A game that looks almost uncomfortably realistic
A new trailer for the police shooter "Unrecord" with photorealistic graphics makes for astonished faces, but also a certain unease.
Even games with bombastic graphics hardly impress these days. One exception is "Unrecord". With the first teaser last autumn, French developer Alexandre Spindler got the internet in an uproar. The game, in which you control a police officer from the perspective of his bodycam, already looked impressive back then. The game is being developed with Unreal Engine 5.
The trailer released on Wednesday pushes the boundaries between fiction and reality even further. It shows what appears to be a typical police shot, as seen on news programmes in the USA every day. The only difference is that in "Unrecord" you steer the uniformed officer through the abandoned building yourself and hunt down criminals.
All fake?
The bodycam perspective with its ultra-realistic graphics and fluid movements creates the impression of real police footage. People who are hit are automatically pixelated. You can't help but wonder: are these real video recordings? Some game developers also question the authenticity of "Unrecord". They wonder
Raphael van Lierop, the creator of "The Long Dark", wonders how the game is controlled. This is because head movements and aiming apparently work separately from each other, which is actually only possible in virtual reality.
Source: Drama
Alex Koshelkov, on the other hand, who is responsible for "The Universim", does not believe that the "Unrecord" trailer shows real-time gameplay. The many different mini-movements of the hand indicate a pre-rendered video.
Whether real or not, the trailer is already causing unease among some users. Precisely because such footage is now ubiquitous, it gives the impression that you are witnessing a real police operation. And it doesn't end with arrests, but with an empty magazine.
According to Spindler's Studio Drama, "Unrecord" is not just about running and shooting. The game is supposed to be a mixture of walking simulator like "Firewatch" and tactical shooter "Ready or Not". I'm really looking forward to that.
"Unrecord" is to be released for the PC, but there is no release date yet.
Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.