Consortium was a first-person shooter RPG released in early 2014 that uploaded the player into the brain of a security officer on-board a ship. Faced with a crippling lack of knowledge in this sci-fi alternate reality, you had to bullshit your way through conversations with the various crewmates and assist with a series of calamities. It’s not an easy game to encapsulate in a sentence, being compared to Deus Ex in its multiple choice approach to each situation. Even the developer mentions it in their description of Consortium: The Tower:
The Tower is a fully standalone, single player, first-person sci-fi immersive simulation. As Consortium officer Bishop Six, you can choose to fight, sneak, explore or talk your way through an interactive story driven by YOUR actions and decisions.
Put another way, imagine the original Deus Ex videogame, combined with the film Die Hard.
Interdimensional Games launched a Kickstarter for the sequel Consortium: The Tower on January 18th, running for 32 days. During its length they have been releasing frequent videos on their Youtube channel showcasing the updated features for the new area known as The Churchill Tower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpM_x6RlHgA Today is the halfway mark of the Kickstarter. While initial funding looked promising, the numbers have slowed to the point where only $120,000 of the $450,000 goal has been collected. The original Consortium game’s Kickstarter easily achieved its modest goal of $50,000 and netted a total of $70,435, but this is only after the independent developer re-evaluated their asking price. Months before the successful campaign they had launched a Kickstarter for the same game asking for $200,000 and cancelled it because raising the funds within the remaining time limit was extremely unlikely, so the current situation might prompt feelings of déjà vu. It was probably hoped the first game had raised awareness of the franchise and built enough of a dedicated fanbase to pitch a more ambitious sequel.
Quick Take
I feel a bit guilty sitting on the side-lines recovering from illness and not adding my meagre voice to this sooner. I loved Consortium and sincerely hope it gets funded one way or the other. Interdimensional Games might have to do the same thing as last time and downsize. As exciting as Consortium: The Tower is, the first game doesn't appear to have established the level of support they're asking for.
