Game overview
Steam Rating: 89% very positive
“If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary, The Black Watchmen is an excellent introduction to alternate reality games, successfully merging an engaging fictional world with real-world activities and challenging puzzles that are best solved collaboratively with other players.” 4.5/5
– Adventure Gamers
“The puzzles are clever, the storyline is engaging, and the eerie background music and creepy videos help set the stage for sinister happenings.” 5/5
– Gameinformer
“It gains a fantastic sense of a world, a real mystery to sink into, a web of secrets on the web, a sense of being part of something bigger.” Positive
– Rock, Paper, Shotgun
“This game is unlike any other game you have ever played on steam. The developer really gave a lot of love and care making this game.”
– User Blood_Demon / Steam
“A truly fantastic game, worth every penny”
– User Rdaddy / Steam
“One of a kind. What a fantastic game.”
– User Nefillium / Steam
“Simply one of the best Alternate Reality Games on the market, with an active team of people that come together and manage to solve nearly impossible missions set by the Black Watchmen dev team.”
– User Phoenix / Steam
“One of the best games I’ve played in my ♥♥♥♥ing life.”
– User HahaYes / Steam
“Amazing Game. The best ARG out there.”
– User Kyokabe / Steam
“Exceeds expectations…”
– User Humm.us / Steam
“Surprisingly immersive and freaking difficult. This game is great.”
– User MugBergerFries / Steam
“Quite possibly one of the most unique experiences available on Steam today.”
– User Futuramic / Steam
“THIS.PUZZLE.IS.AWESOME.”
– User General Berkowski / Steam
“I cannot recommend this game enough, the depth of the story is superb and it really makes you feel like you are a part of it.”
– User Agent-Drukar / Steam
“I’ve dreamed for a puzzle like this for my entire life.”
– User The Great Muldavio / Steam
“Best puzzle game ever!!!”
– User Nephaleus / Steam
“12/10 Игра стоит того что бы поиграть в неё.”
– User Z / Steam
“This game is so freaking awesome !”
– User Mile.Lyla / Steam
“This is the ARG I’ve been waiting for years.”
– User Radial / Steam
Welcome to our universe!
In this first ever Persistent Alternate Reality Game, you join the ranks of The Black Watchmen, a paramilitary group dedicated to protecting the public from dangerous phenomena beyond human understanding: ritualistic murders, occult secret societies, and the paranormal, to name but a few.
History
For 10 years, Alice & Smith has been creating some of the most successful ARG on the market. The agency started in 2007 with a six-year-long Lovecraftian ARG called Behind the Yellow Curtain. It later launched two large-scale ARG as part of the marketing rollout of the game The Secret Word in 2012. Following the positive reception of these ARG, the company successfully funded on Kickstarter the concept of a Persistent Alternate Reality Game: an ARG that would ever evolve and let player join in at any time and play at their own pace.
With The Black Watchmen, Alice & Smith brings ARGs back to the gaming world instead of limited marketing events with the last play-focused experience going back to 2001 with EA’s Majestic ARG.
The Black Watchmen
As an agent of The Black Watchmen, you are tasked with the investigation of suspicious activities and uncommon phenomena that often delve into occult and ritualistic practices. You will have to track down and dismantle organizations that operate unethical human experimentations and develop dangerous scientific trials that could affect the very fabric of our universe.
As a global organization, The Black Watchmen offer a wide range of skills and services for covert missions anywhere in the world, on behalf of any group, corporation or government that can afford them. Often called in as a last resort, The Black Watchmen pride themselves on their discretion, strength, and efficiency.
Gameplay
Players put their skills to the test as agents of The Black Watchmen. From their first in-game mission briefing, they start a journey of exploration that will bring them to investigate a myriad of fake websites and interact with NPCs hidden online via chatbots, emails, and other social medias. Using logic, research, cipher, and their knowledge, alone or with a group, players will uncover an extensive storyline hidden behind dozens of puzzles and riddles.
Including the 3 DLC’s, The Black Watchmen holds more than 50 hours of gameplay.
Live Events
During live events and active seasons, players are able to join force to solve global collective missions that involve both online investigation and real life spy experience: scavenger hunt, undercover mission, dead drop, etc. As a real-time experience, you also have an impact on the storyline: for the last 2 years, your actions and the resulting successes or failures have shaped the universe of The Black Watchmen. You can read further about it in The Almanac, an 84 pages account of the last 17 live events across the world.
The Black Watchmen Extended Universe
The Black Watchmen universe is a rich and complex ensemble that also include other games with unique playstyles and a comic book.
Santiak Chronicle — A graphic novel of an actual live event that took place during the game beta.
Ahnayro: The Dream World — The mythical exploration of the Dream World and the Rosenberg Clinic origins.
NITE Team 4 — The cyber warfare and hacking unit of The Black Watchmen
Buy the game and DLCs
Season 1 | Season 2: Enduring Conflict | DLC: Mother Russia | DLC: Alone in the Dark Web
