Gangstalk is a cat and mouse game where you play cat and mouse at the same time. This is a stalking game where you are the person who is stalking you and also the person who is being stalked. Because of you. Yes, I too have a look of puppy terror and confusion. But it sounds captivating, captivating enough that I can ignore the very thunderous shots of DYSTOPIAN WORLD in the trailer.
Developed by Kitten Explosion developer Jam2go, Gangstalk is the story of Cam, an urban explorer in a reflective jacket with an emoji for a face. He is persecuted by the evil mega-corporation PANDO, which apparently specializes in the production of digital ghosts. Or at least that’s what he thinks. According to Wikipedia, gangstalking means “a set of persecutory beliefs in which those affected believe that they are being followed, stalked, and harassed by large numbers of people.” So it’s possible that this is all going on in Cam’s indigent, dizzy head.
Early in the game, Cam has infiltrated PANDO’s secret city, Kudzu Vale, which reminds me of The Blackout Club’s spooky slice of suburbia. There are eerily empty parking lots, eerily empty shopping markets, and memorable high-quality scenery such as stacks of smoldering televisions or flocks of puppets that certainly won’t budge when you look away. Active threats include predatory phantasms called Datamoshers, which look like Slender Men from cracked VHS pieces. But the intriguing part, again, is the whole “you are your own oppressor” concept.
Instead of a regular camera system, you’ll view Cam “through a fragmented perspective of CCTV cameras, devices, agents, and enigmatic Datamoshers.” Sometimes you peek through the CCTV camera in the corner and the view changes abruptly and follows him/you across the room. Sometimes you’re the horror chasing him/her, staggering as he/she disappears around the corner, and then you’ll probably have to wait until he/she catches up with you to continue… running away from yourself.
While showing the future victim from the killer’s perspective is a familiar tactic, I feel like Gangstalk is trying to go beyond this stereotypical cinematic device. It teaches you to fear your own gaze, which creates a fun, practical dilemma. You’ll probably have to walk a tightrope throughout the entire game of being Just evident enough to stay in control.
Steam page comes with a note warning about “strong depictions of anxiety and paranoia,” and it’s certainly one of the more sophisticated takes on this type of thing I’ve come across in a video game. Mind you, I can imagine the ways in which he won’t live up to his potential. Perhaps the “stalker POV” elements will just come down to the classic fixed point of view in a classic survival horror game most of the time. Perhaps in practice it will simply be ridiculous. Perhaps the point is to make it humorous. We’ll find out sometime next year.
