Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a sentient AI walks into a cryostasis unit and says “It seems things haven’t gone quite as planned in my utopia. Decant me a human please, I need their fleshling appendages to complete tasks for me.”

The sentient AI in question is called Pamela and it was the custodian of Eden, a suggestively-named sci-fi city and the setting of PAMELA [official site]. Its residents have gone a bit wrong, and it seems that they’d rather assault uninfected people than shop in Eden’s many luxurious malls. I usually end up in a mood whenever I go shopping, so I sympathise.



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Let’s get the obvious observation out of the way: PAMELA is awfully pretty, isn’t it? Not even the fact that the player character walks around like Mr. Burns can distract from that.

Information on PAMELA is currently thin on the ground, although the official site has some suggestive flavour text. It sounds like the player will spend a lot of time exploring Eden, trying to reroute power to keep lights on or otherwise dissuade its more pugnacious residents from approaching you. A lot of your interactions with the world will be possible thanks to your AARM, which as well as a ridiculous sci-fi abbreviation is a wristmajig that displays stats and your inventory, and also serves as your portable armory.

PAMELA is the first game from NVYVE, a team made up of just four people. I know that in this day and age it’s not uncommon for amazing games to be produced by small teams, yet I can’t help but be impressed that four people have made something that looks as spectacular as that teaser trailer suggests.