It’s rare to find media of any kind that faithfully covers the clandestine world of hacking, but Mr. Robot has done a great job. It’s now looking to make the jump from TV show to game, though, with Oxenfree-maker NightSchool Studios turning it into a narrative-driven mobile game, and with Telltale Games as publisher.
Although NightSchool might not be your first choice for a game based around hacking, making a story-driven title is its cup of tea. Oxenfree has shown its strength at storytelling, and with company founder Adam Hines coming from Telltale, you know there’s plenty of experience with conversational games, where you find your way through the story by minutely controlling the dialogues your characters have with one another.
Hines also penned the story for this game, after having previously written for Season 1 of Telltale’s Walking Dead game, as well as Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands.
Related: ‘Batman: The Telltale Series’ Episode 1 review
This will be quite a different tale than Telltale fans are used to. In the Mr Robot 1.51exfiltratiOn game, players will interact purely through text messages. You’ll control your replies, but they will all be SMS messages between you and another party.
Those messages will have far-reaching consequences and will drive the story forward, whilst relaying elements to you in various forms as well. As the creators discuss in the video above, they wanted the game to feel natural, as though you are really just interacting with your phone as you do every day — except now in connection with a fictional story.
To enhance that aspect of the game, it plays out in real time. Don’t expect to sit down and blow through 1.51exfiltratiOn in a few hours. There will be down time where nothing much is going on. Telltale says that the game takes place over the course of a week, so make sure you don’t have too many plans.
Telltale fans can expect the same level of heavy decision making that is common in its games, though the language will be a little different with this one considering its setting.
Mr Robot 1.51exfiltratiOn is available now on iOS and Android, priced at $3.
