While social distancing may be the current reality for most of us, First Class Trouble - from indie developer Invisible Walls - seeks to bring us together digitally, albeit in the most deceiving way possible.
First Class Trouble is an asymmetric multiplayer game that blends co-op action with deception, as players try to survive within the confines of a luxury space cruise-liner whose A.I. has seemingly taken a turn for the darker side.
Players will take on the role of one of the surviving Residents aboard the ISS Alithea, tasked with working together and overriding the ship’s controls in order to survive. Of course, this is easier said than done. Scattered among the survivors will be player-controlled robotic servants known as Personoids, who are essentially human Residents in disguise that are hellbent on seeing a slow and painful end to the actual human survivors.
First Class Trouble is self-described as a “super strong social experiment,” and it is easy to see why. While, on the surface, the point of the game is to work together, the strategy in deception makes it so that players can really never fully trust any of the other surviving members of the group. Winning the game means figuring out who the Personoids are, separating the truth from the lies that come with the social interactions with the other players.
The nice thing about this mechanic is that no two games will be the same, whether it be with the same players or new ones met online. In that regard, First Class Trouble is also a game that lends itself well to the streaming community, allowing streamers to showcase their social interactions and acting skills along with their viewers.
First Class Trouble is expected to be available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2020, with Early Access coming to Steam in Q4 2020. Interested players can also sign up to take part in the game’s Alpha, which will take place on May 10th.
Just be careful. After all, in space, no one can hear you - Beep Beep, Boop Boop - I mean, “scream.”
