After seeing the open-world imm-sim No Law last month, I’m sure the developers were hoping that I was captivated by memories of missions you can tackle from stealth or in action, the sci-fi combat where you wield timed grenades and cyberpunk implants, or even the powerful kick you can use to open locked doors. But no, what I keep thinking about is the corner store where protagonist Gray Harker, a former soldier in a deadly war to overthrow the four corrupt mayors of Port Desire, stopped to pick up some batteries.
As the demo begins, creative directors Tor Frick and Arcade Berg guide me through the streets of Port Desire. It’s broad daylight and the sidewalks are populated with people who might have walked off the set of Cyberpunk 2077 – lots of tank tops, piercings, and cybernetic implants on display. Market stalls and street food vendors set up their stalls against the Mediterranean-style buildings lining the road. The peeling pastel paint and worn signage suggest this is a town that doesn’t receive much investment from its local council.
That said, we come across a scene that is both resolutely science fiction and contemporary. Two maintenance men wearing hard hats stood outside 4-Ever Open, a bodega-style corner store, repairing the power line leading to the building. Instead of reaching the junction box on a cherry picker, they fly a remote-controlled drone. It’s a touch of reality that immediately grounds the world of No Law.
This reality continues when Frick enters the corner store. It looks like the inside of a 7-Eleven. The walls are lined with shelves filled with boxes of gum, energy bars and lighters. There are these display racks with metal hooks, containing bags of branded chips that you never see in traditional supermarkets. And, in front of the store, behind its unbreakable protective glass is the merchant.
There is a reality in No Law stores. If I was a Port Desire resident I know that on days when it’s past midnight and there’s no Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut in the house and all the supermarkets are closed, I could go to the 4-Ever Open and they would have these £1 bars that they only sell at the counter of the local shops. Likewise, if I needed to be picked up on a lazy Saturday, I’m sure this is a store where I could buy crunchy tapas made up of deliciously strange flavors, textures and shapes. Or, if I ran out of milk and it was raining outside, I bet I could run to the 4-Ever Open and grab a pint bottle to tide me over until the weekend department store.
Obviously, this isn’t the first corner store to exist in a game, nor is Neon Giant the first developer to get the look just right. What I love about No Law stores, though, is that there’s an added touch of depth: Every item in the store can be taken off the shelves and used. As Harker walks through the shelves to pick up items, they all go into a basket with the total bill appearing on the right side of the screen. Added to this are the crips which will restore his health (like in real life), the energy bars which increase endurance, and then some batteries that the former military mercenary uses to recharge his Taser. Basket loaded, Harker can head to the front of the store to pay the balance or head out the door. However, leaving without paying will summon the police or, at least, leave a black mark on your reputation, meaning you won’t be able to return to the store in the future. Having already cut ties with a convenience store owner in the past, I would not wish this shame on anyone. Do you know what it’s like to come home after a night out and you can’t just pop into Singhsburys for a big bag of sturdy Hula Hoops? Terrible.
(Just to make sure, I didn’t steal from a convenience store. The guy at the counter said he was sure he went to school with my brother, I told him I didn’t grow up there, he didn’t believe me, he insisted, I gave up, it got freezing, I stopped going in out of awkwardness.)
There are other items in No Law’s corner shops that are useful to someone on a revenge mission to overthrow the city’s mayors. When you enter the store, a proximity sensor rings the door behind the counter. If you damage the sensor, you can combine it with items in your inventory to create new tools. Stick it on a grenade, for example, and you can make a proximity mine. Additionally, if you’re looking to rob a local store, disabling the proximity sensor will make it easier to enter the store without being noticed.
No Law’s stores are also integrated into the world’s systems more tightly than might first appear. They’ll open and close, for example, based on the game’s day/night cycle. And Frick showed me that if you break into the store after dark, you’ll be free to take whatever you want from the shelves. However, when he arrived, the store owner was still about to close for the night, so he must have gotten a little violent. Although this left Frick free to salvage what was on the shelves, with the store owner now dead, he would not open the next morning or any other day in the future.
Another approach, if you want to get a five-finger discount, would be to look up where the owner lives in Port Desire. All named characters have a fixed home somewhere in the city. If you find their apartment and break in, you may be able to find a key so you can visit them when it’s locked for the night.
We’ve been doing a lot of this sort of thing in the Elder Scrolls games for years – although there you didn’t have to visit a shopkeeper at home, you could just put a bucket on their head – but there’s a beautiful reality to No Law’s corner shops that I want to explore more. I fear that as soon as I am free to roam Port Desire, I will ignore the mission of vengeance against the town’s mayors and instead become a bodega menace, seeking any way to circumvent a store’s security.
And when I’m feeling particularly chaotic, I’ll do what Frick recommended and throw a grenade through the front door of a gun store. Apparently every item inside is a functional item and the stacks of ammo boxes will explode like a fireworks factory.
Travel and accommodation to Gamescom were provided by the conference organizers.
