Time journey is a troublesome trope to work right into a story, because it opens up so many potentialities. When the characters can go not simply anyplace, however anywhen, it may be robust to only pin down a premise. A brand new indie recreation, obtainable at no cost, places the participant within the sneakers of the time police. These time cops have a vital mission: It’s the Nineteen Eighties, and you need to cease the assassination of John Lennon.
Time Pressure X: Mission of Lennon is a textual content recreation created by the Anime Sickos podcast, with contributions from artist Tom McHenry. I spoke with Tom Harrison, one of many hosts of Anime Sickos, over Discord about Mission of Lennon. “Writing the script for the sport took about two months,” he mentioned. “We beforehand made a demo recreation utilizing [narrative game engine] Narrat the place you’re touring to Deadwood (particularly the model from the basic HBO present of the identical title) to open a ironmongery shop.”
A playthrough of Mission of Lennon takes between 5 and quarter-hour, and there are 20 endings. The participant can skip preamble on successive runs, and a few endings take very particular talent checks. “One might argue that locking sure endings behind such byzantine, secret necessities is unhealthy design,” Harrison mentioned. “I’d counter that it’s truly very humorous.”
Whereas Mission of Lennon is about saving John Lennon’s life, it’s not notably flattering in the direction of the musician. One ending has the protagonist snap and kill Lennon themselves. “One factor that’s true about [the protagonist] in all situations [is they are] an enormous fan of progressive rock and needs to ask John Lennon about it.”
This will sabotage your mission to save lots of Lennon, as after you announce you’re a time traveler there to rescue him, you possibly can instantly begin peppering him with questions on obscure bands just like the Van Der Graaf Generator. Lennon, maybe predictably, shouldn’t be extremely impressed.
The Anime Sickos podcast is funded by Patreon subscribers, which implies the hosts have funding to do parallel artistic initiatives like audio dramas or Mission of Lennon. It’s an entertaining romp in an underserved nook of recreation narratives — I’ve needed to struggle 1,000,000 aliens, Nazis, and various impolite dudes, however I can confidently say a recreation has by no means pitted me towards Mark Chapman. The Time Cops idea might additionally make a enjoyable franchise, if Mission of Lennon takes off.
“One thought we had throughout manufacturing can be a sequel the place you return to assist John Hinckley Jr end the job with Reagan, however I concern that’s too cold-blooded for a comedy recreation,” wrote Harrison. “I’d most likely keep on with moments in music historical past so I can indulge my putrid intuition to study and inform folks unbearably tedious music enjoyable info.”
