Harlow's Universe

A space-faring retro-futuristic cyberpunk RPG

Set hundreds of years in an alternate future governed and shaped by secret motives of manipulative AGI's seeing humans as nothing more than pets, the titular character Kriss Harlow, is an unlikely and unwilling hero pulled into a web of deadly conspiracies, on a mission to prevent a plot of mass genocide.

These are the broad strokes of Harlow's plot, an independent open-world RPG project currently being developed in Unreal Engine 5, featuring fully fleshed out lore, interconnecting multiple characters and stories, across multiple locations within our Solar System.

Gameplay

Harlow is a non-linear, story driven third-person open-world RPG with a strong emphasis on exploration and mystery solving, within a retro-futuristic, 1980s/1990s aesthetic.

Regardless of the player's familiarity with the many interpretations of the cyberpunk universe since William Gibson's Neuromancer, Harlow's universe is filled with opportunities to explore a world that is harsh, bleak, terrifying, and simultaneously fascinating and mesmerizing.

By this token, exploration and discovery are huge game play components, as each map of this universe is designed to be not only physically large, but also detailed in aesthetic and lore significance, with careful and purposeful use of random procedural generation, only where it matters.

Harlow is not a combat-driven game, by any means. Instead it uses other elements to keep the player engaged, including horror and suspenseful elements, through the use of lighting and environments designed to push the player to question everything, including reality itself.

With that said, Harlow does support combat and weapon management, with a reasonably extensive arsenal that fits the scope of the character's missions, much like any other inventory tool at Harlow's disposal.

Within the context of a cyberpunk game, Harlow's mechanics include hacking and tampering with devices and computer systems in a variety of methods, sometimes remotely, using computer terminals or over-the-air bio-implants, and sometimes by manually manipulating machines directly. This of course includes every electronic device Harlow comes across, with most devices normally inaccessible unless hacked first.

Much like any other activity that requires skill and precision to accomplish, the ability to hack a system depends on a match between the level gained by the player, and the level of encryption of the target device.

For a more detailed overview of all game play features planned for the main release, check out the supporters tab. To keep an eye on the status of this project, updated information on the official date of release can be found on the schedule tab.