Gamedec Has You Cyberpunk Sleuthing Virtual Crimes

If you're a fan of cyberpunk, then these next couple of years have you covered. Of course, the big one is Cyberpunk 2077, but there are a ton of games coming out with a cyberpunk setting. Gamedec is one of those, but it's got a different take than others. In this RPG, you take on the role of a Gamedec, which is a detective whose job it is to investigate crimes that happen in the setting's various cyber worlds.

From the outside, it looks like your standard isometric RPG, just with a cyberpunk setting this time. While that is definitely the case in terms of how you navigate and interact with the world, Gamedec doesn't have something that's a staple in most video game RPGs: combat. At least, it's not a traditional mechanic that is there the whole time. Some sort of combat may come into play in one of the virtual world's you explore, but combat isn't anywhere near the focus.

Instead, Gamedec is all about investigating. That means talking to people, searching for evidence, and piecing it all together to try to see what's going on. That leads to a Deduction screen, which shows the many different branching paths your investigation can go down. None of them are particularly more right than others, but the more you unlock through your investigation, the higher chance you can make a decision you'll be more comfortable with.

In Gamedec, the virtual and the "real" world don't have much distinction. A lot of people live out their days mostly online and in these virtual worlds, which have a ton of variety. The first world you investigate seemed like an homage to Westworld, as it does take place in a western world. Talking to a developer with Anshar Studios, he said we can expect to see a lot of different locales to explore. What they could be is totally up to Anshar Studios' imagination too, as nothing is limiting what the worlds can be.

A lot of the virtual worlds you'll investigate are themselves games as well. A developer told me that of the cases you work on in Gamedec is inspired by the story that prisoners in China were forced to farm gold in World of Warcraft. In a similar way, someone is farming a currency related to one of these virtual worlds in an unethical way.

In the end, Gamedec will live and die by how players can investigate the various cases they work on. Whether that's learning to read between the lines of what certain characters tell you or confronting them with information/evidence you already have, I hope Gamedec has a ton of tools to make it really feel like you're an investigator. Gamedec definitely has a good premise and setting to work with, and I look forward to hearing more about it in the future.

Gamedec doesn't have a release date yet and is coming to PC.