Many stealth games are somewhat of an illusion. Behind the rock throwing, sneaking and stealth assassinations there is essentially a puzzle game, designed to have a few specific solutions. This is where Sir, you are being Hunted differs, the procedural nature of the game gives you a number of situations without an obvious solution. A patrol of 4 guards doesn't necessarily have a blind spot, so completing the game without ever being seen becomes near impossible. This might frustrate some die-hard stealth fans for obvious reasons, but it feels different and somewhat realistic.
The premise is as so, you're stuck on an island with the task of retrieving 17 MacGuffins from 5 different islands. You must take the 17 items to the standing-stones in the center island to repair the "device". You really don't know anything else except you're being hunted by angry English robots.
The English robots match the theme of the environment; the fens, countryside, industrial areas, castles and forests that you stroll through will be familiar to anyone who lives in or has visited the UK. This may not sound exciting in words, but it really is, no other video-game has done anything in this setting. It's dank, dreary, usually raining and very atmospheric coupled with the ambient music. The industrial area in particular has a certain uniqueness about it, the landscape is littered with abandoned towns, villages, churches, factories and ruins. Something very awful happened in this place, and it's never clear exactly what that may have been. The robots speak a number of stereotypical English phrases even talking about their wives. It's as if the personality of the once residents of these islands has been transferred into each robot.
Unfortunately the awful low resolution textures and procedural generation take you out of the game every so often, certain placements don't make sense with roads leading nowhere, walls connected in strange ways and docks located in very small lakes. However this wasn't a large problem for me considering the world is supposed to be in a state of extreme entropy and you don't have much time to focus on the small details anyway. Why don't you have much time? When the game says you're being hunted it doesn't mean it lightly. With sprawling robots which are around every corner don't give you much rest-bite, you're constantly looking behind your back.
This is the one thing that Sir, You Are Being Hunted absolutely nails, the feeling of being on the run. You will relish moments of silence when you can't hear the sinister "bleep-bloop" of the tweed, pipe and top-hat geared robots. Another stand-out aspect is the enemy design. The basic robots can be seen from far away by their glowing red eyes, and even when they aren't in sight each enemy makes a distinct sound. This is clever because you can often get a good idea of how many robots you're facing without even seeing them. The AI is far from intelligent but I wouldn't call it stupid. Even when it does make the odd silly decision, you aren't taken out of the experience like many other stealth games because they're robots. Maybe that's a cheap excuse, but it works. As the game continues more creative enemies are added to the mix, some which create such weird and terrifying sounds you'll never want to go near them. Robots also have a tendency to shoot pheasants and rabbits for their own entertainment and at my scared confusion, wondering what they were shooting at. This creates an unexpected side-effect, making Sir, You Are Being Hunted quite a scary game at times. Avoiding the outlandish looking robots makes it all the more exciting and horrifying when you accidentally bump into them.
The gameplay consists of finding the 17 MacGuffins by following blue will-o'-the-wisps to each location. This works quite nicely as they don't give you a direct way to the MacGuffin, often taking you a longer way around. However I think there are too many will-o'-the-wisps on the islands at a time, reducing your compulsion to explore. Along the way you will find places to loot such as houses, barrels and sheds. To the dismay of many fans it was announced early in the game's development that you won't be able to go inside houses. While this makes sense for a number of technical and economic reasons, it's an obvious shame. Buildings would add a lot to the game in terms of hiding and exploration. Towns are still interesting though, providing a lot of loot and many places to hide. Each town also has a suitably randomized English name that will probably make you chuckle.
The loot consists of random useless objects (of which there are far too many), food, drink, tools, traps, weapons (both melee and ranged) and letters (which provide a bit of context). There is a vitality meter also which you have to keep topped up by consuming food and drink. If you let it drain to 0 your health will start to deplete, in addition to this the lower your vitality is the less quickly your health regenerates. This is never anything to worry about though, in my first playthrough it never went below 20. You can also cook pheasants, rabbits and raw meat on a fire with the disadvantage of the fire attracting robots. But this never becomes a necessity because there is simply enough food that you can eat uncooked.
I did find myself lacking in bandages a few times though. Some of my most tense experiences actually came from those moments when I had no bandages left. I was a sitting duck, getting seen was much more of a consequence, I couldn't risk getting shot, even once. Interestingly enough there is also quite a big chance that robots drop bandages. Giving me a few interesting situations where I risked my bullets for the chance to get a bandage. Despite those moments however there were still far too many bandages, and far too much food for these systems to be of much of an impact. I am happy to role-play a little but some players might resort to charging around the landscape chugging whiskey and eating biscuits, using the health regeneration to tank gunfire.
That said, there is still a great deal of intensity when it comes to fighting robots. Unlike food, bullets are very rare, weapons have lengthy reload times and shooting accurately isn't easy. There was one memorable point where I managed to take out two robots with a hatchet without taking any damage, I had a gun but I wanted to save the bullets. Considering you can't save whenever you want the stakes of dying are quite large too. You can only save at the standing stones where you drop off the MacGuffins and the boats which you use to travel to the different islands. There is a big risk reward element to this system. Either I can grab a MacGuffin and head straight back to a boat to save, or I can save time and head around the island and try to get as many MacGuffins at once. Even though death is usually the players fault your patience is still tested whenever you die, as you are required to do the same thing all over again. Throughout I couldn't help thinking a different save system would work better.
When you come across a MacGuffin there are a few options to get your grubby hands on it. You can throw a bottle to distract the robots near-by, mess it up however and those robots will run to you rather than where it smashed. Alarm clocks are the most effective, hide it somewhere, set the timer and wait for it to go off. Once the guards find it they'll realize it's a trick but usually that gives you enough time. You could also wait for the opportune moment to grab the MacGuffin without any distraction. This is nearly impossible if there are more than two guards though. If you have the ammo to spare you could wait for a good time to take the robots out quick and effectively. All of these situations are fun if you have the patience. There is nothing more satisfying than perfectly executing your plan, or dealing with an unexpected situation effectively. If you don't have the patience you can tank the bullets, grab the MacGuffin and deal with the consequences by eating more food and using a bandage. This can be a big problem, and a number of players will resort to this when their patience wears thin.
Before you do grab that MacGuffin you'll need to do some organizing in your inventory, Tetris style. I'm not always sure what to think of this inventory system but it works well in this instance. With robots around every corner you rarely get a chance to properly organize yourself. Often you will find some good loot only to panic when you realize you don't have the space. A few times I completely abandoned a good item because I didn't have the time to fit it in my backpack while a robot was about to discover me.
All-in-all I've mentioned many good and bad aspects, but if one thing puts you off it's going to be the main objective. For some it's a big deal, and I don't blame them. Who really wants to collect object and object and bring them back to the same location, many times over. It gameifies an otherwise very atmospheric and absorbing world. I don't like to do backseat designing as it largely achieves nothing, but maybe just leaving the player in the world with no obvious objective may have been a better thing to do or reducing the total amount of MacGuffins. It's a huge shame, Sir, You Are Being Hunted is so very close to greatness, but this is something you are repeatedly reminded of.
While Sir, You Are Being Hunted does have some large flaws it has given me some hugely unique experiences of which I can't compare to anything else I've played. It might be relevant to mention I'm English so I found the setting and humour to be very endearing, people who aren't English or live in the UK might not find the same. It definitely isn't for everyone and my enjoyment wavered throughout the game, but at it's best the game has some unforgettable absolutely thrilling moments.
Looking to the future there is going to be a multiplayer mode in sometime to come, perhaps the increased number of players will split the resources nicely, possibly solving some of the problems? It's hard to say, but either way I hope my thoughts have given you a good idea of whether this game is for you or not.
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