Let's Talk... Betrayer

The historical territory of colonial America is an area that remains largely unexplored setting in games. An interesting and fairly unique setting, it is full of untapped mystery and intrigue and the potentially fascinating mysticism surrounding Native Indian culture (which was loosely explored in Prey). The 16^th Century colonial America setting is hardly the only unique that sets Betrayer apart from other games, however. The monochromatic art style, idiosyncratic mechanics and interesting approach to side quests all add up to make this game a bundle of really interested mechanics. Much of the game’s problems unfortunately come from the fact that such potentially fascinating mechanics go largely underdeveloped and disappointingly unexplored.

The game starts with you crash landed on an unknown and unnamed island that is heavily implied to be around the period of colonial America but never explicitly named as such. You, a silent and unnamed character, set out to explore this mysterious island, which appears to have been ravaged by “the Spaniards” as well as some frequently mentioned malevolent spirits referred to as the “Naturals”. Much of the backstory of the island and its people, and the awful things they so clearly went through, is mostly told through notes and diary entries that fill in a lot of the implicit narrative. Furthermore, side quests often play out as mysteries that slowly unravel piece by piece as you find each relevant clue, in whatever order you find. These mysteries and personal stories often regale the lives, and usually the final moments, of the island's previous inhabitants, and are all interesting, well-told tales of sadness and regret.

The unique monochromatic art style is an immediate eye-catcher

The game takes place in two very different worlds: day and night. During the day, enemies armed with bows and primitive 16th Century weaponry (muskets, flintlock pistols etc.), but at night, ghouls and skeletons roam the land as well as the restless spirits of the recently deceased (who basically act as the game's quest givers). Once you've sussed out the differences between the two worlds, you start to get into a rhythm in which you are going into the dark world (night) to get quests and then switching back to the light world (day) to actually do them. Both worlds provide very ominous atmospheres for very different reason, when in the "light" world you have hold onto the unnerving feeling, and frequent confirmation, that something went horribly wrong on this all-too-quiet island. Whereas, the "dark" world has a real undead, otherworldly vibe that, although feels uneasy at first, feels underused. The night time is essentially just a carbon copy of the daytime world with less lighting and enemies that behave the same (but are skeletons, instead of soldiers, at night). For all its potential, the night “world” is just one of the many great ideas Betrayer has but fails to properly expand upon.

The gameplay is a fairly basic blend of exploration, stealth-focused combat with use of bows, muskets and flintlock pistols, and some light RPG elements. The exploration is completely free-wheeling, and although the game does give plenty direction towards key areas and objectives, there is rarely a strictly-set path the player must take. Exploring the vast and expansive world of colonial world can give way to a number of different items, scenarios and quest-related intrigues. Such exploration is key to unravelling the mysteries of the island (generally in the form of background-filling notes and side-quest objectives), as well as finding extra fast travel points, finding loot chests and finding some of the game’s slightly weirder set pieces.

The enemies of this world, mostly phantom-like soldier-looking guys and fast-moving goblin lookalikes (the enemy variety is a little lacking, but the combat is hardly the highlight of the game, so it isn’t a huge deal), are relentless and will spring on you at any time if you aren’t being particularly quiet in your movement. This is what makes stealthy behaviour and movement both encouraged and highly beneficial. Stealth, though never forced, plays a huge role in your survival, attacking without being detected provides damage bonuses and can give you the much-needed upper hand (especially on tougher, larger enemies). Also, since many of the enemies (though not all) are equipped with muskets or pistols, attracting their attention may lead to attracting the unwanted attention of other trigger-happy predators. Stealth gameplay is tense and exciting, but the game could definitely benefit from better indicating when exactly you can be seen and heard.

Changing the colour palette back to normal still makes the game look great, but it loses a lot of its originality

The wind and the subsequent swaying of trees serve as both a tool of the ominous atmosphere and a mechanic of the stealth system. On random intervals of around every 15-20 seconds the wind will blow, in an extremely hyperbolised manner, for roughly 5 seconds or so. In that time, you are harder to hear and therefore can sprint or fire off shots without needing to worry about being spotted, however the game is real vague about what that actually means, and an almost way to track how much noise you're making at any one time would be real useful (it can be a little hard to decipher, especially when you get ambiguous items that make you "4% harder to see and hear", without explaining what on earth that means). Although some of the game’s more complex mechanics are lacking in the department of solid explanations, the game is usually very good at communicating information about what you can interact with (with use bright colours) and where loot and quest related items are with very specific  and easily recognisable audio cues.

Although the game’s core mechanics and eerie atmosphere are fundamentally excellent, neither are explored fully enough to reach their full potential, and many mechanics of the game feel disappointingly thin and lacking in enough variation to keep them interesting. The atmosphere starts off promising, with the eerie swaying of the trees and empty silence of the island creating a chilling and tense atmosphere. However, the ominous tree swaying really loses its effectiveness once you realise that it’s merely a mechanic of the stealth system, and the potentially creepy night time “world” feels woefully underutilized. As for the core mechanics, the combat is extremely simplistic and thus can get a little tedious to repeat (especially during some of the later unpredictable and frustrating difficulty spikes), and with only three weapon types (and a Tomahawk throwing weapon) the variety is somewhat lacking.

Furthermore, although the game’s questing and investigative systems are conceptually sound, with the basic concept being that you hop into the dark world (by ringing an ominous bell) to gather lost spirits and bring back to the hub area of that specific area (typically a small village or settlement). Talking to them will begin the investigation of some kind of mystery or confusion that remained unresolved when they died. Such mysteries can range from finding out how somebody died, or why somebody was sentenced to death. Unravelling these mysteries requires you to hop back into the light world (essentially the “real” world) and discovering enough clues and pieces of evidence to then suss out what really happened. In the game’s case, this means going back into the dark world to talk with the restless spirit, inform them of what you found and let them explain what it is or what it means.

The game can be a little vague at times, even frustratingly so at times

Although the investigation aspect of the game is conceptually sound, it is disappointingly lacklustre from a mechanical standpoint and its execution squanders its potential. Exploring the island and finding the clues is fun and the clues themselves are generally interesting and well-varied, but the act of returning back to the dark world and regaling what you’ve found back to the spirits is way simpler and way more repetitive than it should be, and feels way too fetch-questy. The most frustrating thing about the dull execution of this system is that the actual mysteries are all so interesting, unique and well-written. Another great idea that falls short in its execution, but one that may still be worth going through if you’re interested in the excellent stories behind them.

The game’s unique monochrome art style is a real eye-catcher and really adds to the atmosphere, but the contrast can get a little obnoxious, so the option to turn off the monochrome filter is available if you so wish. The use of bright colours to contrast the monochromatic colour palette is a great way to highlight important items in the environment, and the blood red colouring of such highlights is great for extending the sense that something very wrong happened on this island. The game generally looks pretty good and the sound design makes some clever uses of audio cues and unobtrusive hints.

Ultimately, Betrayer is a bundle of really great ideas that almost all fall flat thanks to their simplistic execution and undeveloped variety. The backstory of the island and the individual stories of the people (or spirits, more accurately) you come across are all really interesting and really well-done, and if you come into Betrayer looking for that then you’ll probably be able to look past some of the disappointingly basic mechanics. The uniqueness of the mechanics, art style and setting make Betrayer well worth checking out, but it leaves a lot to be desired.