Game news Unrecord: Is the sensational French game TOO realistic?
A few days ago, the Unrecord shooter caused a stir with its ultra-realistic images, but also missed some concerns: Is it TOO realistic?
« Wait, I’m having a really hard time believing that this is an actual video game » ; At the sight of Unrecord’s pictures, the first reactions were almost unanimous. A few days ago, the French studio DRAMA, founded by Spindler and Théo Hiribarne (aka Foda C, one of the two members of the rap group Columbine), showed the public the snippets of an Unreal Engine 5 creation so realistic that it left canvas speechless. The experience is that of a first-person shooter in “bodycam” view, with the camera mounted on the shoulder of a police officer on duty. In addition to a real visual concept that knows how to talk about it, Unrecord would also offer an immersive narrative experience punctuated by complex dialogues, innovative mechanics and moral dilemmas. A proposal so ambitious that some quickly cried as a fake. Supporting video footage is then viewed by lead programmer Alexandre Spindler behind the scenes of the development on his Twitter account to ensure the accuracy of the project. On the game’s Steam page, the team insists: “The game is developed on Unreal Engine 5 and gameplay footage is captured by an executable and played with keyboard and mouse“. At the same time, IGN journalists got their hands on an old version of the game from 2022; Result : “So we downloaded it to see if this game was legit or a scam. It turns out that the game is actually real and one of the most realistic games we’ve seen.“. And while suspicion evaporates, another question is raging on the nets among those who felt a certain uneasiness upon seeing the trailer: “Isn’t this video game TOO realistic?”
Too realistic for our good?
The debate started on Twitter. Trainwreck, co-owner of livestream channel Kick, says:
I’ll get a lot of hate for this – but this level of realism in video games should be heavily moderated in *shooters* for everyone *under a certain age*, hope the parents do their thing. This level of shooting and killing realism makes me feel uncomfortable, like watching a real leak in a military or police operation. The clear distinction between right and wrong is necessary, but I think that level of realism gives real credence to the nonsense that politicians have been spouting for years about video games that make young people lose their sense of trends or violent situations.
Many, like Trainwreck, feel a palpable uneasiness upon discovering Unrecord, suggesting the violence here is becoming a little too palpable for their liking. “I’ve never seen a game where someone was shot so realistically.” replies the ModernWarzone Twitter account. In France, while familiar with shooters, streamer Wartek says: “I don’t like that a game about killing people is so close to reality“. Quite a similar opinion from Axel Dauvergne, Marketing Manager at Playdigious, who nonetheless blames the game’s content as the crux of the problem: ”””It’s not about photorealism here, it’s about the theme of the game being attached to it .””You’re a cop who kills people without warning, you’re not investigating. (…) If it had been another zombie thing, it would have been infinitely less disturbing.”
A question of gender
A few hours after the announcement of Unrecord, another bodycam game made waves on the web: Paranormal Tales, a horror title whose new trailer images are so realistic they will probably make you break out in a cold sweat. Halfway between Blair Witch and The Conjuring, the game offers a found-footage-like experience, including image distortion and low light. Everything is based on one of the following playing fields: You play a man who has lost his dog Teddy in the forest and must therefore go in search of him. Problem, the unfortunate one seems to fall on a haunted house inhabited by an entity that honestly doesn’t look very comfortable. And when the experience seems real enough to make the dead tremble, nobody seems to blame the studio for being overly realistic.. It is therefore the correlation between photorealism and police shooting experience that seems troubling.
The story of Unrecord can be compared “Crime or Thriller“, it says on the game’s Steam page.”You could describe it as a mixture of Firewatch and Ready Or Not“. The player has to investigate multiple cases and confront different characters. There will be no Manichaean vision of criminal activity and police violence during the experience, the studio attests, but doesn’t deny the discomfort their images are likely to evoke.
We also respect and understand people who may be disturbed by the images in the game. Art cannot compete with interpretation.
Justifying the game’s unreleased content would be a spoiler, and you’ll find out the direction of the issues for yourself. The public usually trusts the authors of films, series and novels about point of view intelligence when it comes to stories about detectives, gangsters or cops. Why not for a video game? When the game presents political messages, they are made consciously or in your interpretation. If the game wants to be subversive in certain countries, we take over the label.
A bullet in the foot?
Stunning photorealism obliges, Unrecord’s images have pushed boundaries to make the Daily Mail headlines. “The most realistic first-person shooter out there is a cause for concern, leading some to wonder if America really needs it now. publishes the media in a local context where media coverage of video game violence is already well established and escalated dramatically after the Littleton massacre on April 20, 1999, as two Columbine High School students, one of whom was a video game enthusiast , their classmates and teachers opened fire; a time when, in just seven days, the New York Times will have published sixteen articles dedicated to video gaming’s responsibility in killing (source: Olivier Mauco). The Daily Mail article echoes Trainwreck’s comment: “One Twitter user said the tactical shooter “It gives real credence to the nonsense that politicians have been spouting for years about video games conditioning young people.”, pressing the disturbing side of the images. Keep in mind that the latest studies still don’t show a link between violent games in adolescence and violent behavior in adulthood. According to Richard Pearsey, author of the cult classic Spec Ops: The Line and his life-changing experience, “People won’t be mad at you… if what you’re doing is consistent with the game world“. Let’s wait and see to what extent this formality applies to Unrecord.
