Announced for PC, The Watcher is an intriguing and unsettling surveillance simulator

The Watcher is an upcoming surveillance simulator where you’re a spy for a totalitarian government, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Not because I’m a filthy Peeping Tom, honest, but because, going by the trailer, the game will take delight in messing with your head.

Developed by Yesterday’s Sandwich, The Watcher comes across as a blend of 1984 and Rear Window. Restricted to your apartment/observation post, you’ll watch the comings and goings of the residents of the apartment block opposite, as they go about their daily business.

“Every step must be recorded,” warns your handler. But it’s up to you what you report, since they can’t see what you see. Or can they? Contacted by a mysterious third party, it becomes apparent that you’re also being observed. The trailer, which you can watch below, teases some hard choices.

This isn’t the first game to cast you as a third party observer; Night Trap, Beholder and the Voyeur games spring to mind. But, created in Unreal Engine 5, The Watcher looks to be more in-your-face than those entries, particularly when matters escalate.

I’m also eager to discover whether, as I suspect, the main character can’t trust what he sees. Is isolation and guilt slowly eating away at his sanity? Are the NPCs’ blank faces his refusal to admit that his subjects are real people, with real lives? And how bad is it that I’m grinning at the prospect of spying on people and exercising his twisted power?

Unfortunately, this chilling surveillance sim doesn’t have a solid release date at the moment. You can, however, wishlist The Watcher on Steam here.