The Under City is a result of the cold war, a potential bunker from nuclear apocalypse where the greatest minds of America worked on experiments to turn the war in their favour. But once the Cold War ended and the scientists left the city kept ticking of its own accord. Slowly descending into madness.
In The Under City players visit a large research facility/city located in the sewers of New York. After falling into the sewers and being pursued by a large beast made of shadow they find themselves trapped in the city. Players make their home in a clock tower and must adventure through the layers of the city to the geothermal generator on the lowest level to discover the secrets of the city and escape while being pursued by a variety of experimental creatures and creations both friend and foe.
The Under City is a first person free roam sand box with a variety of quests, players navigate the city using parkour and the variety of contraptions they can find or make around the city. The players have very limited combat capability instead having to use stealth or speed to navigate around enemies. To assist with this players can ally themselves with the variety of sentient creatures in the city, from bipedal rats and dogs to rusted robots and philosophical doors with each offering unique benefits and stories. The Under City is literally a menagerie of the edges of science. The city is dilapidated and beginning to come apart but as player's adventure they will be able to use this to their advantage, scavenging materials from the city to develop the facilities at their home; the clock tower at the centre of the first level of the city. Players will upgrade their clock tower with a variety of equipment allowing them to brew chemicals, cook new foods or make armour and gadgets, all of which will be useful as they delve deeper into the city.
The end goal for the player is to get to the lowest floor and discover what is plaguing the city and turning off the lockdown system allowing them to escape into the New York Sewers again.
The Under City draws on a mix of genres taking from both horror and adventure games to create a mixed mind-set. Players should feel under-pressure and afraid when sneaking around the creatures that are truly frightening, these will be in stealth sequences which will be used in the more directed sequences of the game, use of ambient music and lighting will be instrumental in executing this. The Under City will also however make use of the parkour movement and the friendlier (or at least not terrifying) interactions in the city to create an air of curiosity and fascination in the player which will once again use music and lighting to drive this home. Overall The Under City aims to provide a deep story driven experience communicated in unison by clear links between stealth and tension as well as parkour and curiosity to develop relational responses in the player and control their stress levels thereby keeping them in a state of flow.
●Unique setting
●Aims for a mix of tense horror and fascination adventuring
●Customisable base to define your way of play
●Many different factions to ally with or fight against with a strong political system
●Deep story
