There are a number of layers. Firstly, there is the real ancient Egyptian civilization. Secondly, there is the game’s ’20s setting, which taps into Egyptomania and the fetishization and trends accompanying it. Thirdly, there’s the contemporary world of Campo Santo and the playerbase, where very different conversations about cultural destruction, repatriation, and appropriation take place.
So where is Campo Santo pitching its game tonally? “A lot of the way we work as a group and a lot of the way I’ve always worked as a writer is, we have modern, pretty lefty feelings about shit,” says Vanaman. “But I don’t think we have declarative opinions about the way things should be. This game is not a political statement about representation or a political statement about appropriation of the past or whatever.” He adds, “The act of making the game for us helps solidify or challenge feelings we have held before we had to make the game.” There’s further insight into Zora and Rashida’s relationship: “Zora and Rashida got famous seven years before they make the game, making a movie we would
now watch in film school and go that’s kind of fucked up.”There are lots of pretty pictures accompanying the article, if you like that sort of thing. Also, it sounds like the game mechanic may owe just a little to Beyond Good and Evil, though it's not namechecked.
Source: PC Gamer (USA)
