The Blackout Club is all set to release in the first-quarter of 2019 on the PS4. The game is about a group of teens who discover that they have developed a pattern of falling unconscious and then waking up in the strangest places. Everything they might have done in that period is a total blackout. Interesting!
Further, in The Blackout Club, the teens decide to group together to solve the mystery, only to discover tunnels that lead to an underworld full of weird music and bizarre adults. In the game, the teens need to capture the whole conspiracy on their camera, and show it to the world so that everyone can believe that such things exist in the world.
A maximum of four players can go on a mission together involving encounters with various elements such as variable objectives, enemy ambush, loot drops and more. Every night would be filled with new crazy secrets and additional hints wherein the group would need to explore the new neighborhoods. The four truth seekers should trust no one as they get closer to knowing about their missing friend and the reason for their uncontrollable blackouts, read the official description of the game.
The four friends, who have bonded over a common secret, can select to drop in and out of a session for a single mission or more. Every mission occurs in the neighborhood only, revealing dark secrets of the familiar modern community disguised under the perfect society.
To make it through the challenges and bizarre revelations, players would need to use their skills, improvisation and intelligence. Players should know how to create and coordinate the diversions and tactically break out of the enemy’s grip. As the number of players shrink, they must be more vigilant not to fall into the trap of the dangerous creature that can’t be seen.
Talking of the game, Jordan Thomas, co-founder of The Blackout Club’s development studio, Question, previously said that the teenagers in the game are no match to the power of the enemies. “You have to find ways to jump on their back and get them in a chokehold, maybe jam a sedative into their neck or hit them with a taser. The game is about outwitting a robust, adult force from your perspective as a teenager,” he said.
According to Thomas, the most notorious enemies are the Sleepers and Lucids. The former are the parents, cops and teachers, whereas the Lucids are the people interested in taking part in such experiments. The Sleepers cannot see the kids on account of sleepwalking and are unaware of their involvement in the conspiracy. The Lucids, on the other hand, are capable of hunting down their enemies relentlessly.
Further, Thomas said that in the titles such as BioShock, Deus Ex or Thief, the player has a gun and the magic hand that can be combined to create some new power. In The Blackout Club, however, it is the people that come together to create the magical effect. One player might be skilled in making a prank call to someone who is about to catch them, by playing a pre-recorded message, while the other has the ability to do a takedown by hunting down the person in the shadows.
Further, players of The Blackout Club can possess one major and one minor power, as well as a “hero item” like teaser crossbows, grappling hooks and more. The players should select the power that compliments them. For instance, someone good at pranks might not be agile enough to run across the rooftops and sprint without needing a break.
Thomas, previously, also talked of something like a “bad kid high score” in the game. Players in the course of completing the mission would have to do many things such as pick locks, or hunt someone down from behind. Such actions would increase the felony score, and therefore, taking on another mission, rather than giving up would deliver additional XP scores.
Thomas, who was the creative director to the titles like BioShock 2, revealed that work on The Blackout Club started in 2016, roughly a year after Question’s first game, The Magic Circle. Thomas co-founded Question with Stephen Alexander, a fellow designer on BioShock. Kain Shin, a programmer for Dishonored, came on board later.
Talking about how the team came up with the idea of the game, Thomas said, “Cooperative play and the resurgence of the horror genre had given us hope. We’d been waiting for horror to welcome back the vulnerable protagonist, for years.” Further, he said that the teenage characters were the outcome of that brainstorming.
