Where to get it

2019 · White Paper Games · Adventure · Indie

The Occupation

The game takes place in a single government building, in real time over four hours, the game advances without input from the player, but almost all in-game actions can affect the game's story.

Released: 5 February 2019
Platforms: PlayStation 4 Windows Xbox One
Genres: Adventure Indie Puzzle Stealth
Developers: White Paper Games
Publishers: Humble Games
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Thriller Stealth Mystery
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Country: United Kingdom
Age ratings: ESRB T USK 0 ACB PG GRAC 15+PEGI 12 CLASS_IND L
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat: 6hmain story12hcompletionist

About

The Occupation is a single-player adventure video game developed by White Paper Games and released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on 5 March 2019. The game takes place in a single government building, over four hours of real time. The game advances with or without input from the player, but almost all in-game actions can affect the game's story.

The game is set in late 1987, within the same universe as White Paper Games' first title Ether One.

›Story

An attack has left 23 dead & has become a catalyst for the creation of The Union Act, a controversial act which threatens the civil liberties of the British population.

The next 4 hours will determine the outcome of the act and the future of the country. Events happen in real-time and you must make decisions based on the evidence surrounding you.

Is the cost of an extreme action outweighed by the cause of the greater good?

You are the reporter. You decide the narrative.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game does not have a traditional health bar or energy system. If the player is caught doing something they should not, they are taken to a security office and lose 15 minutes, which shortens the time available to achieve the main objective of the game.

Story

Prior to the start of the game, a terrorist attack has killed 23 people and led the British government to create the Union Act, a "controversial act which threatens the civil liberties of the British population."

The game's plot starts at 3:27 PM on 24 October 1987, with the player character being a journalist that is researching the Union Act. Players have freedom of choice on how to act; whether it is becoming a whistle-blowing journalist fighting against the act, or doing nothing as the game progresses on its own.

Development

The game was developed on Unreal 4 and uses dynamic artificial intelligence, which combines scripted activities for the in-game characters along with deviations to their normal routine based on their in-game requirements or interactions. The developers illustrated this by explaining the actions of a character called Dan, a Scottish Muslim who is a "towering bald man who screams security". He breaks his usual desk-based routine because of his need to pray at certain times, creating a circumstance that the player can take advantage of should they wish.