Solve virtual crimes in cyberpunk RPG Gamedec next year

Gamedec is a cyberpunk detective RPG that imagines a very grim future for virtual reality, where kids are enslaved and forced to work in free-to-play games, and virtual beefs become real-world murders daily. As a private investigator, you'll solve these cyberspace crimes.

Anshar Studios says it's a judgement-free adaptable game where a happy ending is a matter of perspective. As you might expect from an investigative RPG, you'll be sparring verbally as well as with weapons of the 22nd century.

A lot of adventure games and RPGs let you don a deerstalker and play detective, but often they end up just throwing arbitrary, discrete puzzles in your way instead of letting you unravel the greater mystery yourself. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments got it right, making you actually connect the dots and come to your own conclusions, so hopefully we'll see something similar here. It definitely seems to be leaning that way.

Like Cyberpunk 2077, Gamedec draws on tabletop RPGs for inspiration, letting you attack problems from lots of different angles. Otherwise it seems pretty different from CD Projekt Red's offering, however, and maybe a bit less gung-ho. It's also set in Warsaw, Poland rather than the US.

Cyberpunk games seem to be one of the few places where the setting doesn't default to the US. Sure, we still visit the US a lot, but in recent years we've also had the likes of Dreamfall Chapters, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Shadowrun: Dragonfall, all in Europe.

We'll get more details about Gamedec next month at Gamescom, and it's due out next year.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.