Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Sir, You Are Being Refunded

In many ways, this game feels like an indie precursor to both immersive stealth games and extraction shooters. I'm not saying it directly inspired games like Dishonored or Arc Raiders, but you can clearly see the ambition of this small project, even more than ten years later. When I was younger and played it for the first time, I found it genuinely intimidating. Not because it was a horror game, but because of what I assumed the experience would be. You're stranded on an island full of enemies, with very limited means of defending yourself, forced to rely on whatever tools you can find to survive. On top of that, you can't save every few minutes. Back then, I never managed to finish it. Coming back to it now, I was surprised by how short, simple, and approachable it actually is. The stealth mechanics are extremely basic. If your visibility is low enough, enemies will bump into you without noticing. Seriously, this happened to me several times. The tools at your disposal are simple and effective, and enemy behavior is incredibly predictable. Throw a bottle somewhere and the robots will investigate it every time. I don't consider that a flaw. This is a small indie game, and even many big budget stealth games rely on similar ideas, just with a few extra layers on top. Once you get a firearm, the game becomes much easier. Defeated enemies often drop ammunition and sometimes bandages, which means that many encounters either pay for themselves or leave you with more resources than you started with. Enemies are also fairly easy to spot from a distance thanks to their glowing eyes. Even when you can't see them, the robots make distinctive and loud sounds, so you almost always know when it's time to be a little more careful. I should mention that I got fairly lucky during my playthrough. I found both a map and an artifact detector on the second island, and most of the artifacts themselves ended up being located near the coastline. For large portions of the game, I was simply walking along the shore and collecting what I needed. There is a nice variety of enemy types throughout the game, although if you play very cautiously and avoid most confrontations, you probably won't encounter all of them. The visuals are simple but stylish and pleasant to look at. The soundtrack does a great job of building atmosphere and giving the world its own identity. What impressed me most is how ambitious this game feels from a mechanical standpoint. Despite its simplicity, it offers a surprising amount of systems for a project of its age and scale. By modern standards it can feel somewhat basic, the enemies are predictable, and the game doesn't take very long to complete. Even so, it's a genuinely charming indie classic. If you enjoy stealth games, this is a piece of gaming history that is still well worth experiencing.

Sir, You Are Being Hunted to bardzo nietypowa skradanka survivalowa, która już samym pomysłem zdecydowanie wyróżnia się na tle innych gier. Trafiamy na proceduralnie generowane brytyjskie wyspy, gdzie elegancko ubrani robotyczni dżentelmeni polują na nas dla sportu. Największym atutem jest atmosfera. Opuszczone wioski, ponure pola i lasy, charakterystyczny brytyjski humor oraz roboty spacerujące z bronią po okolicy tworzą dziwne połączenie komedii i ciągłego poczucia zagrożenia. Szczególnie dobrze wypadają momenty, kiedy ukrywamy się w wysokiej trawie i obserwujemy patrol przechodzący kilka metrów od naszej pozycji. Eksploracja opiera się na przeszukiwaniu budynków, zdobywaniu jedzenia, narzędzi i broni oraz odnajdywaniu fragmentów urządzenia potrzebnego do ucieczki. Możemy unikać przeciwników, odwracać ich uwagę albo w odpowiednich sytuacjach próbować z nimi walczyć. Proceduralne generowanie świata zwiększa regrywalność, ale jest jednocześnie jedną ze słabości gry. Nie wszystkie fragmenty map są równie interesujące, a poszukiwanie kolejnych elementów urządzenia z czasem potrafi stać się powtarzalne. Mimo tych niedociągnięć trudno odmówić tej grze własnego charakteru. Polowanie na człowieka prowadzone przez uzbrojone roboty-arystokratów po brytyjskiej prowincji to pomysł, którego nie spotyka się codziennie. Oryginalna, klimatyczna i momentami naprawdę napięta skradanka. Polecam.

While Sir, You Are Being Hunted has a unique atmosphere (it offers a British countryside ambiance with amusing and somewhat charming Victorian-style robots with very British humour; the game's the first tweedpunk survival FPS), the gameplay quickly becomes repetitive. Most of the time is spent walking, scavenging, and avoiding enemies, which starts to feel tedious after a few hours. The combat is clunky and unsatisfying, and the AI can behave unpredictably. Combined with the game's slow pace and minimal story, it can be difficult to stay engaged in the long run. I've managed to complete a run, but for me the game's just not entertaining enough to justify another playthrough, and I cannot recommend it in good conscience, as for its full price, I just don't feel it's worth the time.

I went into this game genuinely excited, but it didn’t take long for that enthusiasm to evaporate. The enemy AI is, without exaggeration, one of the weakest aspects of the entire experience. Enemies either stand still waiting to be shot, run in straight lines like they’re following a script from 2005, or get stuck on the environment in ways that completely break immersion. There’s no sense of strategy, no adaptation, no tension — just predictable patterns that make every encounter feel like a chore rather than a challenge. Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t do much to compensate. It’s painfully repetitive, offering the same loop over and over with almost no variation. What should have been exciting combat scenarios quickly turn into mindless button‑mashing sessions. Even the missions that try to mix things up fall flat because the core mechanics lack depth and creativity. After a couple of hours, I found myself playing out of obligation rather than enjoyment. In the end, the game feels like a missed opportunity. With better AI and more engaging gameplay design, it could have been something memorable. Instead, it’s just disappointingly dull. If you’re looking for a dynamic, challenging experience, this one is hard to recommend.

I have such fond memories with this game, the first early access game I ever supported. I love the unique concept.

This is an older game that hasn't been updated in years. The negative reviews seem to forget that when this game came out (in 2013), it was really good and fun for an indie game of its time. The only downside of this game is that the companies making it shut down before fixing multiplayer into a working condition, and the reboot is canned.