This Land Is My Land - open world Western where you play a native American

[Aqualung]

https://www.thislandmyland.com/

EXPERIENCE FRONTIER FROM THE OTHER SIDE
This Land Is My Land is an open world stealth action game with a living hostile environment which evolves over time independently from player actions

THIS LAND IS MY LAND
VARIETY
There are multiple ways to achieve your objectives. In addition to that, every playthrough will be unique because the world will change every time you restart the game. Cities will grow differently, camps will develop in altered places, and patrols will take new routes


HOSTILE WORLD
Your beautiful world has changed - incoming settlers are leaving no place for you. You have to be prepared and actively fight against it if you want to take back your land. The maze is real and something dangerous and exciting will always surprise you on every step and behind every corner

ENEMIES
Game mechanics will treat you as an intelligent adult who can make smart decisions to overcome our cooperative AI, that intelligently reacts to threats and changing surroundings

I can't wait

 

[Sranchammer]

Sounds kinda racist against honkys.

 

[Life of the Party]

This Land is My Land takes a different view of the Wild West than Red Dead Redemption

Stealth game tells the story of Native Americans repelling invasion

With Red Dead Redemption 2 coming later this year, interest in Wild West games is at a heightened level. So it’s interesting to take a look at a game in development that seems broadly similar to RDR 2, but is taking a very different approach to the subject. This Land is My Land — due out in the first half of next year — is an open-world game set in late 19th century frontier, but it’s played from the point of view of a Native American.

By contrast, Red Dead Redemption 2’s protagonist is a white man. Promotional footage thus far released has shown little evidence of Native Americans, likely because RDR 2 is set in 1899, decades after the defeat of plains tribes by a combination of the United States military and by the influx of white settlers wielding advanced technologies.

This Land is My Land is set at an earlier time, when Native American country was being overrun by white settlers. The game is being created by Ukrainian outfit Game-Labs, best known for the PC strategy Ultimate War series, set in the American Civil War, and the excellent age of sail combat MMO Naval Action.

The hero is a man who makes use of traditional weapons as well as modern guns to stem the invasion. According to the game’s development lead Denis Khachatran, he represents an amalgam of western tribes.

“You represent them all,” he said in an email interview with Polygon. “The Chickasaw, Cherokee, Lakota, Cheyenne, Apaches, Navajo, Shawnee, Shoshone, Mohawk, Utes and all other tribes large and small. These last patches of your homeland seem insignificant for the settlers, but for you it is the center of the universe; the heart of everything.”

He added: “We could not find any good games which would let us play as a Native American warrior, or as the Declaration of Independence called them, ‘merciless Indian savages’. So, we are making one.”

Rollicking stories

Europe has a long history of fiction sympathetic to Native Americans. During the Cold War, movies like The Sons of the Great Bear (1966) portrayed the U.S. Army as hostile invaders. Such anti-American movies were part of a genre called Red Westerns, which pilloried and critiqued Hollywood’s version of 19th century American history.

Khachatran cites Karl May (1842-1912) as an inspiration. He is the most popular author in German history, best known for writing rollicking stories about Native American warriors. His work is still popular today, though he is almost unknown in the English-speaking world.

This Land is My Land doesn’t have the lavish budget of Red Dead Redemption 2, but its developers are finding smart ways to add value to their production. While RDR 2 boasts a huge map, This Land is My Land’s open world resets on each new game, with mines, camps, towns and other settlements appearing in new places.

This Land is My Land relies on stealth more than shooting. Players will be able to make use of baits and traps, creeping in the shadows in order to kill enemies or create panic.

“Stealth is an integral part of asymmetric warfare that is one of the few working strategies when facing a superior force,” explained Khachatran. “Open combat is dangerous, but stealthy destruction or quiet sabotage can defeat the strongest opponents.”

It’s a single-player game, but AI allies can be used to scout out locations, help with crafting and create distractions during attacks.

Vulnerable Families

The American Indian Wars are now remembered for their brutality toward innocents, including the massacres of vulnerable settler families by Natives, and of non-combative women and children by United States forces. But this game will feature neither women nor children.

“The frontier is too dangerous during this time,” said Khachatran. “Native American women and children have been sent farther west, and [white] women and children have not yet arrived.”

The game’s history focuses on the invasion of Native lands, as the indigenous people saw it. While Red Dead Redemption 2’s publicity talks of “civilization spreading rapidly into the wild, lawless frontier,” This Land is My Land recognizes that complex, thriving civilizations were already in place, long before the United States arrived.

“Aliens [white people] came to this place from all latitudes and longitudes and for different reasons,” said Khachatran. “They think they are claiming the empty lands, but your people have always been living here.

“This is a game; not a simulation,” he added. “But it takes place during a time when Native Americans faced a choice of becoming part of the alien civilization or disappearing. The player is fighting people who want to terminate his people’s entire history. The events happening in game could have happened in reality.”

Game-Labs has yet to announce specific platforms for This Land is My Land, but Windows PC is likely the lead format. We’ll keep you updated as news emerges.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/9/3/17...-preview-native-american-western-stealth-game

 

[Destroid]

 

[Burning Bridges]

Of course this still looks interesting. But I want to remind everyone that

1. the publisher is also behind Naval Action which is a gigantic piece of shit (I recently tried it personally and can testify it is garbage)
2. another game from them is the very good (but underdeveloped) Ultimate General
3. Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to come out in October and (if there is a PC version) it will probably make "another game, not simulation" cimpletely obsolete. If there is anything in this game that RDR2 lacks, they could probably add it while taking a shit
4. the screenshots in this so called "preview" by polygon are still the same as when the game was half assedly announced a long time ago

 

[Burning Bridges]

Also, Karl May as main inspiration? You gotta be fucking kidding me, Karl May is Kindergarten level. eg Friedrich Gerstäcker wrote books that are light years ahead of this juvenile crap.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Yeah Karl May as inspiration is kinda weak. Also a bizarre choice these days, how many people even know who he is? As far as American frontier conflict goes, May is a step less interesting from saying you were inspired by hollywood's depiction of the era.

 

[Burning Bridges]

He was extremely popular in Germany until more and more people read actual literature and realized how retarded his books were.

I believe Adolf Hitler cited Karl May as his favorite author, although that is not the fault of May who was actually quite humane and religious (although also a pathologic liar and retard).

 

[Burning Bridges]

For the non Germans: basically, in a time when there was no TV or cinema, every young German boy dreamed of getting one of those fabulous green 600+ page novels for Christmas, which consisted of nothing but endless, badly written wankery about a guy "Old Shatterhand" who had superpowers, like a blow to the head that could selectively stun or kill enemies, or a imaginary Henry carabine with 42 shots (about 50 years before the Henry repeater was invented), the ability to appear always at the right moment of a conversation, and about which Karl May claimed no less than having been his very own experiences (in fact he had gone to jail for pickpocketing and only travelled to America long after his novels became successful).

This is totally in contrast to the aforementioned Gerstäcker who had travelled America out of his own accord out of curiosity, and wrote some almost documentary novels that are totally worth reading even today. You could say that Gerstäcker was the German Jack London, Kalr May was just an idiot who by accident found the ideal readership.

 

[RNGsus]

 

[Burning Bridges]

The whole issue is much more complicated, as many of the Indians occupied territory they had just stolen from other tribes, often only generations before they were expelled themselves. Also there are some Indian tribes which in movies are depicted as "bad guys" (because they had allied with the Whites) who today still control vast regions of their land, like the defamed Crow. (to me that only means there were not "good"/"bad" but also "smart" Indians, who made themselves indispensable for the Whites)

And btw Columbus had views very much like an SJW of a world in which everyone would live happily together but of course it did not work out for more than a few weeks (which was not the fault of the Spaniards alone). But Columbus and Isabella were the first SJW couple to enter America, and inevitably failed.

 

[RNGsus]

Right, but that doesn't make generalizations less fun. To me, anyway.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Inverted racism is still racism.

Hope this piece of shit bombs hard.

 

[Abu Antar]

'Game mechanics will treat you as an intelligent adult'

Meanwhile, gaming journalists can't get through the tutorial, 5/10 IGN.

Depends. They might watch a let's play. Depending on how much they dislike it 1-7/10, or depending on how much they like it 8-10/10.

 

[Ironmonk]

Apparently this isn't vaporware and it will reach Steam EA soon (it still is on alpha or pre-alpha)... I saw a few youtubers playing it recently, the game seems to have potential to be fun.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I saw a few youtubers playing it recently

Got a link?

 

[Ironmonk]

I saw a few youtubers playing it recently

Got a link?

https://www.youtube.com/user/gameedged/videos



https://www.youtube.com/user/Kage848/videos

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Aye, found the first one meself, gonna watch it now. Thanks men.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

The whole issue is much more complicated, as many of the Indians occupied territory they had just stolen from other tribes, often only generations before they were expelled themselves. Also there are some Indian tribes which in movies are depicted as "bad guys" (because they had allied with the Whites) who today still control vast regions of their land, like the defamed Crow. (to me that only means there were not "good"/"bad" but also "smart" Indians, who made themselves indispensable for the Whites)

And btw Columbus had views very much like an SJW of a world in which everyone would live happily together but of course it did not work out for more than a few weeks (which was not the fault of the Spaniards alone). But Columbus and Isabella were the first SJW couple to enter America, and inevitably failed.

Certainly more complicated than a video game or two can capture. When you look up groups like the Iroquois Confederacy for example, you'll find that Native tribes had banded together for survival and expansion long before the round eye showed up. Historians have also found traces of dozens, if not hundreds, of long dead tribes that no longer exist... also likely wiped out/assimilated by competing tribes. The history of man all over the world is one long bloody tale of war, migration, assimilation, settlement, followed by even more migration and war.

The (previously Asiatic) Natives of North America have a long history of warfare and even occasional small-level genocides. The 'Dances With Wolves' narrative of passive, pipe smoking Red Man Hippies suddenly being supplanted by evil oil barons and racist farmers has some truth to it, but in the end it's a case of revision to have one side as babyface, the other the heel. Current trends have boiled 500 years of expansion, war, settlement, and migration into one single narrative - RED VS WHITE. Doesn't hold under any kind of historical accuracy, but it makes for simpler themes to add into next year's big game release.

 

[Burning Bridges]

The difficulty would change dramatically once the white dudes drink buckbrush tea during combat too

I had hoped it would be more about survival with different seasons, hunting, raising animals and all than just killing white dudes and selling their rifles. But I will buy it! It looks as good as the early material promised, and not cheesy as I feared. Especially the Karl May relationship is not serious. If it were true to Karl May the protagonist would have superpowers, a prototype rifle with 49 shots and always come at the right moment to listen to crucial conversation, interspersed with getting into religious or SJW drivel that drags on for hours.

Seems a good game with a bit wonky combat. Also noticed that there are no women or children in this game and no scalping and torturing. That avoids a quagmire once the media discovers it.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Certainly more complicated than a video game or two can capture. When you look up groups like the Iroquois Confederacy for example, you'll find that Native tribes had banded together for survival and expansion long before the round eye showed up. Historians have also found traces of dozens, if not hundreds, of long dead tribes that no longer exist... also likely wiped out/assimilated by competing tribes. The history of man all over the world is one long bloody tale of war, migration, assimilation, settlement, followed by even more migration and war.

The (previously Asiatic) Natives of North America have a long history of warfare and even occasional small-level genocides. The 'Dances With Wolves' narrative of passive, pipe smoking Red Man Hippies suddenly being supplanted by evil oil barons and racist farmers has some truth to it, but in the end it's a case of revision to have one side as babyface, the other the heel. Current trends have boiled 500 years of expansion, war, settlement, and migration into one single narrative - RED VS WHITE. Doesn't hold under any kind of historical accuracy, but it makes for simpler themes to add into next year's big game release.

That's why I wrote it should be possible to show native Americans as they were. Stoneage people who had learned how to survive by hunting, warfare and diplomacy, often brutal killing as well as a modicum of culture and philosophy.

Stoneage people can be both amiable and deadly. This is nowadays often forgotten because there are not many left, but the theme still occurs during encounters with the last tribes in the Amazonas. You can see that each of those men killed numerous animals and humans. While one hand normally reaches out in a gesture of caution or peace, the other arm holding the spear means that he may also slaughter you like a swine. The thing that sets these people apart from the modern world is that encounters are quickly decided between friendship and death. Once violence erupts it cannot be stopped. The weapons in their hands are no toys and handled masterfully. Depending on how it goes you may end up in the camp with everyone celebrating and singing a song for you but they could also roast you on the same fire. That's how the name "savages" came about, and it is actually a good description. Death and killing was present in every day of their lives.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The fact that you can set your tribe to do the crafting busywork is a good sign, but fuck, the gameplay footage I saw was full of these dudes mucking about gatherfagging.

 

[RaptorRex888]

*Press X to shed single tear*

 

[Ironmonk]

yeah, from what I could read from the UI you can just set a minimum amount for each item/resource (for each camp) and your warriors will gather/craft automatically.

They need to seriously change this placeholder UI asap, otherwise they will be hit with massive negative scores when they land on Steam.

 

[Jinn]

Damn, this is turning to look a lot better than I thought it would. Glad to see character development and skill progression seem to have a great impact on your success in the game. I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one.