Fatherhood PC Demo Impressions

War is an endless inspiration for experiences in the gaming landscape. Usually, we’re at the butt of the rifle dishing out the violence in the name of defeating the ‘bad guys’ or saving those we care for. I’m certainly not one to decry these games – as blockbuster bits of entertainment they fit the bill nicely, and I’ve played more than my fair share of them over the years – but seldom do we see things from a different perspective. Hell, even the excellent Spec Ops: The Line is all gun-toting action until that part. 

So, when a demo for upcoming Kickstarter project Fatherhood dropped into my inbox I was intrigued to check it out. Playing as Basir, a father struggling to escape a war torn city, we must first find and then guide his blind daughter to safety. Presented from a 2.5D perspective, Basir is able to go in and out of the foreground and background while remaining on a 2D plane. This allows us a little freedom to explore and find some of the optional side interactions, while keeping us on the path to the goal of each area. 

Even this early demo does a great job of creating that tenseness and fear that must be felt by those in these horrible situations. The audio work – while early – is filled with distant cries and sounds of gunfire crackling away, while the few NPC’s we bump into each have their own stories to tell. The first that we meet is actually one of the occupying military, a soldier who has been injured badly. After passing him, a timer begins showing that he needs medical aid. The nearby pharmacy holds the answer, and we can choose to help or simply carry on our way, leaving him to die in the street. Helping him comes back to pay off later in a good way; I hope to see some more morally grey choices like this further in where maybe it would be better to be the ‘bad’ guy to save your own.

As we move through the areas there are some light puzzles to solve, such as finding a key for a door, or placing a plank of wood to cross a gap, but everything here was straightforward enough to keep us moving. We do eventually come across soldiers that we’ll need to avoid, and here we get to see the stealth mechanics in action. They are very basic and amount to us crouching behind cover to stay out of their cone of vision (shown on the ground in red). We soon learn that we can attack soldiers from behind if we have a weapon, and doing so stresses Basir out, causing the screen to redden and everything to become a blur. 

The Kickstarter promises multiple endings and emotional relationships, so we can only assume this stress idea will come into play depending on how much we push Basir with more extreme actions. When we do find his daughter Asma, hugging her brings down Basir’s stress and also calms her, and this seems to play a key role in the gameplay too. At one point, we have to leave her side to open a door by climbing into a building, and the tension is palpable as we spend longer and longer away from her. I really hope the developer, Persis Play, can lean into this to make some extra tense sequences throughout the game.

I went into this demo interested to see what it had to offer, and have left it keen to see how the final product shapes up. There’s enough of a hook here that shows promise even if it is a slight demo, and when they mention inspirations such as The Last of Us, This War of Mine, and Inside, they set a high bar indeed for expectations. Will it touch those masterpieces? It’s a tall order, but either way I’m looking forward to the final game.

You can check out the Kickstarter page for Fatherhood here.

This game was previewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.