by Keith Robinson
Arlo Cross is an odd-job man looking for work, and he quickly accepts a game maker's offer to try out a new Virtual Reality experience. Wearing the headset for forty-five minutes will seem like a few days in the game. The game experience is immersive. Everything is so realistic that Arlo can't believe it's computer generated. A medieval village, amazingly human NPCs, and a simple quest to reach the top of a cliff and travel to a place called Midway and then onward to Pinnacle, where he will make a choice to save the good people. But save them from what? It turns out that the real threat in this place is the presence of other Players. They've already completed the level and are sticking around in Free Play to cause havoc with the locals. "It's just a bit of harmless fun," they say. "NPCs aren't real." They sure seem real to Arlo. He meets Emery almost immediately, and she tags along to help him on his quest. And then, for some unfathomable reason, he falls for her... and his objective to save the good people suddenly takes on new meaning as he fights to protect them -- and especially her -- from the vicious gang of Players. A non-crunchy gameplay fantasy with a Westworld vibe.
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