The summer season being what it is, there’s been no shortage of game news to enjoy and speculate on. The big title on everyone’s lips right now is GTA VI since Rockstar finally deigned to show some gameplay to the poor unwashed gamer masses, but it’s hardly the only exciting project out there. No Law is one such project, one that’s promising a lot right off rip.
Even though this is only an in-engine trailer rather than actual gameplay, we can get a sense of what the developers at Neon Giant are going for. What it seems they’re trying to do is to offer players a world in which they can approach each target or mission freely by means of stealth, charisma, brute force or perhaps even a handful of other, yet-to-be-shown methods. What’s more, it looks like they aim for the world and its characters to react to players’ favored methods.
This sort of gameplay is what made the likes of Dishonored, Deus Ex, Prey and Death Loop into classics of the immersive sim genre, even if they didn’t see widespread commercial success. Couple that with a very strong cyberpunk aesthetic and you’ve got the makings of another strong entry into the genre.
All that said, it’s far too early to tell if No Law is actually going to be any good. For one, “in-engine” trailers are by no means something to base a purchasing decision off of. There was a time when you could somewhat trust them, but thanks to the likes of Watch Dogs, Anthem and Cyberpunk 2077 (especially Cyberpunk 2077), we now need to treat them as if they were mere cinematic trailers.
Games can be made to look a lot more impressive than they actually are with scripted in-engine sequences and vertical slice demos, making the full and final release the only trustworthy indicator of what a game is actually capable of delivering.
(This is also why I maintain that pre-ordering is bad for gamers, especially now that everything is digital and you don’t have to worry about whether there’ll be enough copies at your local store.)
What these sorts of trailer are good for, however, is helping you to decide what games to keep on your radar. This trailer for No Law looks good, and it gives me the impression that the developers are trying to make the next great immersive sim game. Whether they’ll actually be able to pull it off is a whole other matter, though, so for now I’m just going to keep an eye on it.
If you like these sorts of games too, then perhaps you should do the same.
How does this look to you? What are some obscure games you’re psyched about?
Image from the Steam page