Outsider Games has announced comic book-inspired narrative roguelite action game Tax-Force for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.
Tax-Force will be playable at the Indie Arena booth at Gamescom 2023, which runs from August 23 to 27 at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve been working on developing our magnum opus, Tax-Force, which combines the team’s love of ’90s comic books and our disdain for tax-avoiding billionaires,” said Outsider Games CEO Stephen Downey in a press release. “We have been working extremely hard on creating something very special with Tax-Force and we can’t wait to unveil the game on the Indie Arena booth at Gamescom.”
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
About
The planet is in debt.
In a final, desperate attempt to repay the debt on Farset 13’s Solar Shield, you are invited to lead Tax-Force—an elite department of heavily armed treasurers, granted emergency powers to hunt mutant billionaire tax evaders.
Fight your way through their defenses to negotiate repayments. Spend those resources to clear the debt directly, or reinvest in your city to grow the economy and organically pay the debt, before the planet burns to a crisp.
You have seven days.
Tax-Force is a narrative action roguelite that forces you to weigh up morality-based policies and economic strategy. Its themes deal with the economic and personal effects of government policy and corporate responsibility.
Key Features
- Melee Combat – A focus on tough, close-range combat, with hand-drawn, rogue-lite biomes that remix with every run.
- Mutant Powers – SPECIALS inspired by superhero mutant powers. Astral Projection! Metal Man! Optical Blasts!
- Strategy and Morality – Negotiate with targets to affect the economy, narrative and gameplay on each run. Every decision challenges players to choose between sci-fi metaphors for socialist vs capitalist economic policies.
- Rebuild – As you reinvest in society, the gameplay reacts. Price and potency of healing responds to public or private investment in healthcare. Weapons and criminal activity adjust as you increase defence spend, while new bridges and paths appear as you invest in infrastructure.
- Branching Narrative – Every decision leads to narrative consequences for the Farset13 citizens, as their stories are guided by your choices, and the city organically grows and changes around them.
- Timeloop – Death activates your time-travelling mutant power, sending you back to Day 1, armed with knowledge of your enemies and the consequences of your actions.
- Stunning Visuals – Gorgeous, hand-drawn comic book art style inspired by Jim Lee and 90’s X-men comics.
Watch the announcement teaser trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.
