Thirty Flights of Loving dev shows off upcoming cyberpunk game Quadrilateral Cowboy
Pull off intricate heists with your wits and a 56.6k modem.
Thirty Flights of Loving and Atom Zombie Smasher developer Blendo Games has released a new trailer for its upcoming cyberpunk hacking game Quadrilateral Cowboy.
Set in the 80's, Quadrilateral Cowboy puts you in the sneakers of a hacker who runs through a series of simulated heists using their technical prowess to shut down various security protocols and steal whatever McGuffin the highest bidder is looking for.
This plays out in first-person, though the primary mechanic is actually hacking via writing lines of code. When faced with an obstacle like a laser or camera, you'll have to use your "top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM" to access the security system and shut down various obstacles by manually whipping up the correct syntax for the occasion.
For example, typing the command line "cam8.off(3)" will turn off camera 8 for three seconds. Any longer and an alarm will go off. If you need to run past multiple cameras, you'll need to time them to turn off in sequence as you walk past them. So typing "cam8.off(3); wait(2); cam3.off(3)" will dismantle cameras 8 and 3 two seconds apart.
There are other gadgets, too, like a little rover that can retrieve objects once inserted into a room. This is controlled by manually entering how many degrees you'd like it to turn and how many centimeters you'd like it to move.
It's an acquired taste, then, and I'm not sure I've acquired it as I found it incredibly tedious when I played it at PAX Prime, but I seemed to be in the minority. I know Chris Donlan really dug it - as did EG contributors Steve Haske and Nathan Grayson.
Love it or hate it then, Quadrilateral Cowboy is certainly a painstakingly faithful adaptation of low-tech 80's cyberpunk. It's due for release on PC later this year.
