A conceptual video game designed as a portfolio piece. My goal was to create a video game that was about deep personal emotions, but was still expressed in a recognizable gameplay form. By the year 2113, all humanity was born connected to the Internet. Nanotech modems plugged directly into the nervous system, bringing constant access to the AugR augmented reality system, essentially overlaying the Internet onto human perception. Everyone was connected to everyone else, in touch with a constant flow of information – and a constant flow of intrusive advertising.
Minneapolis, one clear, cold night in November. Andrew Levy, human/technology interface specialist, lies naked in his bathtub, blood slowly draining from deep cuts down his wrists, swirling out into the warm water. He remembers his daughter, Anna, the only good thing in his world since his wife’s death, since he started working on the project. He remembers the project, his company, Western Sun Marketing, secretly trying to bring about “the next stage in ultra-reality marketing.” The Morpheus Engine, they had called it. A device to reshape the perception of everybody connected to Internet 3 – everybody in the world. He was afraid of what they’d do with his work, but he was more afraid of how he’d support Anna without a job, so he kept his mouth shut. He remembers what he felt the night he received the phone call. Anna had been killed by her ex-boyfriend Seth. He showed up drunk on her doorstep with a gun, forced her back into the apartment, beat her, and shot her. As his vision goes black, the life draining out of him, he remembers how he felt he could not go on, that the one good thing he had created was taken from him, that his only mark on the world would be this horrible project…
He does not remember that he forgot to disconnect himself from the Morpheus Engine. He did not consider that he lives in an experimental nanotechnology preserve, the air filled with tiny machines to repair wounds and extend life. As consciousness slips away from him and dying fantasias take over his mind, tiny little healers swarm into his body, frantically trying to keep him alive forever. His brain slips away, but it sends out signals as it dies…
On one clear, cold night in November, the Morpheus Engine is activated, and the entire world is reshaped as the dying remembrances of a sad old man. All over the world, millions of people become Anna, to be murdered by millions of Seths. All the world has become actors, playing out the tragedies that run through the dying mind of Andrew Levy. And the robots, wonderfully malleable servants that they are, become the physical embodiments of raw emotions.
Miraculously, a few people are unaffected by the Morpheus Engine. DHS Agent Robert Brook and his partner back at the branch office, Angel Burdick, are among them, and they may be the only people who can discover the truth behind what has happened, and how to fix it. Using a variety of non-lethal weapons, Brook must fight his way through an insane world, and find a way to stop the Morpheus Engine.
Gameplay: Morpheus is primarily a first-person shooter, but the player can switch to third-person view at any time to help in sneaking around or climbing and jumping over obstacles. Most of the enemies the player encounters are civilians who are being controlled by the Morpheus Engine, making lethal force unethical. The player has a choice between using lethal and non-lethal force, which affects Agent Brook’s moral compass and the decisions he makes in the story accordingly. Lethal force is easier to use than non-lethal force – it’s very hard to take down an enemy permanently using the non-lethal weapons – making the moral decision more than a simple choice between two options.
Weapons:Pain Gun – Non-lethal pistol, uses targeted microwave radiation to induce pain. Causes targets to move out of the way.
Dazzler – Non-lethal rifle, targeted laser beam that causes temporary blindness if it hits the eyes. Highly accurate, has a sniper scope.
Air Gun – Non-lethal shotgun, fires close-range blasts of air that stun the target temporarily.
Nanofoam – Semi-intelligent nanotech that can be used to create temporary barriers across hallways (if thrown against a wall), or fields of goo that slow enemies (if thrown at the ground).
Incap Glove – Non-lethal takedown option. The arrest method of the future, just touch the target’s modem on the back of the neck and it locks up their nervous system.
Robot-buster – Electric net launcher designed to take down rogue robots.
Microwave grenades – temporarily scrambles the AugRs of everyone in the radius, leaving them stunned and disoriented for a moment.
Shotgun, pistol – The lethal options. Not standard DHS issue any more, but still readily available on the streets.
Levels:
The Bust: Brook’s in an apartment in the bad side of town, ready to make a drug bust. Starts out with Brook going through the traditional tutorial, guided by Burdick back at the Agency. Once Brook approaches his targets, he and Burdick switch off their AugRs so they can target the building with an Internet blackout. Just before that happens, all the lights flicker. One of the suspects pulls a gun on the other, who just kneels on the ground and starts crying, saying, “Seth, please, don’t do this, we can work this out.”
“Anna, Anna, no,” says the other, holding his gun unsteadily. “Nothing’s going to be okay for me again. Nothing’s going to be okay.” Then he fires. Unless Brook bursts in and stops them (which the player is probably too surprised/confused to do), the second suspect dies from a bullet to the head. The gunman then turns around to Brook, charging him. “You’re going to get yours, Anna,” he cries. Brook has to take him down with the incap glove.
Brook re-establishes a connection with Burdick, who doesn’t know what’s going on either, but everybody else at the Department’s chasing after him with guns and calling him Anna. He’s hiding for now, but he needs Brook’s help to get to a more secure room. Brook makes his way back to the ground floor through a building full of Seths and Annas, but on the ground floor waiting for him is a giant robotic manifestation of Anger. It charges him, and he has to run for it to the street to get to his car. He drives as fast as he can to the Department, with Anger giving chase.
DHS Office / Downtown: Brook has to get out of his car due to a jackknifed truck blocking the road. Anger follows, smashing through the truck and leading to another chase through the streets, all the video screens all around the city replaying Anna’s death as Levy’s voice booms through the city denouncing Seth. “Murderer! Psychotic! Rapist! Killer! You’re going to rot in Hell, Seth, you’re going to burn forever…”
Brook makes it safely through the Department’s secure doors and locks them shut just in time for Anger to slam into them. He’s safe from the robot in there… but not from his former co-workers, who have now become police officers arresting Seth. After fighting his way past them and other people replaying scenes from Seth’s trial, he makes it to where Burdick’s hiding. With Burdick at his side, they fight their way to the command center, currently being used as a makeshift courtroom. They clear out the room and seal it shut.
With Burdick safe in there, he’s got the chance to use the computers to look up the “Seth” angle. He finds out that the real Seth’s being held in the detention center two blocks down the street. “I don’t know if you noticed,” says Brook, “but that big robot’s still out there waiting for round two.”
“Well, that’s what we’ve got robot-busters for,” says Burdick. “You ever use one of those?”
“No. I always managed to get out of anti-bot detail.”
“You’d better learn fast, then.” Burdick directs him to the armory, where he picks up a robot-buster and makes his way outside to take down Anger.
Detention Center: With Anger taken down things are quieting down. The city acts out Levy’s wife’s death now, dozens of Levys walking around sobbing as doctors follow behind them telling them that Mary didn’t make it, dozens of surrogate Marys dropping dead as even more Levys cradle them in their arms. None of them are going to attack Brook, but once he makes it inside the detention center he discovers there’s a reaper-like Grief robot that’ll hunt him down. Without the robot-buster, the only option is to hide from it, playing a game of cat and mouse.
Brook finds Seth in one of the cell blocks, surrounded by people playing Anna, all telling him “You killed me, you’re a murderer, all this is your fault.” Levy’s and Anna’s crying continually plays through the PA system.
Brook has several different options at this point. The first option is to simply question him, find out that he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on, then leave him in the secure cell. If he’s been using lethal force a lot, he can violently interrogate him, then execute him for being murdering scum, or he can throw him to Grief to create a distraction. If Brook has been rescuing a lot of civilians, then he has the option to take Seth along with him, giving him a chance to redeem himself. Seth can arm himself with a pain gun and helps out a fair bit.
Burdick’s been tracking the source of the signal and looking into the Levy angle. It seems that this is all coming from the Western Sun building, and Levy worked there. Brook goes down to the basement to grab a police car and drive over to Western Sun.
Western Sun: All throughout the building memories of Levy’s involvement with Morpheus and his arguments with the company are acted out by employees and played out on video screens. People continue to act out Anna’s death and Seth’s arrest, attacking Brook. Since love was the reason Levy stayed and worked here, there’s a robotic version of Love floating around the building. If Brook’s been good enough, Love will treat him like Anna, following him and protect him from enemies. If Brook’s been bad, Love will treat him like Seth and chase him through the building, temporarily retreating if it gets shot enough.
Brook makes it to the Morpheus Engine only to find that there’s no way to shut it off from here without possibly overloading everybody’s brains. Burdick asks Brook to tap into its records. They discover that the signals are coming from Levy, and find the record of his suicide at the nanotech preserve. The fastest way to get there is to take one of the automated trams, which still seem to be running.
Tram Station: Most of the level is a fairly wide-open run through the streets of the city, heading towards the apartment building with the tram station in the center of it. Some of the city plays out Levy’s memories of happier days, while the rest of the city has become Levy’s self-loathing side, including a heavily-armed robotic Regret. They treat Brook like he was Levy, reminding him that he’s responsible for all this, that he shouldn’t have been such a failure.
Once inside the apartment, Regret can’t follow Brook, but it can blow holes in the walls occasionally. If Seth came along, there’s a dramatic point where Seth gets separated from Brook by a hail of gunfire from Regret, making Brook either risk his life to save him or let Seth sacrifice himself to provide a diversion. Brook makes it to the tram, on its way out to the nanotech preserve.
Nanotech Preserve: The preserve is a short walk from the tram station, along a road through a dark and empty field. The building seems tranquil and normal from the outside, but inside it’s become a mass of coiling and twisting nanowires forming from the ceiling and the floor and the walls, the entire structure intertwined with Levy’s memories, semi-human nano-constructs replaying the memories over and over again, becoming increasingly fragmented and degraded. It’s clear that Levy’s dying and Burdick points out that he’s probably going to take everyone with him when he goes.
The building itself is the enemy here, sending out nanotech constructs at Brook. The pain gun’s quite effective at disrupting them with microwaves, so if Seth’s survived up through this point, he helps out a lot. Brook makes his way up to Levy’s apartment and finds the old man there in the bathtub, nanowires running up and down his body, caressing him like a loving mother.
If Brook dies at any point in this level, it’s a valid game ending, albeit not a very good one. The world replays Levy’s memories over and over again, dying along with him. Just before everyone dies, the last word on everybody’s lips is “Anna.” All the screens in all the dead cities show a picture of Anna, in happier times, smiling, all the world having become a monument to her.
If Brook’s been really bad, he asks Burdick if there’s any way he can just shut off Levy’s connection to Morpheus and let Levy die alone. A shotgun blast to Levy’s modem takes care of the connection, and the world wakes up with a jolt. Cut to a week later, Brook walking out of his interview with Internal Affairs, meeting Burdick on the steps. “How’d it go?” asks Burdick.
Brook shrugs. “Not good. They don’t realize I did what I had to do.”
Burdick looks at him. “Well, I get it. Everybody would’ve been dead anyway if it wasn’t for you.”
“Well, you’d better tell them that when you talk to them. They’re sentimental, that’s they’re problem, they can’t let things go.”
“Some people just have trouble with that, you know?” Burdick nods in the direction of something over his shoulder.
“Yeah,” says Brook. “I know.”
As they walk off down the street, the camera pans over to what Burdick was pointing at. In the park there is a monument to all the people who died that night, topped off with big photos of Anna and Levy. A man kneels down and puts a lit candle at the foot of the monument, beside dozens of others.
If Brook’s been good, he has the chance to talk to Levy and convince him that he can’t drag the whole world down with him. “Anna wouldn’t want this. All these bad things that happened, it hasn’t really been your fault, but if you don’t snap out of it, if you don’t let the world go now, it is going to be your fault, and you’ll be just as bad as everybody you hate.” If Seth came along, Brook points to him. “Look, everybody makes mistakes. But we always get a chance to redeem ourselves. This one’s yours.”
All of the nanowires in the room form up into imitations of Mary’s smile, all the screens showing her face. Levy reaches up with a weak and feeble arm and pulls the nanowires out of his mouth, streams of blood and black oil running down his chin. “Anna,” he says, “Mary, I’ll see you soon.” He slumps back down into the tub, dead. The wires coalesce into an image of Mary, waving goodbye one last time as they break apart and slide back into the ceiling.
A week later, Brook’s at the detention center visiting Seth. “I’m going to the work-rehab program,” Seth tells him. “I’ll be helping out in a hospital, helping all those people I hurt.”
“You didn’t do it,” says Brook.
Seth looks into his eyes. “If I didn’t do it, who did?” Brook doesn’t have an answer.
Brook walks out of the detention center and meets up with Burdick. “The Department’s finally managed to track down everybody from Western Sun who worked on Morpheus.”
“And?” says Brook.
“All dead already. Looks like they got what was coming to them.”
“Yeah, well, good. I’m sick of watching justice being done anyway.”
“You thinking about retiring?” They walk over into a park.
“Everybody’s calling me a hero. I think maybe I’ll coast on that for a while, take a vacation, spend some time with my girlfriend while I still can.” They walk over to a monument to all the people who died that night, capped off with pictures of Anna and Levy. Brook kneels down and takes out a candle from his jacket. He lights it with one of the dozens of other candles at the monument’s base, puts it down next to all the rest. “You never know how long you’re going to get,” he says. The camera focuses in on the monument, zooming tight on Anna’s picture.
“You never do,” says Burdock.
