Pendula Swing is an adventure game set in a fantasy version of the Roaring '20s

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This would probably make things much more complicated.

Between prohibition, women's suffrage, the dawn of the automobile, and the rise of jazz, America's Roaring '20s were a time of great change. They were also a time of great prejudice. Adventure game Pendula Swing taps into this tumultuous environment and reframes it using fantasy races like goblins, elves, orcs, dwarves, and humans.

"The goal of Pendula Swing is to raise awareness on how prejudice and racism affects the everyday lives of people in the physical world, by using fantasy stereotypes," says Swedish developer Valiant Game Studio.  

You play as an old dwarven hero who emerges from his 400-year retirement to find that the world's gone mad. Elves are seen as sex symbols, goblins are branded as thieves, and despite your contributions dwarves aren't faring much better in the eyes of most. 

Valiant says Pendula Swing is as much a social puzzle game as it is an adventure game, a story where your decisions and assumptions shape your interactions—namely convincing people to help you with your main goal: recovering your stolen legendary axe. 

Pendula Swing is expected to release in 2019. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.