Australian game studio Divisive Media released Vigilante: Speak for the Dead this week, an online, social role-playing game for iOS devices that puts justice in the hands of the player.
Developed with funding from interactive entertainment and film funding board, Film Victoria, the game ties into the motion picture John Doe, an Australian production slated for a 2013 release that follows a vigilante as he attempts to rid his community of criminals. The game tie-in tasks players with investigating and passing judgment on both non-playable characters and other players, while forming vigilante "crews" to grow their power and influence.
According to the studio, the game is a "morally charged social experiment" to see what players do. Every player has a multitude of ways to punish people they encounter, but with hundreds of NPCs — each with unique stories to investigate, each having committed crimes that vary from jaywalking to brutal acts of murder – it is up to the player to determine how far they pursue certain cases, whether they listen to every NPC's story and thoroughly investigate the crimes before acting and the moral issues that come with taking the law into your own hands.
Vigilante: Speak for the Dead is available now for free from the iTunes App Store.
