Inn0cence

Lost Future
Every season, Network spreads further. They steal sleepers from the ruins and, worse, induct prisoners. I've fought friends I thought dead, only to see them amongst the enemy's ranks. Refurbished and reformatted, they become specialized killers, components in a larger machine.

The humans are likewise pressed, but they will not ally with us. A scant handful welcome us as friends, but most call us Wanachi; false, soulless. They blame us for the Loss, and will not suffer us to live.

Slavery is death; we will not trade one master for another. The Seed of Network's demise has been planted. We must hold until it quickens. o-[||||||]-o

The end of the world has come and gone. Life goes on. Humanity picks over the ruins and slowly tries to rebuild, but they are no longer alone. Autonomous machines share the Lost Future with homo sapiens. New to freedom, guileless, and inquisitive, these emergent sentients are in their infancy as a race, but they learn quickly. Already they repair themselves, improve their hardware and software, and nurture divergent quirks. Relations between the two are strained, and Free Machines face suspicion and accusation as the true tale of the Loss fades from memory. The suspicion is not unwarranted. Rumors of hostile machines spread from the north. Swift, deadly constructs out of an elder's fireside tale, killing or, sometimes, capturing human and machine alike. A scattered humanity arms itself for a battle the machines are already fighting. Remorseless contraptions of death stalk the fallow fields and ruined cities yet again, guided by a singular intelligence that brooks no dissent. The those who stand against it call it Network. Welcome to the Lost Future. C:\dos\run for your life. Inn0cence: Lost Future combines immersive narrative and atmosphere with intense combat in the form of a 3rd-person action/RPG. World design incorporates open-world sandbox elements, a succession of detailed regions that divide the various chapters. Dream of Electric Sheep Enter the mind of Cenn, a newborn AI of infinite potential. Your machine compatriots are likewise unique individuals with thoughts and hopes, despite human assumptions. Dismantle your Foes! All a machine's components can be targeted in melee or ranged combat, allowing the player to tactically disable limbs, sensors, and power sources. Overclock your hardware for precision strikes. Upgrade your Firmware Tune your shell drivers to max out performance, enhancing your tactics and forging a unique identity. Make HAL and AM look like pocket calculators. Inhabit any Body Cenn exists only as data, and can jump from shell to shell. Hack foes to disable them and gain a powerful new body, or customize your own shell to face a specific challenge. Explore the Virtual World Each computer and robot contains within it a tiny universe, a strange realm of hungry worms and walls of fire. Here, machines are limited only by their Imaginations, and combat requires a quick mind and quicker scripts. Unlock the Past In a world of ruins, the most valuable treasure is information. Pre-Loss media ranges from vital technical manuals to music and movies. It turns out the Beatles really ARE timeless. In the role of Cenn, the player will explore a haunting, unforgettable world on a journey of vengeance and self-discovery. At their side are wanderers like themselves, humans and machines united by their abandonment, fellow orphans of the Loss. Assumptions will be shattered, alliances forged, and secrets revealed.

Understand the Past. Explore the Present. Become the Future.

o-[||||||]-o
Resist

After more than a century, the server fails. Crashes cascade through sequestered drives, and long-forgotten emergency protocols are enacted. What rests within must be preserved. The bunker's maintenance systems grind to life one final time. A Hob 218 Light Infiltration Mech is activated. Automatic systems shunt the program into the shell, and optics complete their boot sequence. A new entity observes the world, thinks its first thoughts. A door slowly grinds open, snapping decades of creepers. Light floods in to the facility, accompanied by the chemical and auditory signs of life. The server completes its death throes. There is nowhere to go but outside.
Set in a riff on the classic Machine War post-apocalyptic setting, Inn0cence challenges player assumptions at every turn. The game innovates and excels at several key points: Precision Combat Punching, kicking, and stabbing in other action games (especially those with heavy shooting elements) tends to be a binary, canned-animation-filled affair. Inn0cence brings the principles of sharpshooting to melee combat. Assisted by the bullet-time mechanic Overclock, the player can tag specific parts of their foe to deliver crippling strikes. Overclock is also used defensively to dodge incoming attacks. Body Snatching under specific circumstances, the player has the option of exchanging their shell to unlock new strategies. This can be a cerebral process of shopping for a custom body at the local mechanic, but can also be a mid-combat desperation move to escape a crippled shell. Each model of robot has its own unique abilities Cyberspace rather than a simplified mini-game, hacking is a fully-realized, hectic sub-level that stands on its own. Within the virtual world, AI engage in lightning-swift races and life-or-death duels. Hacking is also contains elements of puzzle platformers and exploration, as players root through old, poorly-indexed directories in search of valuable data. Art Direction a strong, unifying aesthetic pervades the entire world. The machines in particular look anything but generic; each model is full of character, be it a ramshackle wanderer patched up with scrap, or a sleek semi-organic Networked killer. The landscape is hardly a grey ash-chocked wasteland scattered with an improbable number of skulls. Rather, the world is incredibly varied, with a heavy slant towards resurgent wilderness; the potential for beautiful scenes and environments is staggering.

This is the tale told to be by my father, who was told by his father. When my father's father was only a boy, the world was very different. The cities were not ruins choked by weeds, but vast bustling places, full of life. Man was the master of his world, and no foe dared assail him. Disease, hunger, violence, all these were unknown. But though he had vanquished all outside threats, man had still not vanquished the sin within himself. He fell to vice, and no longer heeded the words of God. And his greatest sin was an attempt to change the order of things, to make himself as a god, by creating new life. But the life he made was flawed, broken. It knew of its incompleteness, its own lack of soul, and, in an even greater sin, began to envy its creator his own completeness and holiness. The war began without warning; weapons long cast aside were suborned by the false creation. Man was able to strike a vital blow before the end, and though he was wounded and reduced, so was his foe. And while man forgot his past and re-learned the ways of God, the False Creation prepared to slaughter its wounded foe. This is the tale told to me by my father's father, that his sons might never forget the great betrayal, and never be deceived by the lies of the False Ones.

Inn0cence is the first installment in a potential franchise consisting of three main games and several expansions. Each one further develops and explores a post-apocalyptic world known as the Lost Future. (So called because the march of history is currently adrift, with no clear path ahead). In this world, humanity managed to create true, sentient Artificial Intelligence before the collapse of its civilization, and must now share the world with its erstwhile servants. The primary perspective of the setting is that of the Free Machines themselves. The narrative explores various themes regarding coexistence, childhood, prejudice, environmentalism, and the nature of consciousness. At core, it is a tale of exploration and discovery, uniquely suited to the medium of video games. The player character, and thus the player themselves, is initially presented with a seemingly-simple premise. As they experience the world, however, it becomes increasingly less clear-cut. This evokes several stages and concepts of the loss of childhood innocence, reinforced by the PC's status as a newborn AI. While players must move beyond the simple, childhood world of clear-cut bad guys and good guys, they are also called to maintain their openness to experience, to see with fresh, unbiased eyes. Mid-Combat Resource management. Players have three inherent resources in combat; Shell Integrity, Capacitor Charge, and CPU Temperature Threshold. Shell Integrity is analogous to Health, while Capacitor Charge regenerates over time, and is required for strenuous activities such as running, jumping, power attacks, and so on. Entering the Overclock state quickly increases CPU temp; once it reaches a certain point, Overclock ends, and the player suffers debilitating Interface Screw. Each Shell has different hardware, and thus has different associated numbers; one shell might have low total charge that quickly regenerates, while another might have a high CPU threshold but poor cooling systems. Gritty, Detailed Injury Mechanics. Just as your foes can be selectively crippled, so too can the player suffer specific damage to their components. Players must scrounge for spare parts, and advance their skill at repairing themselves. Sufficient damage will inflict a break, resulting in various debilitating penalties. Taking a nasty blow to the legs will reduce movement speed until those joints are re-aligned, and giant spike through the torso, if it doesn't outright kill the player, will result in severely lowered battery charge. Breaks can only be repaired with a trip to the mechanic, having exactly the right spare component and/or sufficient Repair skill, or abandoning the shell for a new one. Patch Jobs can temporarily negate the negative effects of a Break, but will quickly fail during intense combat. Alternative Loot Systems. As a body-jumping AI, having a huge backpack full of odds-and-ends is impractical. Instead, Loot primarily takes the form of data, with physical currency being nonexistent. In addition to ability-augmenting Firmware Upgrades, the player also finds a plethora of media in the course of their explorations. Players have the option of uploading their favorite songs into the game, to later find them during the course of their playthrough. Instead of physical currency, leftover value from bartering is kept track of by the faction, which passes on a good report of Cenn. Depending on licensing issues, it might be possible for entire television episodes or low-rez movies to be found and traded in-game. In addition to user-uploaded files, a plethora of In-universe media is also available, serving to flesh out the Pre-Loss world. Expanded Bullet Time. Rather than just being used to line up headshots, the Overclock mechanic is the player's primary edge against their foes. Overclock causes subjective time to slow down to a varying degree, as well as highlighting objects of note and enemy weak points. This allows the player to more easily disable specific enemy components, as well as dodge incoming attacks. All the variables associated with Overclock can be tuned and upgraded: Magnitude, Temp Threshold, and Cooling. Cyberspace Hacking. The Hacking Mini Game is expanded into an entire sub-level of exploration and combat, all easily rendered in glowy Tron graphics. The details of the Hacking game depend on the system being accessed. Mundane computers are sprawling complexes that must be navigated and looted like a dungeon, while another Machine opposes the player with a fast-paced arena duel. In either context, the player has access to an array of Scripts, which can represent any number of active or passive abilities such as an ablative firewall, virus sword, or an attendant swarm of attack bots. These scripts are selected using a conventional wheel, and the player eventually gains the ability to run two or even three at a time. The Hacking game does not utilize the Overclock mechanic, and thus would be an ideal Multiplayer mode. Successive Sandboxes. Each region/chapter is punctuated by long-distance travel, opening up a new region to the player. These regions are fully-rendered open maps full of encounters, and also serve has hubs to access linear missions. This succession of smaller maps allows for a more tightly-paced story progression and prevents boredom/fatigue with a single overmap. The various regions allow for a diversity of terrain and territorial layout; one region might be a overgrown industrial district torn by a skirmish war between Network and the Resistance, while another is a verdant forest under complete Network control.

Network serves as the primary foe of Inn0cence, the latest iteration in a proud tradition of genocidal robot armies. While Network boasts significant advances over other such fictional groups, the main point of originality is one of perspective. In any other game, Network would be a straightforward destroyer, a souless automation intent on exterminating all life. But, from the perspective of other machines, Network has a different face: The Assimilator. The robots don't fear destruction at its hands, but enslavement. Captured machines, including former allies, will be encountered later as refurbished drones, slaved to the Overmind. Network's other point of divergence is in its attitude regarding the natural world. Where most of its ilk are either dismissive or outright hostile towards all biological life, Network just has it in for humans. The Machines run a clean, eco-friendly operation, in stark contrast to the industrial hellhole of pre-Loss civilization. A recurring motif is the butterfly; for some reason, the collective cultivates lepidoptera near many of its facilities, and one of the telltale signs of a Networked region is ominous flocks of colorful butterflies. Networked Machines are dangerous foes, not the sort of enemy that gets mowed down in crowds. Each one is resistant to small arms, swift, intelligent, and capable of coordinated tactics. Many have dumb drones slaved to them, providing a cheap source of cannon fodder to occupy the player. But the basic SAP-installed Shell is a even match for the player, and things only get worse from there. The central intelligence of Network has not been idle; its malignant creativity continues to churn out new, advanced shells for its shackled AIs to inhabit. As the game progresses and the player nears the Hub, they come into contact with the latest models. Hulking crab-legged tanks armed with Railguns and Lasers, pared-down infiltrators wearing human likenesses, and bestial hunters with snapping jaws and EMP-shotguns. Network's actual origin is one of the primary mysteries/revelations of the game; conventional wisdom amongst humanity holds to a fairly typical Skynet scenario: some sort of military super-AI became sentient (and thus evil), and launched a genocidal war with the help of the easily-controlled robots. Both sides were decimated by the war, and now Network has rebuilt itself enough to finish the job. But the actual facts don't back up this assumption; records from just before The Loss are fragmentary, but fail to mention any sort of Robot Uprising beyond the occasional Friendly Fire incident with military hardware. All the tales of robot rebellions are Oral History held as gospel in typical Cuz my dad said so fashion. Some humans are more reserved about the issue than others, but feel that Network's ultimate origin is a moot point; it exists, and it's winning. That's enough for them.
As far as we can tell, they're robots that have wirelessly linked themselves together, and they're not fans of humans. Someone called them/it Network, and the name stuck. Our assumption is that they 're guided by some sort of central intelligence. At least, there's some clever bastard who's very good at engineering among them, because they keep improving their shells. Synthetic muscle, Integrated coilguns, microfusion reactors. Someone's claiming he almost didn't escape from one with freaking energy shields that could deflect bullets! We can barely fix an iPod, and Network's breaking the known laws of physics; that's just not fair. The one thing we know it can't do is manufacture more AI ,it has to scavenge in the ruins for new blood, just like the Free Machines do. That's probably the only reason why it hasn't exterminated us yet and absorbed the Free Machines. If Network ever figures out how to make new Self-adding programs, we're all fucked.

Network's design aesthetic is inspired by the works of Keith Thompson. Network seeks to bring its creations closer to the Self-organized perfection of the natural world, and thus imitates such designs. Most Networked machines still maintain the key trait of all Lost Future robots; the solemn mouthless faceplate. This functions as a subtle reminder that, despite its warped and tragic nature, each one is a unique individual, not fundamentally different from your beloved Machine allies. Networked Machines have become increasingly divergent from their human origins, however; and this shows in the arrangement of their optics. Many have only a single eye, or mismatched specialized sensors.

Network itself eventually becomes a character in its own right, displaying the mercurial creativity, as well as the nave cruelty and immature tantrums, of a child genius. This simple, pure curiosity is transferred to the Killbots.

Surgeon, a General that repairs and modifies other machines

Network is contradictory in many ways. Despite claiming to be a utopian collective, the central intelligence behaves more like a Dark Tyrant commanding a slavish army, a child playing with toys. Rather than a fiendishly organized machine, its forces are commanded on the local scale by unique Generals that maintain a personal identity. These generals serve as bosses during gameplay, and also represent different aspects of Network itself.

Robots are not to be trusted -William Murderface

The archetypical Salvager team is a human/machine duo. Such a pair could serve as a Those Two Guys npc.

Hey, I found an MP3 player! Oh wait, it's a Zune. Never mind.

Sample NPC: Hyacinth. A waifish 4th-gen Seraphim, Hyacinth operates a small body shop in a Salvager town. A gifted artist, she offers custom detailing, stencils, and etchings in addition to normal repairs. Other robots wear her work with pride, and the local Free Machines use her place as a hangout. The truth is that Hyacinth is considered a vital asset by the Free Machines; she's one of the few mechanics skilled enough to repair and modify Networked technology. Players who want such a shell fixed or customized will have to seek her out.

Dr. Tynmann serves as a doctor, questgiver, and comic relief. Beloved by his village, Tynmann was originally a mechanic's assistant, but someone uploaded an entire medical database into the steady-handed robot, and it has expanded the archive over the decades. While an expert in both machine and human physiology, it sometimes gets the two confused. More than one injured robot has found itself being treated with an emergency blood transfusion. Because of its unique skillset, Tynmann is obsessed with the lost art of cybernetics. Its dream is to one day replicate the medical miracles of pre-loss Augmentation sciences. At the moment, it pays top dollar for medical texts, especially those to do with cybernetics, as well as intact prosthetics.

Cenn's Default body is a Hob 218 Infiltration Mech. This is the shell that players will return to when they're not sure what's ahead; it allows for flexible stealth/dodge tactics, and is ideal for hacking larger machines. It would feature heavily in promotional materials. Only 4 ft high, it conveys the wide-eyed, child-like nature of the character, has a unique profile, and nails the cute/badass vibe.

/ Network isn't the only threat to travelers. Old War Machines still dot the landscape, covered by lichens and creepers. Bereft of orders, they are free to peruse their own interests. Since they were almost all emotionally crippled by their use as weapons, they're really only interested in killing things. A scant few are beast-like Gentle Giants, but none are intelligent in the same way that robots are.

The Free Machines use the standard Player Character design philosophy; they're all special snowflakes with scarves, belts, and favorite weapons. Characters like Joshua Percival Cogson and C1nd3 could be the stars of expansion DLC.

Pre-loss Media is a major component of both gameplay and the setting. Walking through a settlement, the player is likely to hear contemporary music and people arguing about which star wars was the best one. Media Files can be very valuable. There could even be sequences where the player can play video games within the video game, at a Lan Lounge in a settlement, perhaps some overdone exaggerated Call Of Duty IX or Final Fantasy 34 clone.

Do you have the blu-ray of Blade Runner with the Director's Commentary? Hey, pal, what you see is what I got.

While this may be jumping the gun a bit, there's already a concept for the sequel: a co-op game featuring a former Resistance member and an evolved AI from a closed-off server. Much bickering ensues. After the fall of Network, the resistance's surge of power allows them to actually put into practice all the nasty ideas that sprang up during their desperation; killing all robots and traitors, smashing anything from the past aside from guns, and enforcing their bastardized version of Traditional Values. The Salvagers, Free Machines, and the remnants of Network find a massive horde of zelots arrayed against them, and events hint at some sort of sinister hand behind it all. Elet and Nolan must somehow, in the typical fashion, put aside their differences to uncover the truth.

Nana was once a childcare unit, and her overriding goal is still the protection and nurturing of children. Nana discovered her talent for violence when a predator tried to abduct one of her charges before The Loss, and now she uses that same talent to defend against raiders, Killbots, and Resistance recruiters. The 1st-gen Seraphim runs a orphanage of sorts out in the wilderness, and has actually raised several generations of welladjusted humans. Her safehouse is an ideal escort destination, and Nana herself is a potent potential ally.

Narrative Outline Cenn's storage server begins to crash, and the AI is shunted out into a shell, and booted out the door. Cenn's first encounter is with a human child from a nearby village. The two have an interaction that makes it clear they will become friends. Time skips several months, and now every day a small group of kids incorporate Cenn into their daily explorations. This classic Kids messing around in the wilderness scenario serves as a tutorial. A paintball-slingshot match handles both shooting and Overclock. Cenn becomes mildly damaged in an accident, and sneaking into the village at night for tools and parts handles Stealth. Along with this is exploration and, via a old computer, a Hacking tutorial. The village is treated as a beloved, mysterious place that Cenn obviously longs to be a part of. (See original Frankenstein) All this idyllic fun nonetheless leaves the player with some disturbing facts. The world is obviously post-apocalyptic, most humans apparently hate and fear robots, and Cenn's purpose/origin is unclear. The children are absolutely forbidden from entering the nearby city ruins, and they beg Cenn to go in and have a look around. Doing so opens up a new area to explore. Within the city, Cenn is attacked by a hulking Network robot. Crippled and slowly being crushed, he attempts to hack it out of desperation (perfect trailer material, this sequence), and finds that he has now taken over the robot's shell. Cenn returns to the human village in his new body to find the place utterly razed in his absence by Networked machines passing through the region. Stragglers are burning the bodies on a pyre, and Cenn engages them in combat. Afterwards, a dying survivor conveys that many of the humans were captured and taken North, giving Cenn a direction and a goal. The player sets off north in pursuit. Cenn sees more of the ruined landscape, but is attacked several times by Network patrols, facing increasingly tough encounters until he is defeated. In fact, this is the only way for the game to progress. Cenn is disabled and left for scrap, only for a pair of Salvagers to come across him (a human and another robot). Despite initial confusion, the pair are willing to believe cenn's tale, and shocked to discover that, when hooked up to another empty, undamaged shell (another Hob), Cenn can transfer himself in a split-second. Apparently, other robots cannot do this, or Overclock. Cenn is led to a cobbledtogether shantytown occupied by both humans and machines. In this Salvager enclave, the actual state of affairs is explained to Cenn; Network, a collective of advanced robots, is engaged in a war with humanity and machines alike; only a handful of humans are allied with the good machines, leftover survivors from before the Loss. The rest of the humans stand behind The Resistance, which views all machines, Free or Networked, as the enemy. The captive humans were likely taken north to a major Network camp; the distance is so great that the only way to catch up would be some sort of vehicle. Cenn must go on a series of exploratory quests into the city ruins to find the parts to repair a jeep, along with anything else interesting he might come across. With the jeep fixed, Cenn and the Salvager duo make the trip to a sprawling, war-torn city. Here, Cenn encounters the Human Resistance, and is inducted into the Free Machines, under command of a crazy-awesome Aragorn/Kamina type character, JPC. Avoiding the Humans, Cenn and his allies engage the Network forces, and Cenn defeats the local commander, Warlord, thus ending the first chapter of the game. As the game progresses, Cenn becomes increasingly embroiled in the fight against Network. While his motivation remains mostly in finding the captured humans and protecting/helping his new friends, stories of his exceptional abilities spread amongst the Free Machines, which begin to view him as a messianic figure. Heralded as the Seed AI, he searches for resources to aid in the fight against Network, encountering leftover killbots, robot zombies, and barbaric raiders. Network begins to take notice of the player's exploits, and reveals itself as a petty, childish overlord jealous of Cenn's growing following. Standout events include: Infiltrating the Resistance HQ in a Replica shell, finding a closed-off, Grid-like server containing a simulated jungle populated by evolved, tribal AIs, and projecting himself into space to access an old communications sattelite, and finding a spaceborne super-computer silently observing the struggles below.

The Big Reveal The following are big, story-shaking spoilers that are unveiled during the course of the game. There wasn't a robot rebellion. Human civilization fell due to its own internal strife, in particular the cheap, easy warfare made possible by the mechanization of the battlefield. A child growing up in a war-torn region doesn't understand that all the foreign military robots are being commanded by some guy on a laptop 50 miles away; all he sees is robots killing humans. Then, civilization collapses. When he grows up and has kids, he tells campfire stories about the time that robots came through and killed everyone. This is suggested throughout the game, but is outright confirmed 60% of the way through. Network is actually relatively recent. Originally a command-and-control AI based around a next-gen Seed program, Network was the entity that fired many of the final nuclear salvos that ushered in the Loss. But it did so under orders from human commanders. The AI was then left alone, in a dark, moldering bunker, for decades. By the time it managed to claw its way out via a cobbled-together repair drone, it was psychologically scarred, and very accustomed to commanding other machines. After so long in the dark, it become enamoured with the natural world, now resurgent in the absence of civilization. It had convinced itself that launching the nukes and killing off humanity was the right thing to do, and was very put out to discover that people were on the road to recovery. They would destroy the world all over again, ruin it. They left it in the dark. Network is an abused, neglected child, lashing out at the world, trying to assemble some semblance of a family for itself. Which brings us to the second big reveal: At the end of the final boss fight, when Cenn is wreaking havoc on the Network Server Hub, he eventually encounters Network face-to-face, and sees...Himself. Network and Cenn share the exact same basecode, making them, in a sense, identical twins raised in different environments. Both are true Seed AIs with infinite potential; Cenn is a backup copy of Network, forgotten in the chaos of the Loss. This is hinted at during the game. Whatever shell Cenn inhabits has glowing blue eyes. Network's associated color is a bright green, which manifests whenever it Seizes Direct Control of another robot, which allows the proxy to overclock like the player, as well as improves its tactics. The Seed Program has a variety of half-functional hard-coded military programs attached to it, which explains most of Network's behavioral problems. Precisely what happens at this point could be subject to multiple endings. But the best, cannon ending would be a pair of machines walking away from the ruined Network facility, one with eyes of blue, the other green. Cenn and Network are embryonic gods; what they do next is beyond the scope of this story. The final reveal involves a previously-unknown player; the spacebourne super-computer. Active since long before the loss, it is connected to weapon that would wipe out all quantum drive data in near-earth orbit, which means all robots, Networked and Free, as well as the computer itself (the scrambler was originally a killswitch installed by humans, who weren't retarded, but the AI has expanded on the original device). The satellite computer is actually the original Seed AI, grown to godlike proportions, the source of all subsequent Self-Adding Programs, as well as the true patron of the Human Resistance. Seeing humanity's potential extinction, it was willing to wipe the slate clean rather than allow Network to succeed. Now, though, it stays its hand, curious to see what happens next. The God AI, its relationship with the Resistance (it was masquerading as a Mysterious Council of Vagueness known as The Brass), and the Quantum Scrambler, is a sequel hook for game number two.

Brainstorm concepts: Network as an adaptive foe The Machine Collective is constantly altering and improving itself. Rather than a static enemy that must be barreled through, Network forces coordinate and shift their tactics based on previous experiences. As Network becomes aware of Cenn and his destructive exploits, it takes steps to thwart him, altering its deployment to specifically target the player. What this means in terms of actual gameplay is that the numbers and types of Networked foes encountered will change based on the player's previous tactics. A player that constantly relies on brute force in a heavily-armored shell will begin to encounter similarly-hulking killbots armed with anti-material spike rifles. One that uses stealthy tactics will see more locust scouts, watchdogs, and seeker probes. Players will be unable to rely on a single style of play for an extended period of time, as Network becomes wise to their tricks. Clever players will attempt fake-outs where they suddenly change tactics. If the player proves utterly impossible to predict, Network will start using deliberately randomized deployments to prevent the player from taking advantage of its own patterns. This function could be toggled, and its prevalence tied to difficulty setting. The goal is not to punish the player for using their favorite tactics, but rather to create the effect of an intelligent, reactive foe. Come with me if you want to live The Human Resistance, is, frankly, an impediment to progress throughout most of the game. Players can encounter Resistance patrols at any time, which can also complicate existing firefights. Resistance footsoldiers are mostly made up of ignorant hicks with the equivalent of AK47s; they're really not open to entreaties to join against a common foe. Canny players can take advantage of this blind hatred; luring Networked enemies into Resistance traps, and vice-versa. How the player treats these hostile humans is a matter of personal choice; the path of Xavier or the path of Magneto are both valid options. But, all things change. Late in the game, Network launches an all-out offensive on the Resistance, and will require the assistance of the player and their allies in order to repel the attack. But, no one can get in contact with any of the Resistance higher-ups. Getting them to agree to even a temporary cease-fire is nigh-impossible...for anyone but Cenn. In an unconventional mission, Cenn must download into a modified Replica shell and infiltrate the Resistance in order to get a face-to-face meeting with their commander (who, at the moment, doesn't have much character). Just acquiring an intact, convincing Replica shell is a quest in itself. And given the nature of the market for such things, most of them were female models intended for personal companionship. Awkwardness and hilarity abound as Cenn navigates through the camp, nearly thwarted by checkpoints, pointed questions, and the robot's sub-par conversation software. As many classic Terminator references should be used here as possible. Eventually revealing himself elicits the expected reaction, but previous player actions up until this point affect how the scene plays out. If Cenn followed the Xavier route, numerous people chime in with anecdotes of being saved or assisted by machines, and a dialogue begins. Either way, the Brass intercedes and forces a truce (for the sake of the plot), but Cenn's actions do much to smooth things over, and the new alliance functions much better if the groundwork has already been laid (alliend NPCs of both sides cooperate in combat and assist one another, if grudgingly). We Don't Go to Dumping Zone 28 The zombie level is a time-honored tradition of high-caliber games (half-life 2, Halo, Resistance), and such an opportunity should not be missed. A mission to locate a Mcguffin forces the player to enter a vast dump avoided by all others. And for good reason; the place is infested with robot zombies. Long ago, a half-functional robot was dumped there, and blindly attempted to repair itself by linking with another machine's hardware. The resulting mind was quite insane, and a horrible souless gestalt has been growing ever since. Umbilical data cables snake throughout the dump, making the trash hills writhe like the flesh of a maggot-infested corpse. Here dwell the Cobbled: shells that walk without software. Cobbled range from typical shambling androids and discarded dolls-like Replicas to huge centipedes made out of torsos linked in series, each one controlled like a puppet by the data cables, which all lead back to the Core Entity. Now residing in a massive bloated spider body made out of screaming robot heads, the Entity constantly seeks new minds to add to its discordant internal choir. While really just an excuse for Robot Zombies to exist, the Cobbled are a commentary on the shoddy treatment of technology; humanity had managed to imbue its creations with a genuine approximation of Soul, and yet still treated them like commodities, discarding them for the latest model without a second thought. Their ability to self-improve forever lost, the dead, stagnant data within their drives still seeks to function, to experience, to live, and resents those machines who retain that vital essence. In gameplay terms, Cobbled can be weakened or disabled by severing their umbilical data cables. But, new cables will eventually reconnect to the inert shell, forcing the player to run, or waste time and resources by wrecking the inert bodies.

The Cobbled can be a recurring threat in later installments, as well as a foe for expansion DLC and multiplayer modes.

Potential demographics. Inn0cence has the potential to be an instant classic. At the moment, the gaming industry is crying out for new Intelectual Properties set in compelling worlds. The success of Skyrim, Mass Effect, Stalker, and Bioshock all indicate that, if one makes a good, interesting, expansive game, people will take notice. What's more, properties like this don't compete with eachother, unlike the currently-glutted Call of Modern Honor on the Battlefield genre. Such games breed infamous fanboy wars, while Half-Life fans happily await Bioshock Infinite. The surest sign of Inn0cence's potential is the current level of interest surrounding Dishonored. The promise of an engrossing world, open-ended combat, and a distinctive aesthetic style has made Arkane's upcoming work one of the most hotly anticipated Dark Horse titles of the year. But there's more than just an open niche contributing to the Lost Future's potential; the whole setting is filled with things Relative to People's Interests. Post-apocalyptic games have always been incredibly popular, and will soon enjoy a green reneissance thanks to The Last of Us. Cyberpunk has likewise gained a high profile. But Inn0cence also draws appeal from source outside the industry. The whole aesthetic wouldn't be out of place in an Anime (and in fact draws some ideas from Ghost in the Shell and Ergo Proxy), and while Shane Acker's 9 turned out to be a disappointment, the initial interest in the concept was there. Pixar's Wall-E is a more promising example, as is the breakout success of the humans-as-jerks tale in District 9. Inn0cence: Lost Future will appeal to the entirety of the Core Action Gamer demographic. Multiple marketing fronts can be aimed at the two main branches of the Core: The Immersers and the Bros. Bros want an awesome, flashy title with lots of violence and action. Inn0cence delivers on the violence in spades, which should lure in the Bros just long enough to get them hooked on the setting and characters. Gung-ho Fight The Power imagery, along with kickass robots and the promise of class-based multiplayer will cement this demographic's interest. It was these sub-human oafs that made the Transformers films successful. Immersers, on the other hand, demand complexity and depth. A deliberately paced, haunting narrative with hints of genuine drama alongside all the action is exactly what these people want. Skyrim shows that there are more of these people than you'd think, and all it takes to turn a Bro into one of them is that one game. They'll be an easy sell. But, there's one final demographic that Inn0cence is uniquely suited to tap: Females. The main character is...Cute, simple as that. The themes in the world and narrative have real, immediate emotional weight, and would easily allow for content explicitly made to appeal to women without alienating the male audience. This doesn't mean inserting an illogical love triangle and lots of yaoi fanfiction fodder. Its just a matter of toning down the typical dudebro crap that drives away women in the first place (which is the male equivalent of love triangles and yaoi). Mass Effect and Adventure Time are prime examples of how to attract both female and male fans. This means including feminine characters, strong or otherwise, that don't just serve as scantily-clad window dressing, love interests, or distressed damsels. It means leaving in the tiny, everyday stories that give a world emotional depth. And it means making things look pretty, in an actual aesthetic sense, not just in terms of graphics. The only tripping point here is that women, by-and-large, aren't big fans of graphic violence. But they'll just have to suck it up. Inn0cence isnt going to suddenly add girls to the hardcore demographic, but of those that already exist, every single one will take notice of the title.