Solace State

Solace State is a narrative game about Chloe Lee, a gifted hacker searching for her missing friend and mentor, Rebecka Limbaco, as a biotech crackdown grips the city of Abraxa. With a corporate-sponsored militia threatening lives, Chloe uses her relationships and activism to navigate unrest, protect the communities she cares about and work through her own challenges.

Story and relationships

You get to know a colorful, queer and fashionable cast while dealing with societal issues and political intrigue. Friendship can grow out of tragedy or efforts to make change. Romance may develop with Torrent Tam, Sueli de Moraes or Alden Aldridge, or you can keep a close relationship platonic.

Chloe’s hacking lets her take on another person’s identity and find encrypted data at the top of their thoughts. You use social hacking to examine power dynamics behind local and national divisions, build rapport with communities and exert moral influence on militarization. Your choices about relationships and activism shape human rights in the world, and may lead Chloe’s actions toward violent backlash or hope.

Characters

The game features 31 fully illustrated recurring characters, as well as background characters. Three characters are dateable:

• Chloe Lee: the chaotic hacker at the center of the story.
• Rebecka Limbaco: Chloe’s mentor and oldest friend.
• Torrent Tam: an Abraxan local and locational hacker.
• Sueli de Moraes: a community director for health services in Abraxa.
• Alden Aldridge: Chloe’s ex-lover, now working for a biotech conglomerate.
• Safore Hirawa-Sarkar: a superstar actor and producer, and Rebecka’s partner.
• Raylene Contreras Yang: a politician seeking influence in corridors of power.

Choices and presentation

The game has 38 endings shaped by your choices and their combinations. One playthrough takes over 8 hours, with more than 14 hours of content across all branches.

Hand-drawn characters are presented with expressive personalities and distinctive fashion. Abraxa’s 3D cityscapes resemble impressionist paintings, from weathered apartments to corporate skyscrapers; the camera also uses abstract visual hacks through buildings to reveal story information. The soundtrack, by Lex Metcalfe, combines moody electronica with acoustic instrumentals.