DiGRA D-A-CH Game Studies Watchlist #40
– 3 min read
The Game Studies Watchlist newsletter of games research association DiGRA GSA is published weekly on GamesMarkt, curated by Prof Dr Rudolf Inderst. This week with Hunger, the canceled Ubisoft civil war game and more.
Ahoi there, game studies operators!
Here in Neu-Ulm, it's getting late and I am almost ready for dinner. Yes, I am really ... HUNGRY! In his video essay "There's much more to this game than we thought... HUNGER", Riloe is talking about a very interesting game called HUNGER. This upcoming extraction-RPG is from the creators of Hell Let Loose. Set in an alternate 1815, Europe collapses under “the bacterium”, a plague that reanimates the fallen of Napoleonic wars. Civilization retreats to the walled “Château,” a layered hub of social classes, trade, and intrigue. Players venture from this refuge on deadly expeditions. I'd describe it as part Hunt: Showdown, part Dark Souls, and part Escape from Tarkov to scavenge, craft, and survive. But beneath the looting loop lies something richer: Hunger turns Enlightenment-era Europe into a baroque nightmare about class, power, and decay.
(https://youtu.be/9F0cB1C2eNk?si=a9vF7eOQsb6g93DT)
Riloe praises the game’s intentional design: every item, quest, and NPC serves the worldbuilding. Its slow, methodical pace hides a compulsive rhythm of mastery and risk. Progression through the Château’s literal social hierarchy becomes a metaphor for ambition and addiction. Still early-access, Hunger impresses the essayist with scope and atmosphere, though performance issues remain. Expect intricate dungeons, boss fights, and a lore-steeped plague world that transforms Enlightenment grandeur into gothic horror.
After watching his essay, I thought to myself, oh my, this is indeed rich territory for game studies. The game combines alternate history, social simulation, and survival mechanics in ways that directly engage questions of how games construct meaning through systems and space; set in this particular nasty apocalyptic version of Napoleonic Europe, the game comes across as a study of decay, in a scientific, moral, and social way. Rather than offering historical authenticity, HUNGER uses the familiar iconography of the period as a vehicle for speculation, effectively asking what happens when rationalism collapses under its own weight. I mean, just take a look at the castle itself! At the center of this design lies this strange Château, a multi-layered hub world where players literally ascend through social classes, from beggars and lepers to merchants and aristocrats. This vertical structure is more than a gameplay loop; it acts as a spatial metaphor for hierarchy, power, and moral compromise.
This would make an excellent coop experience on consoles ... but it seems like this will not happen any time soon.
Late to the party, but okay: Ubisoft reportedly cancelled an ambitious Assassin’s Creed project in mid-2024 that would have been set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, featuring a formerly enslaved Black protagonist who joins the Assassins to confront injustice and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. According to multiple current and former employees who spoke to Game File, company leadership in Paris halted development out of concern that the premise was “too political” for the current U.S. climate, especially after online backlash to Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Black samurai protagonist, Yasuke. The decision disappointed developers who believed in the project’s potential but saw its cancellation as a retreat from controversy rather than a creative or technical choice.
... I had a wonderful time yesterday evening playing Streets of Rage 2 on my Mega Sg (what a wonderful piece of technology). Just saying! What's your title for the upcoming weekend?
Cheers and stay healthy,
Rudolf
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