Ithaca: a scintillating eco-thriller RPG that aims to confront our violent moment

The latest game from ‘reality-inspired’ studio the Pixel Hunt sees you transporting precious human cargo – and deciding what to do with it Ithaca has one hell of an opening: Penelope, a disillusioned environmental lawyer, stops her car at a petrol station.

But upon returning, she discovers something shocking: the unconscious body of an oil company CEO in her boot, his hands hog-tied together, dangling limply towards the vehicle’s number plate.

This tantalising eco-thriller setup is a long way off the typical knights-and-castles fantasy fare of most role-playing games, more How To Blow Up a Pipeline than Dragon Quest .

But road-trip RPG Ithaca arrives via refreshingly original developer the Pixel Hunt, a French outfit that specialises in what it calls “reality-inspired” games.

The studio has made a number of arresting works in recent years.

One was about a Syrian refugee couple making a perilous migrant journey across Europe; another tackled the life-shattering effects of child sexual abuse.

The climate crisis was always in the back of Pixel Hunt founder and Ithaca writer Florent Maurin’s mind.

After all, he says, it is the uber problem of our day, the problem that touches all others.

It was just a case of when, and, more importantly: “What do we say about it?” Continue reading...