The Blackout Club

Question LLC was founded in 2013 by Stephen Alexander and Jordan Thomas, who previously worked on the BioShock series. After the release of BioShock Infinite, they decided to do something on their own. The company's first project was The Magic Circle from 2015. The title was warmly received by the media and players. Encouraged by its success, the developers produced another project - The Blackout Club.

Plot

The Blackout Club tells about the adventures of a group of contemporary teenagers living in a small town. Everyone suffers from a strange ailment - they wake up in the morning being shabby and dirty, not remembering what happened at night and, sometimes, the previous day. In order to solve this puzzle, they form an alliance with each other and quickly discover the underground labyrinth from which the hypnotic music comes. Additionally, last night, one of the friends disappeared. A mysterious group of adults seems to behind this. However, no one believes the kids, so in order to solve the riddle and find the friend, the heroes have to catch the criminals red-handed, record their misdeeds and safely escape to reveal their actions to the world.

Mechanics

The Blackout Club is an unusual horror game designed for co-op gameplay. The game involves a maximum of four players, who take over the roles of individual characters, who have specific tasks to complete, which requires close cooperation. A joint action plan must be devised to outsmart larger and stronger opponents, and gather evidence. For this purpose, we use various traps and gadgets, e.g. a drone. Heroes have different paths and goals to complete, which requires from us to think hard - for example, if you have to record an enemy dragging a victim to a hideout, one of the players has to be caught. Interestingly, further tasks are generated during the mission, so you can't always prepare yourself for every eventuality. In addition, the difficulty level increases with the number of people playing. Successes in the game are rewarded with experience, which translates into new skills purchased in the base, where we also select equipment for missions. Although there are a lot of available abilities, we can choose only a few of them every night.

There are various threats in the game. One of the main types of opponents is the so-called Lucids, a group responsible for the strange events in the town, who see, hear and operate with strong light. Apart from them, we often meet lunatics. These are ordinary city dwellers, such as teachers, who are exploited by the enemy without realizing it. These enemies don't see us, but they can hear us if we move too loudly. In addition, there is also an individual known as Boogeyman. This is an invisible creature, which hunts a player who has on his account the most serious crime, e.g. killing a sleepwalker. However, the AI is responsible for choosing the target, so you never know who is actually being hunted. The opponent can only be seen after closing your eyes and temporary loss of consciousness (titular blackout). This system provides many unexpected moments, because when you enter this state, you may find that Boogeyman is just behind your companion.

Technical aspects

The Blackout Club is played from the first person perspective. During the game, players visit not only the underground tunnels but also the streets of the town.

Last updated on 02 March 2018