.”
The Neon Giant promises that No law will offer a rich story that players can enjoy multiple times as they make different choices and discover alternate paths to Harker's goal. And in conversation with No law creative directors Arcade Berg and Tor Frick acknowledged that they were compared to games that offered similar player choice and a similar atmosphere, namely the original game. Deus Ex and CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077.
“We definitely wanted to do something unique in this space,” Berg said. “We're big fans. Deus Ex in the studio, especially the original. We're big fans [immersive sim] genre, but we want to do something new and unique in this space. This is where non-linear storytelling comes in and a world that reacts to your actions.”
“Fans of these games should really enjoy our game. Absolutely,” Frick said. “That's one of the groups of people we want to play the game with, but we're also trying to go beyond that. […] If you want to be a big fan of linear single-player shooters, you can definitely play through the main story in that sense. But if you want to play with more gadgets, more abilities, more stealth or tactics [choices]you will get this experience. And we do the same thing with storytelling in the sense that some people just don't want to get bogged down with too many stories.”
But beyond the obvious sources of inspiration, No lawThe creative directors had another unexpected influence on their take on the cyberpunk genre.
“We don’t want to do something doom and gloom,” Berg said. “Yes, it's a dark world, but it's a fun place to create violence as a spectacle. We're leaning more into the “comfort food” feeling that comes from films like Robocup, running Man, Judge Dredd. But at the same time we want to have a fairly wide range. We don't want to just make “cyberpunk neon.” We also want more of a human element. So we reference Studio Ghibli a lot because we just want that lush, calm, human feeling, because we want those extremes to coexist in the game.”
No law will take players to Port Desire sometime in the future. The game is in development for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X, but a release date has not yet been announced.
