South Korean studio, NCSoft is known for the Guild Wars games in the MMORPG realm has announced a new interactive movie game’ titled Project M – not to be confused with the Super Smash Bros. Brawl fan mod – which is being built in Unreal Engine, the upcoming title will release on unspecified console platforms sometime in 2023, according to a press release.
The currently in-development project promises a “cinematic production” with a focus on realistic visuals and choices that matter. To get a better idea of what Project M is going for, NCSoft has released a two and half minute trailer that shows off the developer’s vision. The story of the game focuses on a husband looking to get revenge on the murderer of his wife in a multitude of scenarios which cuts in and out of the game’s presentation in action scenes and the actors in the scene acting it out in mo-cap alongside 3D scanned environments.
The Asian country setting of Project M makes it feel more like a more cinematic and realistic version of the Yakuza alongside the main focus of player choice in Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn and The Quarry. Overall, the game feels it has a much more understated darker tone with the action that the trailer presents. A player’s choice for decisions, dialogue, and precision-based actions is more prevalent in the game, NCSoft states that “player choice and control can influence the story and the ending of the game.”
The first look at the game is part of a bigger initiative at NCSoft to share transparency on development progress with more footage expected in the near future through “trailer videos, interviews, novels, and webtoons.” While platforms are not stated, the note on the game being built in Unreal Engine 5 hints that Project M might be playable only on new generation hardware like PS5 and Xbox Series X|S but that remains to be seen at this point.
