To be honest, I didn’t know much about Mexican history before trying the Steam demo. Mexico 1921: SleepingI’m not quite sure what’s going to happen.
My knowledge of the country’s history was mostly limited to the plot in Red Dead Redemption where Bill Williamson decided to surrender to Javier Escuela and what I read on Wikipedia about the cultural impact of the wrestler El Santo. I thought the game’s art style was interesting, so I dug deeper.
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After finishing the book, I still didn’t learn a whole lot about early 20th century Mexican history, aside from the names of a few characters and groups. All I did was play a detective who, it’s fair to say, was pretty annoyed by the recent assassination of President Alvaro Obregón. Maybe it was the mysterious background to the incident, or the myriad threads that needed to be pulled through the political landscape of post-revolutionary Mexico to solve it. Maybe he was just a little annoyed that a very serious man was being portrayed as a cute cartoon character.
Anyway, I played this man as he strode through the police station, examining key evidence, questioning people who might be involved in the murder, and watching Obregón’s death re-enacted through a black-and-white filter. Then, I met the game’s real protagonist, journalist Juan Aguirre. Yes, I chose to write a game where you play as a journalist, a bit like Bob the Architect chose to write his master’s thesis on a philosophical question: whether we can really solve “it,” whatever “it” is.
The demo only offers one mission as Aguirre, so it’s hard to tell if the rest of the game will follow the same blueprint – since the detective section that opens the game basically feels like one long intro sequence. However, it does make me curious to see how Macula Interactive will proceed with the rest of the game.
You see, while Mexico 1921 is a lot simpler in terms of point-and-click investigation mechanics and dialogue trees than the game vaguely reminds me of, it does feel like there’s something interesting at its core–assuming people are as interested in historical and cultural context as I am.
First up, I’ll tell you about my favorite feature, which lets Aguirre wander the grand main plaza beneath a painting of the sky like a cool Mexican mural: Nosy Mode. It’s basically the same conversation-eavesdropping mechanic that games like Assassin’s Creed have included for years, but named in a way that dispenses with the usual pretense that you’re some kind of cool secret agent.
No, the game is clear as Aguirre wanders around questioning the union members who sent them to protest today, and foolishly hides behind things to eavesdrop on their conversations – he’s just a nosy asshole. A nosy asshole with a camera that he can use to take pictures as evidence or just to get a historical collectible.
The character models used to render the people you’ll be chatting with or spying on have some endearing imperfections. Basically, some of them are pretty funny to look at, similar to the exaggerated guilty or innocent expression mechanics in L.A. Noire. It’s funny at times, but it doesn’t necessarily make you forget what else is going on.
Basically, some of Mexico’s residents feel a bit like they’ve been time-traveled from the plot of Wallace & Gromit, but you’re learning about constitutional law and human rights aspirations, so it all balances out. To be fair, as Pentiment shows, for a narrative-focused game with a tome as long as War & Peace, it’s great that humor (whether intentional or not) can break up the heavy factual and serious story beats. That said, I’m curious to see if the few decisions players make during the demo will actually have a significant impact, given Mexico 1921’s focus on historical accuracy.
Overall, you can tell that the folks at Mácula really care about what they’ve created, and are clearly very passionate about using the game to help showcase and educate people about Mexico’s unique history and culture. It’s an admirable goal that results in a game that probably won’t be for everyone – judging by the demo, non-Mexican history buffs will have to do a fair amount of homework to fully understand the events depicted.
After playing the Steam demo of Mexico 1921: The Sleeping Dead, I still feel like I don’t know a whole lot about Mexican history. I definitely had a hard time differentiating between the Morones Unidads and the Cristeros, but I’m hoping that once the full game comes out it’ll be able to toe that intractable line between serious historical document and genuinely fun video game that makes me want to learn all the lessons and absorb all the culturally unique stories it has to offer.
Check out iGamesNews, RockPaperShotgun and other games featured in Eurogamer’s Wishlisted event on the hub page – which includes a great, informative video showing you why we’re so passionate about collecting games.
Check out Mexico, 1921. Sleeping on Steam via the link.
