Should this be a video game? This may be what indie developers ask themselves when crafting their next title, as indie games have explored some of the more ‘busy work’ tasks in recent memory, like checking passports in Papers, Please!, and reorganizing bookshelves and other oddities in A Little to the Left. So, when given the opportunity to explore the AmigoOS in Ancient Machines’ debut title, VICE Undercover, I was eager to take a look behind the curtain. VICE Undercover immerses the player in a crime drama as the Undercover Agent, Vida, and introduces a novel approach to thinking and playing the game.
VICE Undercover takes place in 1980s Miami, and you are Vida, an undercover detective in the Electronic Crime Unit, who has tracked down the cartel’s most notorious hacking crew and infiltrated their supercomputer. For one hour a day, Vida infiltrates the office of a high-ranking cartel member codenamed ‘El Mago,’ a high-ranking hacker who works for a massive criminal enterprise.... Read more