In its very first teaser trailer, it was hard to tell exactly what Disintegration was about. Showcasing a shiny levitating vehicle, my mind immediately jumped to pod-racing, and I assumed the game would be a fairly light-hearted shooter with some cool technology.
Yet after the announcement trailer shown earlier this week, I think it’s safe to say Disintegration isn’t fun and games. While the multiplayer looks like it’ll remain colourful and irreverent, Disintegration’s set in a decidedly dark sci-fi universe: and there are some intriguing themes underpinning the game’s narrative setting. If you thought Cyberpunk 2077 was the only major title touching on transhumanism next year, do I have news for you.
At this year’s Gamescom, I got the chance to go hands-on with Disintegration’s multiplayer mode, learn a bit about the story, and also ask V1 president and game director Marcus Lehto (of Halo fame) some questions about the sci-fi world of Disintegration. Which, according to Lehto, could go way beyond just this one title.
Firstly, what’s going on with the story here? Who are we angry with? Why does everyone look like Cayde?
If you want to understand Disintegration’s setting, simply close your eyes and think of a future where overpopulation, disease, and a global pandemic nearly wipe out humanity. Maybe it doesn’t take much imagining.
In the bleak future presented by Disintegration, humans have bought themselves some bonus survival time by “integrating” themselves into robot bodies: basically, transplanting their brains. This was intended as a stop-gap measure to allow humans to return to their organic forms, but unfortunately some had other ideas. Those ideas being that living as a powerful machine is far better than withering away in a human body, and that integration is the true evolutionary end-point for humanity. Known as the Rayonne, the group splintered off and started messing with the process of integration, discovering it’s also possible to remove peoples’ sense of self and effectively turn them into hive-mind machines. This eventually provoked a global war between the Rayonne and just about everyone else: with the Rayonne forcing organic humans to integrate, and then wiping out any integrated people who resisted.