Zero Protocol

PC

I wish I were as ambitious as Robert “R_Games” Purmalis. His idea was to make a System Shock-like game, entirely on his own. Thankfully, he also had the sense to keep his scope small, creating a tight, few-hours-long claustrophobic im-sim, that tells a neat, contained story, with a ton of atmosphere.

Zero Protocol isn’t shy about its influences, and wears them on its sleeves. Here, you wake up as Dr. Brooks, nearing the end of a year-long shift in an underground Antarctic research facility. However, as you might expect, something has gone wrong, and an unexplained program called the Zero Protocol has been enacted. You need to get back up to the surface to evacuate, but it seems something is sending the staff mad, and it’s dangerous out there.

While you’re quite quickly armed with a gun, ZP is not a shooter. You will absolutely need to shoot the zombie-like former staff members, seemingly driven mad by a condition that’s afflicting you too, but bullets are incredibly scarce, along with medicine. Somewhat more frequently available is BB-4, a nootropic that apparently treats anxiety, and when taken will help you maintain your sanity in this insane situation. Although, if you’re going to survive, you might not want to take it all the time.

As if making that tiresome aphorism literal, Zero Protocol rather embraces the notion of, “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.” Managing your sanity is pretty essential, as you explore the corridors of the institute, finding key cards and door codes to open new rooms and areas, while scouring computers to try to piece together what’s going on here. But sometimes, letting it fall to more dangerous levels allows you to see things that are only maybe there, which is occasionally useful. Which is a splendid idea.

And oh god, it’s so tense! The game was really raising my anxiety levels, despite its incredibly old-school graphics and obvious lack of immediate realism. It was so gratifying to find a game that could get under my skin like that.

It’s fair to say it didn’t last. By the second half of the game, I knew all its tricks, and it didn’t have any new ones to surprise me with. However, it did have incredibly annoying spiders to shoot at, that leap at you like face-huggers. I’m not sure there’s ever been a person who’s said, “My favourite thing about Game X was the small skittering creatures.” Quite why every game seems to think they’re obligatory bemuses me, and Zero Protocol would be a far better game with far fewer of them.

However, the story’s twists and turns in the second half kept me hooked, as the reality of the situation became apparant. The game is very linear, albeit with tooing and froing around each level’s unlocking areas, but at its scale, that’s the only sensible route. And there are two endings, determined by a final choice (but like all the best examples, a choice influenced by everything you’ve learned before it).

Zero Protocol is also an example of a very smart use of assets: take the work you either can’t or don’t know how to do yourself, and use it to create something uniquely your own. So when you hit the credits, you’ll see the models, animations, music and SFX that were used in creating this game, and yet the tiresomely overused term “asset flip” will never enter your mind. This is a single developer using the materials available to create his game.

As such, no, of course it doesn’t compare to System Shock. While the style and nods invite comparison, Zero Protocol isn’t try to match it. This is a short, contained one-man project, with a really rewarding story told through snippets of information left in computer logs and notes, with a hell of an atmosphere. Yes, it runs out of new ideas halfway in, and that’s a shame, but it’s a novella of a game that barely outstays its welcome.

I am now absolutely fascinated to see what R_Games does next, to see if the scope can be expanded, and the ambition raised even further.

• R_Games
• £10
• Steam
• Official Site

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