Where to get it

2012 · Wolfire Games · First-person shooter · Indie

Receiver

Receiver was created for the 7-day FPS challenge to explore gun handling mechanics, randomized levels, and unordered storytelling. Armed only with a handgun and an audio cassette player, you must uncover the secrets of the Mindkill in a building complex infested with automated turrets and hovering shock drones.

Released: 18 June 2012
Platforms: Linux Windows macOS
Genres: First-person shooter Indie Shooter Simulation
Developers: Wolfire Games
Publishers: Wolfire Games
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action
Country: United States
Languages: English
Time to beat: 3hmain story6hcompletionist

About

Receiver is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by Wolfire Games. The game attempts to portray realistic gun mechanics through a unique reloading system, where each step of reloading is assigned a different button. The player scavenges items and audio tapes which reveal the story in a procedurally generated world.

Receiver was released in June 2012 for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. In 2013, the game was made available as a free copy for people who had previously purchased another Wolfire Games video game, Overgrowth.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Receiver, players must control an in-game character, known as a "Receiver", to search for eleven audio tapes (voiced by Aubrey Serr, their lead artist), from around a procedurally generated world, randomly arranged after each death. Ammunition and flashlights are scattered throughout the world as well. Players start with a random handgun, either a Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver, a Colt M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol, or a selective fire Glock 17 pistol with an automatic sear. Players are also given a random inventory of ammunition and/or spare magazines for their weapon.

Players may also start with a flashlight (modeled after the Mini Maglite). While searching for tapes, the player encounters stationary sentry turrets and mobile hover drones that attack the player. A single hit to the player will kill them. Shooting these automated defenses can disable them, with shots to vital components, such as the camera, the ammunition box, a motor, or specifically the battery, which when hit, will instantly disable them.

Story

The audio tapes describe a technology called "mindtech", and how an antagonistic entity called "the Threat" has applied it within media to weaken the human population, and that it now has unleashed a catastrophic event called "the mindkill". Later on, the tapes detail various planes of existence, explain firearm operation, and instructs the player to listen to a "cleartape" in order to become "awake".

Development

Receiver was originally created as part of the 7 Day FPS Challenge in 2012, built on "gun handling mechanics, randomized levels, and unordered storytelling."

The game was released in June 2012, and on Steam in April 2013 after being accepted as part of Steam Greenlight.

Reception

In Destructoid's 8.5/10 review, they said that "successfully reloading a gun for the first time through sheer muscle memory is easily one of the greatest feelings in gaming", concluding that "Receiver is one of those games that feels so incredibly satisfying once it is finally understood".

The Verge described the game as "wrapped up in a slick package that really makes you feel like a cool, infiltrating spy."