By Lola at Tuesday, June 24, 2014 8:23:00 AM

Get Even from The Farm 51 will have you traverse between different minds, using their memories as your personal playground. In the Cyberpunk world this is known as "braindancing" and it could very well be the next frontier real life science will break into. Get Even explores this concept on two levels: through a strong single-player campaign and through a seamless blend of multiplayer. In Get Even your digital world can be invaded by other players - they can influence, bend and manipulate - without you even knowing they are there. The heart of this game pumps with the question, What is real?

Let's braindance to find out.

Just what is braindancing?

Cyberpunk movies like Johnny Mnemoic and video games like Remember Me and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 all display a universe where surfing between minds is a reality. The best description of the word braindance I could find is from one Masos, a Cyberpunk 2077 forum user: “Braindances are digital recordings of a person’s experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations, called a BD player. Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person.“

In Get Even you play as Agent Black, an investigator on a murder case. Black uses memories as his ultimate investigative tool, weapon and ally - but memories are fluid and everything will not be as it seems...



Say Hi to Mr Smith

In Get Even the central theme is about memories, and through the player's manipulating of memories the game unfolds. Now, here's the catch, human players can jack into your world and bend it without you even knowing. Sounds a bit like The Matrix, doesn't it. PC Games Hardware had an interview with one of the devs, Wojciech Pazdur, and he explained this seamless invasion of other players.

"Get Even tells about travelling between different levels of reality (memories or alternate timelines), so despite of realism in visuals and gameplay mechanics, there is a huge room to develop the interaction and emotions based on meeting other people in your game. The question "what is real" is the core and heart of game construction. Not being able to judge if your enemy is a computer-controlled AI or second human is a part of the main experience. Just imagine what level of unpredictability it brings to the virtual battlefield when your enemies may be truly much smarter than you are or, at the opposite side, simply lame."

But how will this work? Will there be a clear difference between AI and human invasions as we experienced in Watch_Dogs? Or can other players remain completely undetected? Be witnesses to your experience? Can they alter your game memories? Can they play a part in your story without you ever knowing they were there? This is a fascinating concept! Pazdur explain to Gamingbolt how a Smith can invade your Matrix:

“If you’ve seen “Source Code” or “The Butterfly Effect” you may know, that by entering your (or someone’s) memory you can alter it’s outcome. It’s part of both storytelling and gameplay blend in Get Even that sometimes when you see the moment which is frozen in time, where one guy is going to shoot another, you can make sure that he doesn’t miss by putting additional bullet into victim’s chest, stand on barrel’s end to get shot on yourself or try to push some other character into bullet’s trajectory. And each of these chooses has it’s consequences in alternate version of this memory which is going to be played later. There is not hundreds of these moments in the whole game, but each one is very meaningful."

Imagine invading someone's playground and posing as an AI throughout his or her whole game - without revealing yourself until the end. If The Farm 51 can pull that off then we will have breached the next frontier in gaming.

Welcome to my world

Get Even runs two main storylines which are in conflict with each other. The gameplay is designed to push the two protagonists into colliding and interacting with each other. The Farm 51 is keeping a tight lid on how this blending of worlds will work in relation to other players. Here's what we do know so far:

There will not be a separate multiplayer campaign, but a seamless integration of virtual worlds.

Players can choose to turn the option “Allow others to explore your memories”on or off.

There are two campaigns, merging the single-player and multiplayer experience

The campaigns are two opposite stories about love, hate, crime and sacrifice

I've been gaming since a *coughs* very young age, and I've been actively involved in the Industry for a few years now - and I have no idea what to expect from Get Even.

I have been surprised by a video game. Now ain't that something. When was the last time a game really boggled your mind?

Explore more of Get Even with this teaser, you will be none the wiser.

We know Get Even will release on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015. Meet you in your world...

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