A new playable demo has arrived for Militsioner, the “gargantuan” immersive sim that Rock Paper Shotgun has been tracking since its announcement. The experience opens with a phone call from a lawyer, a shattered balcony window, and an enormous police officer who makes it clear you are not leaving town.
The giant cop — always referred to as “HE” in the source material — interrogates the player during what is effectively the tutorial. He grows tired of the questions and demands vocal consent for you to stay put and abandon any escape attempt. Refuse, and you fail it.
Militsioner places players inside a town that functions as an open-air prison, alongside a handful of other residents. The nature of the player’s crime is unclear, though the towering officer seems convinced they should know. Escape appears possible via a train car leading out of town, but first you must get a job — and getting that job requires finding some desert.
Rather than pursue that route immediately, players can instead follow “a creepy character only referred to as Friend” into the sewer, away from the watchful eye of what the source describes as a “panopticop.”
The demo leans heavily on the freedom characteristic of immersive sims. The opening interrogation can be botched simply by choosing not to respect authority, and this flexibility extends into quests. In one instance described by the author, a desert that costs 30 dollars is accidentally thrown and shattered before purchase — closing off one path until more money can be gathered.
Later encounters include hearing a cat’s wailing, which leads to a room players are not meant to enter. Inside lies a vinyl record — described as “a banned piece of paraphernalia” — that can somehow be added to inventory. The game also functions as a mood-management sim: anger the giant cop and lose what little freedom remains, while managing the emotions of fellow inmates proves an ongoing task.
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