Brought to us originally from Kickstarter, Pentacle has been putting a lot of time in to The Works of Mercy. Originally targeted to come out this April, the release has been pushed back to an unknown time frame. This doesn’t make the game any less exciting however and that’s why it’s the game I’m waiting for.
As a general precautionary statement, The Works of Mercy deals with a lot of hefty choices, violence and gore, so it is not appropriate for young audiences. Also anyone dealing with anxiety should consider this game with that in mind.
Here’s the skinny on what The Works of Mercy revolves around. Played in a photo realistic P.T. type environment with many different choices of interaction and settings, the player must save his family. His child and wife have been kidnapped by a psycho of sorts and is now tormenting him. The kidnapper states he will give the player his family back only if he commits murder in return. How far will he go to save his family? Are the choices wrong or right? These decisions will mess with the mind and bring guilt upon you. But they lead back to the question, is killing another person for my own the right choice and how far am I willing to go? Alongside these big questions is the fact that the player is facing a lot of choices in morality.
In The Last of Us, a big choice in morality was the final choice in the game. The player however, didn’t get to choose this story-line, it simply just happened. In the Works of Mercy however, the player chooses every little detail in how they interact with the kidnapper and other people that are presented. If something goes wrong, or if your family dies, it’s on you. On the flip side though, you might just make every single decision right, kill and mangle a few people and still get your family back safe and sound. So what is the gray area? Right now, it’s still unknown if there are multiple endings but Pentacle has a lot to say about the myriad of decisions that lead to different responses and possible endings.
For the most part, gamers are just along for the ride in video games. Yes, they are controlling what the character does, but they have very little input in to the character’s lives. Let’s take a second to think about how this antagonist might not even be real. Or maybe our protagonist is just psychologically ill and everything is in his head. Somewhere in the gray area, The Works of Mercy allows players to become persecution free and do what they feel would be the right choice when the pressure is really put on.
But are there any right choices? If our character somehow runs in to the police, he obviously would be going to jail. There’s no way he could justify taking the lives of others without a person to point the finger at. For a video game, this is very heavy subject matter. It appeals to the darker more primal part of the human psyche. In our world we are surrounded by chaos and when we get the chance, we look at that car crash at the side of the road, or even the massive fire just in sight. This game presents the opportunity to pursue those moments of rage that civility and rules keep us from. The choices are interesting. The outcome is uncertain. Just be warned that you may not like where it takes you.
The reason this game drew me in originally was the photo-realistic style. Overall it looks great and interacting with everything is a big plus. There was a concern that the game would be a lot of hide and seek and get boring. Once choices started showing up I became much more intrigued. Then the story line started to become clear and I realized how deep Pentacle was willing to go to create a psychological thriller and I was hooked. I can’t be sure how I will feel with murders and choices but I think in the end this game will really sit with me. If this game even remotely sounds like something you would play then make sure to follow The Works of Mercy for when it officially releases. Just keep in mind that however it ends, sometimes that’s just how things are going to go. Don’t beat yourself up.
