CONSORTIUM is an interactive narrative game set aboard the Zenlil, a command vessel in 2042. Its murder-mystery premise plays out in an isolated shipboard setting, while the framing begins in the “real world”: a fictional satellite opens a rift through which people travel to an alternate dimension. The first installment of a planned trilogy contains a complete story arc aboard the vessel.
Players investigate an onboard murder while confronting tensions with a group of mercenaries. The crew is central to the experience: conversations are fully voiced, and choices affect how characters think about the player. It is also possible to avoid conversation entirely. The game supports diplomacy as well as deadly or non-lethal force, letting players approach conflict in different ways as the investigation unfolds.
The Zenlil is a highly interactive environment to explore, with non-scripted decompression events among its hazards. An energy-based inventory system accompanies science-fiction weapons, gadgets and armor. CONSORTIUM adapts its story to player actions, and subsequent playthroughs offer opportunities to make different decisions and encounter new outcomes. Its blend of investigation, diplomacy and consequential choices gives the enclosed ship setting the feel of a self-contained episode within a larger science-fiction story.
