I’ve had American Arcadia on my radar since I saw it for the first time at Summer Game Fest in 2022. The retro 70’s look. The 2.5D side-scrolling. The sinister tones. The fact it was from Out of the Blue Games, who also created Call of the Sea. (Fun Fact: I took Dramamine to play that one because of the head bobbing. WORTH IT.)
And if anyone from Out of the Blue stumbles onto this, thank you for the option to turn off the head bobbing in the first-person areas!
It was also part of the Tribeca Games Festival in 2022, where it was featured alongside the likes of As Dusk Falls, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Immortality, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, Venba, Thirsty Suitors, and The Cub. Outerloop Games took home the award for Thirsty Suitors that year.
But what is American Arcadia? You may have gotten some Truman Show vibes from the trailer, but instead of a reality show revolving around one person, it’s the entire city of Arcadia. And they have no idea. (Poor Gus.)
Welcome to Arcadia! A 70’s retro-futuristic metropolis where all its citizens enjoy a life of luxury and comfort… unaware that they’re being broadcast live 24/7! Arcadia is not an ordinary city, but the most-watched reality show on the planet – where a drop in popularity ratings comes at the highest cost: death.
Out of the Blue recently announced that the game would finally be releasing on November 15th, and during October’s Steam Next Fest, made a short demo available. I say short because it was VERY short, but long enough to see that Arcadia is no normal place.
You begin the demo hearing from Trevor, the poor soul on the run from the announcement trailer above, and he hasn’t had a great day. He’s being questioned about the events happening in the demo. It flashes back to him arriving at work, and I’m immediately reminded about what interested me so much in this game. Arcadia is such a great-looking city, and Out of the Blue really leaned into a retro-type color palette to help sell the 70’s aesthetic. Trevor and all the characters are also dressed in 70’s-type clothes and have the hair and accessories to go with it.
After some strange occurrences, Trevor is confronted with the fact that he’s living in a simulation, and that’s where things get weird. And cool, I have to say. Someone from the outside, a woman named Angela, gets in contact with him and she begins guiding you through where you need to go. The game shifts to her perspective, which is in first-person and the world is a lot closer to what it is today. She can manipulate Trevor’s world – Arcadia – by switching on lights, moving equipment around, etc.
It’s a fantastic and unique mechanic that’s seamless, and between that and the mystery at the heart of the story, I can’t wait to play the full game next month. You have a few more days to check out the demo as part of October’s Steam Next Fest event, ending on the 16th.
The full game is out on November 15th for PC.