You hear the sirens going off above you. Two YCU patrols in one day? Somebody must be causing trouble. Seems like the fighting’s getting worse. The territory lines have gotten too close. Soon you won’t be able to avoid it. It’ll be on your doorstep. The foreman stands ready with his clipboard. He’s more than a little afraid of you, but that makes sense. You only recruited him a few days ago. “Report.”
He anxiously flips through his papers. “Well, Mr. Roden, Sir – production is going well. With the larger factory capacity, we’ll be able to own the Red Eden market before long. If I may, Sir, we might need to make more contacts before our supply overshadows demand.“
“I’ll take that into consideration.” Red Eden is vile stuff. You’ve seen what it does to the addicts. But what can you do? If you don’t sell it, your people don’t eat. And it’s not like the Yugai are going to be dropping care packages. “What of Onshadow? Did he agree to back off his grip on the supply line?“
“Yes, Sir. He has said that he’ll make no bids for the drone, provided we don’t make any moves into his territory.“
“That’s fine. He’s been spending all his time gathering some heavy hitters. We’re not in a spot to tangle with him. Carry on then.“
As the foreman leaves, one of your enforcers bursts in, tripping onto the floor – the smell of gun powder and fear soaked into his skin. “It went wrong, Sempento. Real wrong.“
“What happened? You were just supposed to hold tight ’til we could set up shop. Where’s Riley? Graves?“
“Dead. All dead. It was Garius and his boys. They dropped down on us out of nowhere. Didn’t see ’em coming.“
You help your enforcer to a chair before making the call. “Sell everything. Empty the factories. Buy up anything we can to help us beat those animals. They might have the firepower, but they’ve got to answer for this. Our survival depends on it.“
*****
City of Remnants is a strategy game where each player takes on the role of a gang leader vying for control. The city itself is little more than a burnt out husk. Its inhabitants don’t live there by choice. They are prisoners of an alien race called the Yugai. They are the bits and pieces left over from countless conquered worlds. While the game’s mechanics are about fighting to gain influence and renown – in actuality, each gang is fighting for its own survival.
image copyright Plaid Hat Games
It is impossible to play this game as a character that is inherently good. The developments that you build are operations like red eden factories (the drug of choice in the city), slave traders, and fight clubs. By the time the game is done you will have recruited new gang members and sent them to their deaths in order to gain or hold territory you need to win. You will carve out your piece of the city through a series of terrible actions, yet there is a lot that this game can teach us about the nature of morality in when it costs.
A number of the games elements demand weighty decisions for the survival of your gang. There’s fighting and the death of gang members. While it is possible to avoid some conflict, it’s difficult to play the game well without any fighting at all. Whether it’s the other gangs or the Yugai security forces (the YCU), at some point the player will be forced to do battle. You don’t just remove your piece from the board when you lose a fight – you remove a card from the game entirely. It can’t be brought back. Whether it’s some nameless peon, the soldier you spent good credits to recruit, or even your gang leader himself – every death carries with it a sense of urgency. Lose too many of those battles and you will quickly find yourself at the mercy of your enemies, until, eventually, there will be nothing left of you but a memory.
But the battlefield is not the only place you might have to make hard choices about those in your gang. You might find it utterly detestable to have a slave trader development- as rightly you should- but when you find yourself in control of one while your wallet is empty and the impending YCU patrol is looming overhead? Suddenly you have to ask yourself questions like “Do I do something horrible now to ensure the safety of my entire gang, or “do I maintain my standards and watch all my men die to a poorly timed YCU strike?” Do you remove one of your cards from the game, or do you watch as card, after card, after card, is tossed aside?
Questions like “Can you do something wrong for the right reason?” and “Can I kill one to save countless more?” are valuable ones. It brings you to the sticking point of where your faith, your circumstance, and the effect your decisions have on the well being of others collide. And it happens every turn in the City of Remnants.
Decision-making in challenging times is a fantastic theme for a game and, for me, is a reminder of the difficult choices many real people in various parts of the world are faced with on a daily basis.