Parkside: Decayed Soul Manipulation will launch on PC on July 31, giving fans of choice-driven immersive sims another strange world to poke, hack, and possibly shoot their way through. A demo is already available on Steam.
Developed by Banana Hardsoft, Parkside follows Alexander, a hacker living in a decaying city where billboards issue commands such as “Do Not Hinder Law Enforcement.” After Alexander digs too far into the wrong secrets, armed men break into his home and drag him into a conflict involving a zealot group built around the mysterious Divine Rod.
The setup begins with a touch of System Shock. Alexander is strapped into a machine that lets him remotely control a combat-ready body, then sent out to kill a target. From there, the game leans closer to Deus Ex with multiple ways to approach its objectives and a world packed with vents, ledges, rooftops, and other possible routes.
That combat body can receive several augment upgrades, including cloaking, defensive abilities, and the power to possess other people. Experience comes from investigating areas and pursuing optional objectives, giving players a reason to look beyond the most direct path.
A hands-on look at the demo found that movement upgrades can change more than traversal. Increasing speed and jump height can help Alexander reach higher routes, but those choices also affect how the character looks and can limit the highest reputation available with certain NPCs. The game’s systems appear willing to make even useful upgrades carry a cost.
Parkside also takes a firm stance on saving. There are no traditional save points. Instead, players can drink from a Divine Elixir in certain rooms to create a single-use checkpoint. That system may make every risky decision feel heavier, especially when a plan goes wrong and a heavily armed response arrives.
One failed attempt to reach a vent led to a different solution during the demo. A dead soldier on a nearby roof had left behind an assault rifle, which opened the door to a much louder approach. After the gunfire attracted a huge police response, a nearby car provided an equally unexpected escape route. Yes, this particular immersive sim has cars.
Parkside keeps much of its story deliberately obscure at first, using symbols and strange fragments of information instead of explaining everything immediately. The result is a game that seems more interested in giving players a target and a box of dangerous tools than in carefully pointing toward one correct solution.
Banana Hardsoft will release Parkside: Decayed Soul Manipulation on July 31. The demo offers an early look at its hacking, augment, reputation, and traversal systems before the full game arrives.
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Parkside: Decayed Soul Manipulation
