Aerannis is an ambitious new Kickstarter, with a potentially controversial storyline and interesting design scenario that simply warrants your attention, if not your interest.
In essence, it is a stealth action game, but in side scrolling 2D instead of full 3D. You are an assassin undertaking open ended missions, with some enemies focusing on stealth, others on direct action, and some a combination of both. Some targets will be huge boss battles.
The world itself is open ended, so that you can explore freely. The environment is filled with detail, as you can find any number apartment complexes, offices, parks, and warehouses. Missions are similarly nonlinear, with some necessitating you take one in the middle of working on another.
The playable character, Ceyda, has a gun, and can hide and sneak, but she can do more. She can make noise to distract enemies, possibly to lure them to traps you have set up. You can grab civilians or enemies and use them as human shields. They can also be used to coerce guards to open doors.
The game scenario places you in a dystopic version of Plovdiv, a city in Bulgaria. You are a Turk, trans woman, and assassin, Ceyda Farhi. In a world where those in power employ assassinations without impunity to control society, Ceyda discovers a far reaching conspiracy to control humanity by an unknown force, which you seek to investigate and end.
The story has received more attention than you would expect in an action game of this class. Ceyda is a trans woman in an all-woman society, and the game draws attention to the discrimination trans women receive from other women. Given these circumstances, Ceyda finds herself doubting if she even wants to help save this society that has rejected her.
In many ways, this is an ambitious project, even if it doesn’t have the budget of a AAA game. Ambition isn’t just manifested in scale, but in aspirations, and pushing the envelope, and Aerannis certainly does all of this in spades. You can watch the official Aerannis Kickstarter pitch below, vote for it on Steam Greenlight here, and fund it here.
