Imagine going on holiday to a warm tropical place with 99 of your best friends. Imagine an all you can eat buffet, soft beds and drinking Pina Colada’s by the pool. Now forget all that, because The Other 99 by Burning Arrow and Deck 13 puts you on a dark, lonely, and unforgiving island where the only food and shelter is what you can scavenge for yourself, and most of the other 99 inhabitants are trying to kill you.
You may remember a few weeks back we brought you some news about The Other 99 and now we’ve had chance to get to grips with the Steam Early Access version, we thought we’d bring you something a little meatier.
At the very start of the game you wake up not knowing where you are or how you got there with nothing except the clothes on your back and a rather eerie note that reads ‘The only way off the island is through the other 99’ . So in other words, kill the other 99 people and you can escape.
Although not every one of the inhabitants has chosen such a violent route of escape. As I explored the island (and yes, I did mercilessly slaughter a couple of people who begged me for their life) I started to read notes that others had left. There were notes about making a boat, and what needs to be scavenged to build it. So, there are clearly other ways off the island. After all how much can you trust that the person who kidnapped you will just let you go after killing so many people?
Graphically, a lot of the suspense is built when night falls. Sure daytime is still pretty scary but most of the underlying fear that someone is creeping up on you to slit your throat is definitely amplified as soon as the sun goes down. The opening scene sets the environment perfectly. When you wake up, it’s dark, rainy with only lightning to illuminate the area.
This is still being developed, and at the moment it’s very much a stealth survival type game. You scavenge food, and hopefully a bone knife or a pointy stick to defend yourself or murder the other inhabitants. A crafting system is also being devised, so you’ll be able to build your own pointy sticks.
Oh, one very important thing to note in The Other 99 is that you play by the same rules as the other 99 inhabitants. In other words, if you die that’s it, you have to start again. Permadeath is for all 100 of you.
You’ve been given a wristwatch to help you keep track of just how many others there are. Obviously it starts at 99 and ticks down every time someone is killed. What I like is that fact that the other 99 people are still killing each other behind the scenes. They’re all stalking the island and trying to survive just as you are. It adds even more to the suspense and the fact you know that things will be different every game. Hearing your watch beep and the number drop makes you wonder who’s responsible.
So, in short there’s still plenty more that Burning Arrow are planning to add to The Other 99 but what there is now is still great fun. The permadeath and the AI of the other island inhabitants makes for a very tense and exciting game.
If you want to know more about The Other 99 you can visit the official site or go straight to the Steam Early Access Page.
