Amen. It's an okay game, however it does need some improvements. I am afraid my suggestions might somehow miss the point of the game, but I think they should be said.
I strongly disagree with the political message of Police Brutality...and the reason why it was made in the first place. That doesn't actually matter however, and I refuse to post in the offical topic based on Police Brutality because I do not want to talk about the 'underlying message'. I subscribe to the theory that games are supposed to be fun, and then we throw in the political ideology later on. This game has passed the Fun Test, altough its replayablity value is somewhat limited. I also like the gimmick they had of using 'nonviolence' in order to defeat your foes. It's pretty unique.
But it is not really 'nonviolence' much as it is 'civil disobiedence', breaking the law in order to try and make a point. I also don't think it's rather 'realistic' either, and I doubt one should use this to actually plan a reaction to such a thing. However, as I say before, it's fun. Fun. I'm not going to go and debate the political ideology of Mercenaries, and how it supports and defends Private Military Contractors, and how it glorifies the use of bombs to kill innocent North Korean troops, I just play Mercenaries because it's fun.
So, the game start off with the agent provocetuer screaming some stuff while the police tasers him and then drags him off. You then control a Leader of the new powerful non-violent movement that has the main goal of stopping the police from escorting the tasered guy out of the room. You do so by using the powerful weapon of Shouting. Shouting has the power of rallying the rest of the people in the room, turning them to your side, and then allowing them to block the police, so that they will not be able to take the Tasered Guy out of the area.
((One point against the game: We don't exactly know what the Leader is shouting, which, in retrospect, is a bit of a shame. It is what he says that matters, what he is able to do in order to rally the fellow speech goers to do something. You have to be careful, if you scream "STOP THE PIGGIES" for instance, you could very well see your words twisted to in fact do promote violence. At the same time, you have to choose your words carefully, to make sure that your shouts doesn't somehow cause the mob mentality from being silent victims to a crime to being loud victimizers, causing disturbances and rioting.
What? I'd find that fun. Making sure that the mob still remains nonviolent may help make the game more interesting, providing a new dynamic.))
You have to expand the yellow circle to make your shouts more effective, but there is no penatly towards expanding that yellow circle except that it takes a litle while longer for your heroic message to reach the ears of the people who are listening. If you convince enough people, they block the police. The police however can walk up to those people and get them to stop blocking the police, but you also have the power of converting new 'green' agents into Leaders too, causing them to shout and continue to rally the troops. The Police Officer walks away after convicing Tom to stop blocking closing hands when suddenly, Tom begin to close hands thanks to a guy who is continuing to shout.
The main thing that strikes me the most is how...well-behaved...the police are. The Police only goes after Leaders, and in a rather lesuirely fashion. No "green" agents who are busy blocking the exit are targeted at all. It also doesn't seem to bode well for the agenda of the game that the Police Officers are willing to use 2, yes, 2 Police Officers, to slowly carry the Tasered guy rather than dragging the guy out. I understand the game's focus was responding to Police Brutality, but the police, well, seem well-behaved. I couldn't sustain any real sort of rage that you should have against real Police Brutality.
Eventually, the Police Offiers spilt apart, or the Police Officers has tasered more men than they can carry, so the Green people win the game. And all I am stating is, "That's it? The Police won't use their guns to stop the Leaders? They won't actually kill anyone? At least they should call in for reinforcements, or something to that effect." And I can't help but wonder the results of me playing...made be queasy. Thanks to my action in protesting the illegal tasering of a speaker, more men has been tasered. If those men died due to the tasers, it is not just the fault of the police...but also my fault.
I think the mechanics may be biased in favor of the Protesters, but I'd still be interested in playing as the Police regardless. The Police are the ones pulling this off, after all, so knowing how the Police would be able to react to such an escalating situation of nonviolent action is also good as well, if only to see it from their prespective...and to find flaws in the Nonviolent strategy, so that they can be fixed. While it would greatly make the game more interesting and fun, turning it into a Wolf versus Sheep style game, I doubt the developer will add in such a mode.
I also wonder of having more difficulty settings (that can modify the amount of police int he area), as well as different arenas which can add in replayablity mode. New maps can easily provide new challenges that can either give the Protesters or the Police a great advantage.
That's about it, really. I recommend anyone who has read this long wall-of-text download it, because the mechanic is interesting enough, and it should be used in other games. But wheter you should agree with the politics of the game or not, I don't really care that much.
