My (quite depressive) dream game
Would you like more realistic games from our history to be released? And I mean mainly action games with an amazing story. I've never enjoyed the strategies. It will come to me that in all games all historical events and the environment are just like a background. Simply, the creators wanted to save a little bit of work, because they didn't want to create a completely new unrealistic environment for their main hero who transforms himself from a weak shit into an OP monster, killing enemies in one blow. It is much easier to create something you already know, you know. For example Assassin's Creed. Exploring historic cities is cool af, but let's be honest, no such assassin monkey has ever jumped on their roofs. Let alone killing 5 or more opponents at once without a single scratch. I don't want to play just superheroes all the time.
I would imagine something like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The combat is challenging. When three or more guys attack you in a fairly solid armor, you will run, and before you get the proper gear, you will be dying. But this is the Middle Ages! There are so many medieval RPGs! I would like something newer. Something more brutal. Something that catches your heart and something that will make you feel with the main hero.
Each of us certainly has a favorite period either from your own or foreign history that you would like to try out for yourself. However, the time machine has not yet been invented, and if so, it is a secret, so basically, the only purely interactive excursion to the past is games (then there are only movies, documents, and museums). And if they made some VR version, we would get even closer to traveling in time. But it would have to be something epic. Something like the NerveGear from SAO. But that will take some time.
I'm missing some good game about the Second World War. And no shooters and battle simulators. I don't care about them. Not that I don't like army things, but I'm not into these games, and there is more than enough of them. We even have games "what if Hitler won." Seriously? Everybody takes their time to think about the Hitler's victory, but why there is no game from the concentration camp environment? Yeah, I'm a psycho, but my dream game would be, an action adventure about the Holocaust.
My dream game
A couple of years ago I thought it was a terrible shame that there is no game about the Holocaust and playing Papers, please remind me of this idea. And just in time. The current theme of the contest hosted by @enjar and the Archdruid Gaming Community will at least make me extend the idea a bit more deeply. I always wanted to play a game from a concentration camp, but I never thought about it in more details.
Why the Holocaust?
Again, I'm a psycho, but from history and even from the present I have always been most interested in various torture devices, mummification, murders and, of course, the Holocaust. I wouldn't hurt any living being (except bugs), but I've always been attracted to all these themes, and I enjoyed reading or watching them on TV. But I miss some game about it, and I think that a lot of people would be interested in it, and it may be used as an educational medium. It wouldn't just be an absurd game full of fights, but a mysterious game with a touching story in which history is coming to life.
Genre(s)
While brainstorming my dream game features, I came to the conclusion that it would be a mix of several genres.
The main genre will be an action adventure because without some of the epic cutscenes, and occasionally some sort of decision it wouldn't be that awesome. And it also means a rich story.
It would be a survival a little because you would have to manage the energy you get from the desperately small portions of the food you get, notwithstanding the influence of various diseases and cold.
It would be stealth because you would, of course, try to escape, and as an underfed prisoner, you would simply have to sneak unnoticed.
And of course, it would be a horror or thriller, because some events and scenes would be more than disturbing.
Graphics
I think such a game definitely needs the most realistic graphics because I wouldn't have enjoyed it in a pixel version. I would like to see the proper anorectics and protruding bones hidden beneath the loose and dirty prison clothes. A lot of dirt and a grim black and white atmosphere from which chills will go down your spine so you can remember all the horror-like Holocaust pictures you've ever seen.
Plot
I concluded that it makes no sense to stretch just a single storyline. When I play the WW2 game from the point of view of the victims, I want to experience as much as possible. So I would imagine a game that consists of more stories. Each will have a different main hero. Of course, the characters could come across somewhere, but it would be much more interesting if there were references to the other story in each story. Perhaps the hero X and Y lived in the same building or that the hero X would see the hero Y somewhere in the crowd. These would be small details that you might not notice for the first time, but it would surprise you if you would.
While writing the previous paragraph, it occurred to me that we could follow the fate of one family. You know that women, men, and children were separated from each other in the concentration camp, and I would definitely like to play the role of each one. So why not to connect them somehow?
So let's look at the fate of the Kohn family (it will come to me as such a typical Jewish second name) before their deportation. We can easily get to know the individual members. How they live, their mutual relationships and what they like. The family has four members. Mr. and Mrs. Kohn have two children. A freshly grown son and a ten-year-old daughter. She is a friend of twins of the same age living next door. They are also Jews.
Mum sews Jewish stars on the whole family coats. Her husband faces all the hatred of non-Jewish fellow citizens who haven't had the slightest problem with him until now. The same approach is awaiting him when he comes to work. He is fired, and since then the family has been living in poverty.
Then came the deportation. The family is stuck in a wagon where it is no space, and one of the fellow travelers is trampled to death. On arrival at the concentration camp comes the selection that Mengele itself controls. Women, men, old people, and children will be separated from each other. Now comes the time to track individual family members separately.
Father and son become slaves of the hardest work that is offered. They have to carry heavy iron castings.
The son doesn't like the conditions, and because he is young and full of strength, he thinks of escaping. Two options are offered. Either try to dig a tunnel and sneak around the guards or try to please one of the officers and become his pet.
Father is too old for escaping or rebellion. He will get sick from the hard work. The sick slave is useless, so they send him to the gas.
Mother, who previously worked as a nurse, is noticed by a doctor, and she would become his assistant. As a result, she has access to the drugs she secretly gives to other prisoners, though they wouldn't otherwise get them.
The daughter has blond hair and blue eyes, so she is sent to re-education.
Dr. Mengele takes the twins for his perverse "research." Will they survive or not?
It was such a quick brainstorming of fates that might appear in the game. Of course, there may be more, and they can be more entangled and full of different twists.
Gameplay
I would compare my game vision to a slightly more interactive Until Dawn. Each action should have some consequences, and the player would face a lot of dilemmas and ultimates. At the end of the game, of course, there would be some statistics on the individual decisions of all players playing the game. But as I said, the game should be more interactive. No occasional pressing of a special button. I don't want it to be an interactive movie. You would have to do some missions at your discretion and skill. E.g., in stealth mission to avoid light beams and guards.
If a person wanted to do some more debilitating action, such as running, he would have to save a lot his energy, which is rather limited due to the conditions prevailing in the concentration camp and small portions of food. So there will be no fighting. A well-fed officer would kill you quite easily. On the other hand, there should be something like an adrenaline rush when you'll be able to do otherwise impossible stuff. But this ability would have a very long cooldown.
Combat would only be possible if the hero had managed to steal some weapon. I mean gun because he wouldn't have the energy to fight with the knife. But it won't make the game a shooter. Getting the gun would be really difficult.
For children, I might imagine something like a sugar rush. This would boost the child, and it'll be able to run away. However, only kids taken by Mengele will have access to this feature. It is known that the Angel of Death gave his children lollipops and other sweets if he wasn't testing on them.
And for the right time to do some important action, you would have to wait for a few days sometimes. As a creator of the game, I would certainly not allow you to escape from the concentration camp immediately. Just try out what it was like.
Summary
I have always liked movies, documents, and all the sources of information about the Holocaust. But no one is coming up with anything new and playing it would be a great opportunity to try out all the horrors associated with it. My dream game would take place in a concentration camp environment and would follow the fate of a few heroes of which each would be unique.
The game should be as realistic as possible, whether graphic or gameplay. The hero definitely wouldn't be OP. It'll be a normal starving guy. The only weapon he could use would be a gun if he could steal it.
It may have different genres or a combination of them, but the main elements would be taken from action adventures. The game shouldn't miss important decisions that affect the whole game and the heart-catching cutscenes that will help you feel better with the characters.
I'd like to play this game a lot, so for God's sake, somebody make it!
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Yo, long time gamer here... have you tried the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series? some of their concepts align with yours. To the exact point you're describing no games comes close, mostly because such a brutal difficulty is a bone-killer. I've seen some DARK games, I've seen some stealth games, but in the end you'll get given power, because without power it would be a castrating and frustrating game. The problem stems with the direction of the story, the bad guys would punish you all the time and you would need to survive... and then what? you escape from the prison? you get your revenge?, there needs to be some incentive to endure such brutal difficulty... maybe escaping from a prison is a good idea, you would have some safe zones and some decisions to influence your escape route... brute force wouldn't get you anywhere and using a stolen gun would be a last resort... holding weapons would be bad too... and by the time you get out of the prison the world has gone to hell and your family is missing... something like that would be really something else, but just like you said, no interactive movies please...
I didn't play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I'm short time gamer :D
I didn't think that my game would have brutal difficulty. It won't be a shooter. It'll be more about the story than about challenge. An action adventure without killing everything that moves. It may sound boring, but it'll be different at least. And as I said there would be more storylines and main heroes who will be somehow connected. Somebody will want to escape other will try the best option for him to last longer. It should offer different views.
Did you see this upcoming game that was about a coop escape from prison? It's called a way out. I didn't think you were going for an adventure game, since you said "I don't want it to be an interactive movie", but that's what adventures games are like... mostly. I think I focused on the wrong point... you're just like most old time gamers, looking for some epic and engaging mature storyline.
Yeah, I want storyline because I don't enjoy games where you're doing something for nothing. I don't want interactive movie or pure adventures if you want like those from TellTale or Life is Strange I want an action adventure like Uncharted, Tomb Raider or Last of Us. The "action" word has its purpose in the name of this genre. And it won't be coop. It'll be singleplayer, you'll just play for different characters.
So sorry that I'm too mainstream ;)
And as I said in the article I never thought about it in detail. Just this contest was motivation to do so. So yeah, it's not perfect like every brainstorming.
Struck with the idea of that game. It seems to Me an issue fun and real, how hard will a company do so because they would have to see if the general public likes.
But in reality would be a different theme to normal, that is always present in this style of games. It could be the style survival, but with shots in the middle of the war.
Every person is different so yeah, it is hard to please the general public, but there are so many successful action adventures that I think it'll be no problem even with this theme. E.g., just try to replace zombie theme from Last of Us (mentioned by @volderhein) with Holocaust. I think it could work.
There are so many survivals these days that I will just add some features to the game, but still, the story should be main.
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OMG PIPI WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!
Although I do think people like the idea of battling Hitler or winning over Hitler in a historical way, people also think the things Hitler did were horrible and should not be brought to talk about ever again since it's a rather very sensitive topic.
I do feel like this could be plausible, while reading I imagined playing through what this idea shaped up in my mind and had a sort of Uncharted/The Last of Us and even with some Limbo/Little Nightmares aspects you could put on it! Heck, even some of the walking dead aspects too!
The Idea is sold and solid. It should definitely be looked when thinking of making a game like this.
Great Work Pipi!
Well, people complain about everything so the developers must deal with it, but I don't think that the Holocaust is taboo. If so there would be no movies about it (I got my storyline ideas from different movies). If there are movies then why not a game? I don't see anything bad in it. It is not a game from the perspective of Hitler and his officers. You won't torture anybody or so (that will be extreme), you'll try to stay alive as hard as you can. I think a lot of people will be interested in it. There are a lot of stories to get inspiration. Everybody loves Anne Frank, so I don't understand why there is no game.
How could I forgot Last of Us! It has definitely gloomy atmosphere, and it includes stealth and action. Yeah, my game should look like it! I'm glad you liked my idea :)
I'm not saying it shouldn't be made, i'm just mentioning maybe why o/: TBH I think it's a great idea and ideas like these should be explored further!