bit of both.
“We’ve spent a lot of time building
the world,” says Gollop. “We’ve
produced a number of short stories for
[crowdfunding] backers, which have
been well received and give the game
a rich backstory. In the game, much of
the story will be revealed through the
research system — as it was, in fact,
in X-COM. And there are the factions,
who have different ideas about how to
save the world.”
New Jericho is a faction led by a
powerful leader named Tobias West. He
was, before the outbreak, the CEO of a
major arms manufacturer and private
mercenary group, and has created a
militaristic society where soldiers have
high status. If combat’s your thing, side
with them.
“Everybody is expected to serve
in West’s personal army, and their
approach to the Pandora virus is that
it has to be eliminated by eternal
vigilance,” says Gollop. “So they’re very
strict about killing infected people, and
any trace of the infection they detect
is dealt with without prejudice. Tobias
West is firmly against any kind of
corruption of the human genome.”
GAMES PREVIEWWCombat is vital, but there
are other ways to solve
problems too.CULT HIT
Very much opposed to New Jericho is
the creepy, cultlike Disciples of Anu, a
religious order which believes that an
alien godlike figure has come to save
the Earth in the form of the Pandora
virus and its mutations.
“They think that if they embrace
it, they’ll evolve with it,” says Gollop.
“They’ve developed a technology
that lets them contain the virus so
that anyone infected doesn’t become
completely alien, which they think
will allow humanity to become better
than itself. The downside is that a lot
of these experiments fail, causing a lot
of death and suffering. But people join
them because their leader, the Exalted,
is highly charismatic. She’s a mutant
herself and has these powers, showing
people what they could become.”
And then there’s the Synedrion, a
highly ecological, anarchistic alliance.
The have a technology that allows
them to repel the virus, and believe
they can reclaim the land — even if the
seas are still infected — and rebuild
society. “They want a society built on
freedom, democracy, and other ideals
they think have been neglected by
previous civilisations. They think trying