Outside Conquest IV - Rome Takers

The Romans are approaching fast, soldier! No time for more than basic training, take your gun and go! - Opening quote of the game

The Outside Conquest license has always been controversial, with the previous opuses going through troubles and even court in some dimensions for reenacting traumatic conflicts. But with the last episode, they crossed the line, threatening their editors, Skyless Games, to go bankrupt after the backlash.

Synopsis

The story takes place in the middle of the campaign of Rome, the war to subdue Tevilar IV-5, the impossible world. Due to technology not working properly in the abnormal dimension, only antique rifles and foot soldiers were able to enforce the Dominium's will against the native who took refuge in Rome. The player is an I.D.E.A. soldier going through the main events of the war until its rewritten resolution. Where in reality a truce was signed between the Romans and the I.D.E.A. after a stalemate and a heavy death toll, the game concludes with an epic battle which ends with the taking of the enemy's headquarters in the Coliseum.

Gameplay

The game is an immersive shooter with the same logic as the previous ones, using a reworked engine to adapt to the whole new set of mechanics. The campaign is playable alone or in cooperation up to 6 players, and there is an extensive multiplayer mode, with maps recreating the most famous battlefields and the opportunity to play as the roman rebels. To stay true to the essence of the impossible world, many tweaks were added to the gameplay, such as gravity fields that allow for aerial combats or non-euclidian environments. Despite the license's reputation to give the choice between hundreds of weapons, they took the risk of limiting the possibilities to the rifles and guns really used during the conflict, such as the M1 Garand rifle and Browning P35 pistol.

Controverse

If a little scandal was always a boost to sales, there were some boundaries unsafe to cross. After two centuries of peace save for some fringe dimensions, the Dominium had lost the taste of blood. It found it again during the campaign of Rome, where over a million soldiers from all over the dimensions died at the hands of a world defying their understanding. A lot of people have lost a brother or a sister and don't even want the conflict to be mentioned.

Outside Conquest, before a provocative license, became known as disrespectful to the dead and surfing on hackneyed patterns. Playing war and blindly killing enemies just isn't as popular as it used to be. The game sold poorly and suffered harsh judgments, especially on dimensions where it was condemned to pay a fee to the families of the conflict's victims. After a huge investment to rework the engine and develop groundbreaking mechanics, the losses jeopardized the company and the studio was closed.

The license was discontinued shortly after, and most shooting games canceled their sequels after this event. Though some accuse the video game industry to become too smooth and flat, others argue it just evolved to rely less on primary instincts and barbaric clichés.