Hope in the City starts like any typical high school drama, only this one is set in China and doesn’t feature any jocks, but the usual archetypes exist. Cue Hope, our smart, witty and perhaps cynical protagonist. Arguably an inbetweener, her mum is an art teacher at the school, and her dad is a doctor. Hope seems to integrate well within the school; mixing between the cool folk and outsiders. It’s all very… normal.
Before heading straight home from school, she checks in with her bestie, then grabs some bubble tea, as not keen to be around her parents, as they’ve been arguing a lot lately. That proves to be the catalyst for the story as when Hope gets home, the place is trashed and her parents aren’t anywhere to be seen. After some amateur sleuthing, she heads outside only to spot the aftermath of an apparent car accident, which somehow connects to how her mother and a shady character she was supposed to meet in an alley…
Hope in the City is a really nice-looking game with an intriguing ambience. Though completely different settings, it gave off an air of Crowns & Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit somehow with it’s point and click mechanics that also make it interchangeable with a controller – should you play this on a console in the future. Where this slightly differs from most, outside of the standard inventory options, is the thought process.
Quite literal, Hope will have an opinion and ask others what they think, equally sharing her own thoughts. Selecting through the thoughts, which masquerade as clues, Hope can create an insight that opens up further dialogue and options. On top of that, an insight gets to evolve better than any sort of Pokémon, as insights can then become breakthroughs, thus leading through to the next areas – be it local scenes where you can walk around interiors or on the street. That makes it sound quite large in scope, but note that these thoughts are based on a playtest.
As it currently stands, Hope in the City is an intriguing narrative. Seemingly a teenage angst tale of popularity and schoolwork, what we dabble into is a detective caper that really does draw you in in such a short time. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes once a release date is announced. For the time being, I encourage you to give this a quick look-see while there’s a playable demo on Steam.
