There can as many different kinds of power fantasies as there are people. Sometimes it’s nice to endlessly power up spells while walking through waves of monsters, other times it’s good to be a space marine. You can jump on ambulatory mushrooms and turtles, win at sportsball, live the idyllic life on the farm, become a rock god with plastic instruments or light sabers, or construct huge monuments out of cubes. Anything goes, and in Common’hood the dream is about creating a functioning community from those who can no longer access the regular world. A young woman has lost everything except for what she could stuff into her pickup truck, thanks to her parents' medical bills, and ends up at an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere. With nothing better to do she starts sprucing the place up, clearing debris and working with the other homeless people to make the place maybe a little nicer than it was before. One thing leads to another and soon the factory is a small self-sustaining community, with its members contributing towards the food and maintenance needs of a slowly-growing alternative to life in the capitalist world.
Common’hood is a very different kind of first-person adventure, about taking what you’re able to find and putting it towards the best use. That can be anything from the detritus of a ruined factory to the people who live there, although for the latter “resource” you’ll need to take into account who they are and what makes them happy. With a little work and a lot of research and customization the factory can become the hub of less stressful world, filled with residents working together for the communal good in a space you’ve designed. You can’t change the world in Common’hood but you can make a small part of it much better.
The demo for Common’hood has been out for a few months now and the full game is just about ready to go live on November 10. Give a watch to the release date trailer below and maybe check outthe Steam demotoo, because sometimes the power fantasy is to create a functioning world away from the endless screaming noise and anger of the current one.
