We just revealed our newest game, [Redacted], during Xbox’s Gamescom livestream.

Coming to Xbox Series X|S this Halloween, our new game is a fast-action roguelike set in Black Iron, a futuristic prison located on Jupiter’s icy moon, Callisto, full of interesting ways to die. Evolve with each death in an easy-to-play, fun-to-master run-and-gun battle through a penitentiary full of monstrous enemies and unpredictable challenges. As a modest prison guard your job is simple – get to the last escape pod alive.

But getting there is anything but easy. Your every move is tracked by an agent of a mysterious organization, and you aren’t the only survivor looking to escape – only one of you can make it off the moon – make sure it’s you!

It was a blast to finally show the game off and let everyone see what the team at Striking Distance is cooking up. Even after the extended time showing off [REDACTED] during the show, there’s still a lot to talk about – not least the Rivals roaming Black Iron…

[Redacted]’s Rivals are survivors of a mysterious viral outbreak at the penitentiary – they’re people who managed to mostly avoid the infection and being mangled by the monsters now calling the prison “home.”

When we first started thinking about the survivors-turned-Rivals, our first thoughts were, “What kind of psychopaths and weirdos would survive a horrific viral outbreak?” and, “What would they do to get to the last escape pod?”

The short answer is “a diverse cast of psychopaths and weirdos who will happily walk over your corpse to escape the prison.”

In the trailer, we showed three of those rivals, Sark – a gangster and permanent “resident” of the prison – Liz, the prison’s “chef,” and Don, a custodial technician with a penchant for violence.

Like you, and all the other survivors in [Redacted], Sark, Liz, and Don are racing toward the last escape pod and the comparative safety of outer space. And it is a race. Fall too far behind and one of your rivals will strand you with the prison’s monsters. “I’ll just kill things fast,” you say. Sure, but it’s not that easy.

Rivals use the prison’s security systems to make life, and living, harder – flooding rooms with poisoned gas, leaving ticking time bombs for you to disarm, and turning out the lights, forcing you to hunt your enemies by flashlight, are just a few of the many ways they will attack you remotely.

If that weren’t enough, you are always predator and prey. If you catch up to a rival, or they catch up to you, there’s going to be a fight – and it won’t be a walk in the park. Each rival has powerful custom weapons and a lethal array of skills and powers to put you in the dirt.

As lethal as the Rivals are, you’re no pushover either. As a guard, you have access to the same security systems and can use them to remotely slow down your Rivals’ mad dash to the escape pod, make them more vulnerable during a one-on-one fight, or deal direct damage. As you progress, you can purchase increasingly powerful remote attacks to deal even more damage, dramatically increase vulnerability or outright stop your rivals in their tracks by hacking the security system.

And that’s before you unlock and upgrade a massive array of skills, weapons and suits and earn powerful experiments and schematics during your run.

As you play, you un-redact your Rivals’ files, unlocking their weapons and disguises, each with their own unique upgrades. And, once you fully un-redact a Rival’s file, you get a special passcode. Get all the passcodes to access a special door for an even bigger challenge and bigger reward. We’re keeping the details on that secret for now, but stay tuned!

The team at Striking Distance Studios can’t wait for Xbox players to get their hands on [Redacted] this Halloween, October 31, 2024.