Fix what you broke.
What if I told you every word you say is being recorded.
Every thought you've ever had -your love, your fear, your hate - were just planted in your brain, like weeds in a garden.
What would you do to free yourself?
We both know the answer to that question.
Nothing. You are the frog in a pot, boiling so slowly you don't even know what's happening.
But I'm here to set you free. Whether you like it or not.
Every thought you've ever had -your love, your fear, your hate - were just planted in your brain, like weeds in a garden.
What would you do to free yourself?
We both know the answer to that question.
Nothing. You are the frog in a pot, boiling so slowly you don't even know what's happening.
But I'm here to set you free. Whether you like it or not.
— Judas
Judas is an upcoming First-Person Shooter science fiction action adventure video game from Ghost Story Games, the new studio from Bioshock creator Ken Levine. No release date is announced yet, but the game is confirmed for release on consoles and PC.
Players take control of a young woman called Judas who must work to defeat or make alliances with her enemies to survive on a failing starship. The game was announced at the 2022 Game Awards ceremony.
Not to be confused with the comic or the manga.
Previews: Announcement and gameplay trailer
, Story trailer
Judas includes the following examples:
- Advertising by Association: The trailer opens with the proclamation that this game is from the creator of Bioshock.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Big Three? They used to be a literal family. Now they hate each others' guts and may even try to kill one another.
- Body Horror: Judas obtains upgrades in a way that makes Plasmid side-effects look downright pleasant; in order to replace parts in her hand cyberware, the upgrade station has to rip the living skin off her hands, drill in the replacement parts, and finally 3D-print her replacement skin by spraying pimples made out of her stem cells.
- Bread and Circuses: Most of the ship starts out happy and loyal to the corporations because all their needs are met - but it's all meant to distract them from social media platforms gathering up their data and using it to micromanage their every thought.
- The Cracker: Judas' special skill is the hacking lasso, which lets her re-program weakened robots to do all sorts of things for her, from leaking their oil to brainwashing them into becoming suicide bombers.
- Depraved Dentist: One of the robots you have to face is a robotic dentist shaped like a dentist chair, with the body of his last patient still attached.
- Dirty Cop: The Deputy security robots can be turned into allies temporarily by using in game currency to bribe them, much like the security systems in Rapture the megacorporations who built the ship considered throwing money at problems a legitimate solution.
- Hellish Horse: The Deputy security bots look like robot horses in cowboy outfits.
- Hostile Animatronics: The various robots around the ship have a sort of cartoony design to them, justified since they were intended to eventually automate all work on the ship and their apperance was intended to get rid of the unease the crew had with that.
- Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: Most of the enemies in the game are malfunctioning security and maintenance bots. For instance, the dentist bots were designed to seek out people with cavities and forcefully give free dental care; with too much autonomy, they took to grabbing victims and drilling holes through them when they went rampant.
- Playing with Fire: The announcement gameplay shows the character putting a device into her hand that allows her to summon fire.
- Robot Dog: Judas' sidekick is a giant robot dog, Scutty, who also doubles as a spaceship.
- Sinking Ship Scenario: The spaceship you're on is still relatively functional, but it's in the middle of an asteroid field and the AIs with the processing power needed to calculate a safe path are busy malfunctioning and arguing, causing meteors to frequently pelt the ship.
- The Sheriff: One character in the trailer is dressed as a modern, southern sheriff, complete with a sheriff’s badge.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: The station has some kind of twisted event where many of the station's workers bully and shame a scapegoat stuck in a tube, which even includes merchandise like baseball caps that say "I shamed Judas". 'Judas' includes the player character, who is responsible for the ship's apocalypse.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Judas and The Big Three are forced to co-operate to salvage the mission that they collectively screwed up. Judas hates The Big Three for enslaving the colony, The Big Three hate Judas for causing the station-wide apocalypse, and The Big Three hate each other for keeping traumatizing secrets from one another. Infighting is a gameplay mechanic; allying with one of The Big Three will convince them to give Judas hidden stashes and assistance, but pissing them off will cause them to intentionally sabotage her efforts.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: As the story trailer reveals, Judas' goal is to free the people from the computer systems controlling their lives, whether they like it or not. So far it looks like it didn’t go too well.
