What really piqued my interest, though, was the fully functioning ecosystem that Obsidian says underlies it all. Creatures—most of them insects—exist in hierarchies and hunt, collaborate, and fight to survive just like players. Players, who eat by killing and eating creatures like aphids, can and likely will knock this delicate balance disastrously askew.
“You can go through and wipe out an ant colony,” director Adam Brennecke told Kotaku . “Each ant colony is its own AI system, which is cool. Each ant colony will send out ants to food sources, and they communicate with each other through pheromones. But they’re each on their own faction or team. So some ant colonies can rise to dominance and some will die out.”
Obsidian has “talked about” implementing a full, New Vegas -style faction system for those ant colonies, but it remains to be seen if that will make it into the release version.
I asked Brennecke if it will be possible to wipe out an entire species, full stop. He said yes, and that the repercussions will be grim.
“It will be possible,” he said, using aphids as an example. “And then, for example, ladybugs hunt aphids, so they’ll start to die out, too.”
It also has a branching narrative with different characters you meet but not party members. Just a small handful of people are making this so it’ll be early access first for a while and they’ll be listening to feedback as well as any ideas the player base has.
