American Arcadia is like a reality show, but if your ratings drop, they kill you

In the movie The Truman Show, Truman was an average guy who unbeknownst to him was the lead character in a reality show built around his life. He lived in a fake city, was surrounded by cameras, and had no idea he was constantly being watched by millions of people.

American Arcadia has that same vibe. The massive city you live in has been created for the entertainment of a television audience. You have a comfortable life there along with lots of other "citizens," but if your ratings drop too much, well... you're hunted down and killed. It's what you might call cancellation.

American Arcadia, which comes from developer Out of the Blue and publisher Raw Fury, has a wonderful 1970's aesthetic, and there's a combination of platforming action, stealth, and puzzles as you try to flee the city that was once your home but is now a death trap filled with drones and armed guards all out to get you. Part of the game takes place in 2.5D, but there are also a 3D first-person segments where you play as another character on the outside trying to help the protagonist escape.

No release date has been announced, but in the meantime you can find it here on Steam.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.