“Part Norman Rockwell nostalgia, part ‘Edward Scissorhands‘ on steroids, The American Dream is the work of Australian indie developers Samurai Punk,” cnet.com reports. “After working on an early split-screen multiplayer shooter, the Samurai Punk team decided to take the first-person shooter concept to its logical conclusion and create a VR world where guns aren’t just for bad guys, they’re for everyday life.” How does that work? Like this:
“Imagine the guy from Call of Duty, and the only way that he can interact with his world is through a gun,” Tang said. “How would he live his regular life? What happens when he goes home?
“We crafted this whole bizarre 1950s, Epcot Center, World of Tomorrow-style theme park, where gun companies are trying to teach the common man how they’re going to use guns to enrich their everyday life.”
That means clearing rubbish from the roads using guns, eating from a gun, driving a car with gun hands. The team even went down the rabbit hole of asking, How would you go to the toilet?
Yes, well, I’m still not sure if The American Dream is a logical follow-on to, say, Call of Duty. Nor am I — or anyone else — sure if this gun-hand gun game is trying to pillory the American gun culture, celebrate it (in its own special way) or both.
As YouTube commentator MadDemon64 observes, “I know this game is trying to give a message about something, but I don’t know what it is.” Skyrilla is equally perplexed: “Not sure if liberal gun outlawing bullshit or satirical take on gun lovers by gun lovers.” cnet.com’s got no doubts about where the game fits in the political “debate” about gun rights:
And it’s certainly thumbing its nose at global gun culture.
As Tang said, “There’s all these conversations about gun control, but most of our time in games is spent shooting things. Something’s not quite right there.” . . .
“I think [Americans] like the irony of it.”
Bottom line: file American Dream under “have my cake and eat it too” for a politically correct game designer who’s not averse to banking big bucks. Still, could be fun.