Everybody’s been talking about Unrecord since the game revealed footage that looked so real, people were unsure if the clip was actually built using virtual assets or if it was simply edited camera footage. That led programmer and co-director Alexandre Spindler to post a video of the game in the Unreal Engine 5 editor, showing the camera moving through the level. Despite this, some are still wary and asking for more proof.
The clip has people really excited about its visuals, but much like Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley, I find the premise of the game deeply suspect. In Unrecord, you’ll be a cop killing bad guys – the camera perspective is through a bodycam, which immediately brings to mind fraught politics surrounding police brutality and excessive use of force. I don’t think a game that does this without consideration for what it represents is a useful or meaningful addition to the gaming landscape, especially considering there’s always a percentage of gamers who are extremely resistant to viewing this art form through any kind of critical or political lens.
Right now, there isn’t enough of the game out there for us to know if it does examine itself critically, or if we just have an upcoming Police Brutality Simulator on our hands. There’s no indication of the former on the website, so I’ll assume that like many FPS games, it’s… just a shooter. I view it very much through the lens of Call of Duty, though it might be less intentional in its framing – I am simply not interested in a game that glorifies the same kind of brutality that happens in real life. No copaganda, please!
One comment said this would have been better off used in a “cat walking outside” simulator. (Hard agree.) Another said, “this would have been the fucking sickest survival horror game ever made”. Yet another hard agree from me, and I have great news – there is a survival horror bodycam game being made. The Paranormal Tales Twitter account has been lurking in the replies of people who quote tweeted the original clip, very cleverly piggybacking off the virality of Unrecord to promote itself.
Look – Paranormal Tales doesn’t look nearly as good, visuals-wise, as Unrecord from the alpha footage alone. There’s no confusion over whether it’s graphics or FMV, but it’s not copaganda, and it uses the bodycam concept to way better, less ethically worrying effect. In the game, you’ll play through stories of missing people, told through the lenses of different cameras. The project is Digital Cybercherries’ first horror game, and you can find footage of early alpha gameplay on YouTube. Despite being touted as being through a bodycam, the camera looks more like it’s a GoPro strapped to a head, but it looks scary as hell.
The official trailer shows us the perspective of a man looking for his lost dog in a forest, coming across an abandoned house and going inside. Spoiler: there are demons. The game is slated to release sometime this year – I will not be playing it, because I’m a big baby who can’t play survival horror without panicking, but I’d still rather play this than a cop game that likely has no qualms about the problematic actions it glamorises. If you’re super into the concept of Unrecord, but not the premise, this might be a good alternative for you.