Militsioner is a haunting, Kafkaesque adventure where you avoid the gaze of a giant policeman
If you’d asked me how I was going to spend my Saturday afternoon, my first guess wouldn’t have been throwing a brick through a window while fleeing a giant policeman. But Militsioner, currently in open playtest, is such a ridiculous joy, I consider it time well spent.
Militsioner, from Russian developer Tallboys, begins with a distinctly Kafkaesque premise. No, you’ve not been turned into a huge bug. Instead, in the vein of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, you’ve been arrested by the titular Militsioner, a giant policeman who sits above the town.
Like The Trial, you’ve no idea of your crime, except that the town’s inhabitants treat you like a pariah. Your only chance of escaping this charge, as explained by a fellow with oddly elongated arms, is to find a ticket and hop on the next train out of town.
The open playtest version is essentially a rough, demo-equivalent version of the game. But there’s still plenty to do, even if it ultimately gets you thrown into jail. The Soviet-era town itself boasts a respectable amount of verticality, so you’ll be hopping along ledges, leaping onto roofs and, should you so decide, break into apartments.
The latter was my initial approach, assisted by a pocket full of bricks, until the Militsioner spotted me and decided to fine me. My solution? To break into another apartment so I had enough money to pay the fine. Okay, it wasn’t the smartest move. But it’s hard to think clearly when you’ve got a Cthulhu-sized cop glaring down at you. The game isn’t labelled as horror, but I defy you not to get the chills when he turns his attention to you.
There’s more to Militsioner, however, than just eluding the giant cop, who the rest of the populace seem unperturbed by. You can interact with this colossus, who has his own emotional issues, to further distract him from his duty. Got any fruit handy? Try bribing him with a banana. One rude shopkeeper wanted little to do with me but that opened up the option to pair her with the Militsioner.
Jail isn’t the end, either. There’s a roguelike element in that you can carry on the next day. Through your failure, you get to tweak some element of the colossal cop’s personality. Militsioner feels like a game you can, and will, play again and again, and I’m intrigued to see where Tallboys takes the final product.
Militsioner doesn’t have a concrete release date, but you can dive into its open playtest right now, via Steam. The playtest runs from now until September 3rd.
