Project Circe Demo Walkthrough

You start out by creating your character. Clicking on the red icon in the middle of the big white square takes you to the Appearance creation screen, which will allow you to set how your character looks. You can pick between three body types right now: human male, human female and werewolf male (I will obviously add more body types as I go ^_^). Hair comes in two parts: front hair and rear hair, and you can customize the color of both. You can also customize the color of eyes, noses, mouths (lips), and even makeup/facial scars (I eventually plan to break up the makeup section into facial scars, eyeshadow and blush). Clicking on the red icon above the Name line will bring you to a screen where you can input your character’s name (be sure to use Backspace to erase the name that’s already there). Finally, there are two check boxes above the redacted “tattoos” line. These check boxes will set the gender your player identifies as; the left one will set your gender to male, and the right one will set it to female. Your preferred gender will affect how mods change your appearance, which pronouns NPCs use when they refer to you, and (in the future) whether or not certain NPCs will allow you to flirt with them (some NPCs won’t care which gender you are, but others do). After you have filled out your sheet, press the red icon under “Click here to confirm”.

Tutorial

You are a mod designer, whose job it is to make genetic modifications and sell them to the masses. A buyer has placed an order for a Wolf Head Mod, so you need to make one. The tutorial will walk you through the process, but I will explain it here as well. First, you need to go to the Microcentrifuge and use it to extract wolf DNA from a sample of wolf blood. Then, go over to the Gene Sequencer and use it to sequence the genes of the wolf DNA you just extracted and obtain isolated genes. Next, you need to take the isolated gene for the wolf’s head (C. lupus HOX Cephallic) and run it through the Thermocycler to copy it. Finally, go over to the Mod Crafting station and turn the C. lupus HOX Cephallic gene into a Wolf Head Mod. Immediately after doing so, a shady character will walk into your lab through the garage door, asking after his mod. When you present it to him, he will reveal that he is, in fact, an undercover FBI agent, and that this is a sting. As it turns out, selling genetic material without a licence is against the law, and you are promptly arrested for it.

The Offer

A cutscene will play with you sitting in the office of one Gena Aarden, who explains to you that she is the Director of Project Circe, and that she’s come to make you an offer. DARPA has been trying to develop a super soldier serum, but they haven’t been able to get it off the ground because of bureaucratic roadblocks put in place to protect experimental test subjects. But they can get around those rules if they use you. In exchange for having the charges against you dropped, Gena needs you to work for her, making gene mods for the military and testing them on yourself. You balk at the idea of being used to get around the Nuremberg Agreement, but you immediately change your mind when you hear that she’s also willing to pay you 200 grand a year. You immediately sign the document before Gena gets the chance to tell you that in addition to your other duties, you will have to fight terrorists.

Chapter 1: Basic Training

The Lab

You will be taken to the Project Circe laboratory, where a gruff military man named Lieutenant Woodward will brief you on the lab’s layout. If you paid attention during the tutorial, this bit will be meaningless to you, but Woodward is pedantic, so you’ll just have to bear with him. Afterward, you can start exploring the lab. To your left is a room with a big KEEP OUT sign next to that. That is the Chimera Lab, which in the future will be used to create customized animals, but for now it does nothing. To the South is the Clinic, where Dr. Putnam, the resident medical officer of Project Circe, is waiting for you.

The Clinic

Dr. Putnam is much more pleasant to deal with than Lt. Woodward. She will briefly explain to you what you can do in this room. If you talk to her after this point, she will heal any damage you may have received. Down in the Southwest corner is a pharmacist, from whom you can buy medical supplies:

-Medpacks, which heal one member of your party

-Electro-Aid, a type of sports drink that refills your energy bar

-Antidote, which cures you of poisoning

-Adrenaline, which will revive any fallen party members

To the South is the Armory, where Quartermaster Armin is waiting to get you geared up.

The Armory

Quartermaster Armin is a man who loves his guns. And he hopes you love them to. After a brief explanation, he will issue you your basic field kit:

-An M16 Assault Rifle

-A set of body armor

-A riot helmet

-A Bowie Knife

-3 M67 Antipersonnel Grenades

-3 M18 Smoke Grenades

Equip your field kit. You can use the Optimize function in the Equip menu to automatically equip your selected character with all your most powerful gear.

To your left is the Firing Range, and to your right is the Training Arena. You can go to either one of those rooms to learn how the battle system works, or you can skip them and go to the room to the South, which is the Common Area.

The Firing Range

Here in the Firing Range, Range Safety Officer Sharpe will brief you on the handling of your M16. He will then tell you how the firing range works: the blue lever lets you enter a battle with 8 Training Dummies which don’t fight back, and the red lever allows you to enter a Live Fire Exercise against a Multi Utility Tactical Transport (MUTT) drone equipped with an M16 like yours.

Battle: Training Dummy

These stationary targets will not attack, allowing you to test your abilities out on them without fear of taking damage.

Battle: MUTT

This drone will attack you with its built in M16, potentially doing quite a bit of damage even though you are wearing body armor. After this fight, I recommend going to see Dr. Putnam.

The Training Arena

Here you will see Lt. Woodward’s troops practicing against a set of training dummies, and Lt. Woodward himself is standing in the middle of the arena, while his troops cheer him on from the bleachers. Woodward will brief you on the four terrorist factions you are to face in this game:

-The Anthro Alliance: A group of militant furries who have grown tired of being persecuted for their lifestyle, and thus have decided to attempt world domination. Their plan is to eradicate the human race by turning them all into anthropomorphic animals like themselves.

-The Legion of Other: A group of modders who favor forms reminiscent of horror movie monsters such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, Frankenstein Monsters, etc. They also wish to conquer the world and transform all humans to be like them, though they do so out of their leader’s megalomania rather than in an attempt to rectify what they see is wrong with the world.

-The Cult of Lilith: A group of modders who favor demonic forms such as imps, succubi, incubi and hellhounds. They worship Lilith, the Queen of the Succubi and Goddess of Pleasure, and they want to spread their faith all over the world. Their goals are similar to those of the previous two factions, but they go about it in a more insidious fashion; instead of randomly attacking cities or monuments, they lure men and women into dark alleys, kidnap them, bring them back to their lair and slowly brainwash and corrupt them, twisting their minds and bodies and indoctrinating them into the cult. They are also known for corrupting public officials, and they even own an entire city, known as Demon City, which is a hotbed of gambling, alcohol and pleasure seeking.

-The Army of Light: This group is made up of religious zealots who hate modding, believing it to be an affront to God, who purportedly created Man in his own image. Nevertheless, they believe that to combat modding, they need to fight fire with fire, and so they themselves use mods, mostly to give themselves the ability to manipulate light and use it in light-based attacks, but occasionally some of their higher-ups will modify their bodies to make themselves look like angels, cherubs, cherubim and seraphim. Their goal is the complete opposite of the Cult of Lilith’s; they want to conquer the world, but in the name of God rather than in the name of Lilith.

Afterward, he will tell you to practice on the test dummies, and then come back and speak to him again to spar against him.

Battle: Lt. Woodward

Woodward, despite his distaste for you, doesn’t want to harm you, so he will use attacks that, if you are properly geared, won’t harm you at all. You can keep fighting him over and over again to practice your moves.

The Common Area

Immediately upon entering this room, one of Director Gena’s bodyguards will accost you and tell you that Gena wants a word with you. He will then lead you to the door to the left, where Director Gena’s office is.

Director Gena’s Office

Director Gena will explain to you that this is where you will receive your missions from her. You will receive your first task from her immediately, as an alarm blares, and Gena reports that the Anthro Alliance is robbing a bank in Main City. To your chagrin, you are assigned to thwart it. After you receive your task, exit out the door to your right and go through the Common Area to the door to the South, which will lead you to the Ready Room.

Ready Room

There’s nothing to do here right now. In the future, I will have it so that you are assigned a locker in which you can store excess items, but for now it just serves as a transition from the base to the Overworld.

World Map

Right in the center of the map, you will see a big city, which has an exclamation point above it. Go there and hit enter on top of the flashing beacon to enter Main City

Downtown Main City

You will only have access to Downtown at first. Enter the big greenish gray brick building, the one with the address plate next to the door that if you interact with it will reveal that this is 1025 First Street, the First Bank of Main City.

First Bank of Main City

Immediately on entering, you will encounter two wolf boys. You will be fighting them one at a time, so don’t worry about being ganged up on.

Battle: Wolf Boy

Wolf boys like to act tough, but behind their vicious exterior they are nothing but timid little pups. They do, however, have a few special attacks.

-Bite: A mildly strong attack that does damage equal to 5x one’s attack power.

-Claw: An attack that does the same damage as Bite, but using claws instead of teeth.

-Howl: A status debuff that lowers an opponent’s attack power.

Defeating a wolf boy will net you a Wolf Head Mod, a Wolf Torso Mod and a Wolf Arm Mod.

After you’ve beaten the first wolf boy, the second wolf boy will attempt to take the teller hostage, threatening to kill her. Your character will drop a smoke grenade, which will distract the somewhat dull wolf boy and make him focus his attention on you. When you’ve defeated both wolf boys, you will notice that the teller is sweating and shaking uncontrollably. When you approach her and ask her what’s wrong, she reveals that the wolf boys did something to her. Then, right before your eyes, she will transform into an anthropomorphic wolf, like her attackers, and instictively attack you.

Battle: Luna

Luna the teller basically has the same stats and abilities as the Wolf Boys. Defeating her will be no different than defeating them.

After you subdue Luna, you will take her and the two wolf boys back to an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC), where you will place them for transport back to base. You will then be taken to the overworld. Make your way back to base, and head for Director Gena’s office.

Director Gena’s Office

Director Gena will congratulate you on a job well done, and report that the wolf boys are safely locked away in the stockades, and the teller is in the clinic. Unfortuantely, Luna can never go back to the way she was, because the terrorists use a type of gene mod that binds to genes important for vital functions in the body, and attempting to remove them could be fatal. Go back to the clinic and you will find Luna there with Dr. Putnam.

The Clinic

Luna will be lamenting her situation atop the examination table. After the two of you have a conversation, she realizes she has nowhere else to go and thus will join your party. Take her back to Director Gena’s office, stopping off at the Armory along the way to purchase some body armor and a helmet for her. I would recommend either giving her your bowie knife or, better yet, buying her an M16, as that will increase her attack power.

Director Gena’s Office

Director Gena will now give you your second task. You are to return to Main City, she tells you, and speak to the civilians to try and find out what the four factions are up to. Before you do that, though, be sure to stop off at the Holding Cells, which are behind the door to the South.

Holding Cells

In the jail cell to the bottom left, you will find the wolf boys locked up. At first, they will be uncooperative, but when you offer them a dog bone you just happen to have on you, they will crack and spill the beans. Thus you will have fulfilled one of your four goals for this quest: obtaining information on the Anthro Alliance.

Main City

You will now have access to the whole of Main City, a sprawling metropolis with many large buildings. Since you are a modder, you will sometimes be attacked out of nowhere by rednecks, who are affiliated with the Army of Light.

Battle: Redneck

Rednecks are a bit stronger than the Wolf Boys, but not much. They carry M16s, but they don’t have any special abilities, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem to defeat them.

Two of your goals are up in the mini mall to the extreme North of the city; one is a shop with a shopping cart sign above it, with the address “1050 1st Street”, known as “Downtown Threads”.

Downtown Threads

Go in that shop, and you will meet the proprietor, a woman with horns, bat wings and a prehensile tail with a spade shaped tip. From her, you can buy normal civilian clothing:

-Casual Jacket: a simple jacket you can wear anywhere

-Cute Headband: A headband with black ribbons, perfect for Goth girls

-Black Leather Jacket: A leather jacket for those who want to be bad boys/girls

-Black Pantsuit: For the working woman in your life

You can also chat with her, which you need to do for the quest. Each of the three dialog options provides different flavor text, but the outcomes all lead to you asking her about the Cult of Lilith. She asks you if you’re affiliated with Project Circe, which even though it’s a supposedly secret organization, the modding community has more or less figured out that it exists. You can lie to her, but telling the truth will get you romance points with her, which will come in handy in the future. After you complete the conversation, you will have completed the objective “obtain information about the Cult of Lilith” Leave the shop and go to the shop next door, to the east, which has the address “1075 First Street” and is called “Le Belle Boutique”.

Le Belle Boutique

There is a woman in the salon who, when you speak to her, will offer to cut and/or color your hair for 25 bucks. Agreeing to that price will take you back to the appearance creator, where you can change your hair, makeup and lip color. You can also buy hair dye and makeup from her, but they don’t do anything yet. The most important thing, though, is you can chat with her and obtain information on the Army of Light. Once you have that info, head out of the store and one block south, to the big building next to the playground with the neon sign displaying a cross. Its address is “1000 3rd Street”, and its name is “Main City General Hospital”.

Main City General Hospital - 1F

When you enter the hospital, you will find a little girl and an old man sitting in the waiting room. If you talk to the little girl, she will reveal that her older brother went out the other night to get groceries, came home with a serious injury, then became progressively more ill as the days passed, culminating in his transformation into a werewolf. Luna remarks that it must have been the Anthro Alliance who attacked him, but the old man counters that the Anthro Alliance doesn’t act so vicious. It must have been the work of a real werewolf. He explains that to the northeast, there is a castle shrouded in mist where an evil vampire lord is said to live, who sends his minions out to capture the unwary. You come to the conclusion that it was the Legion of Other who turned the boy into a werewolf. If you want, you can go up to the second floor and visit him, through the elevator to your left.

Main City General Hospital - 2F

In one of the beds on the North wall, the boy who was turned into a werewolf lies strapped down, foaming at the mouth. He doesn’t have rabies, but he acts rabid nonetheless, because the Legion of Other uses certain mods that change the chemistry of the brain, turning their victims into fanatically loyal slaves. You can talk to him, but he won’t become all that important until later. For now, you can talk to the doctor who is making her rounds to get healed if you are injured.

Main City

If you have all four of your objectives for this mission complete, you can go to the Italian restaurant to the East of the bank, called “Papa’s Ristorante Italliano”. There, you can view a brief interactive cutscene where you and Gena go on a lunch date and discuss what you’ve heard from the civilians. Once you’ve gotten everything you want to do in Main City done, go back to base and head for Director Gena’s office.

Director Gena’s Office

After you make your report to Director Gena, she will assign you to arrest the Army of Light’s principal actor in Main City: a pastor known as Reverend Jeb who has been encouraging his followers to attack modders in the streets. He runs a church out of the building four blocks down from the APC, the second building to the East, Addressed “1025 6th Street”.

Church of the Holy Light

When you enter the Church, you will see Reverend Jeb in the middle of a sermon, railing against modders and proclaiming the imminent victory of the Army of the Light. You will interrupt him, and he will attack you in a rage.

Mini Boss Battle: Reverend Jebodiah

Reverend Jeb is stronger than anyone you have faced up to this point. He has high attack, defense, special attack, special defense and luck, and a new special ability:

-Light Sphere: The user launches a sphere of light which will hit their opponent for 100 damage plus twice the amount of the user’s special attack stat. It also has a 25% chance to blind the opponent.

When reduced to 25% of his full health, Reverend Jeb will undergo a transformation: his eyes will glow white and he will sprout wings. This Ascended form has even higher stats than his normal form.

If you lose to the Reverend, you will recieve a Bad End where you are kidnapped, brainwashed, and turned into a fanatically loyal minion of the Army of Light. If you win, though, go up to Reverend Jeb and take him to the door of the church where he will be handed over to the authorities. Then, return to Director Gena.

Director Gena’s Office

Director Gena will congratulate you on putting the Mad Preacher behind bars. You will remark that he has a special ability to shoot light out of his hands, which shouldn’t be possible. Director Gena explains that it’s theoretically possible, through the manipulation of the bioelectric field, and then tasks you with reverse engineering the ability for Project Circe. She hands you a syringe and tells you to go take some of Reverend Geb’s blood, and use it to concoct a Light Sphere mod. Head to the Holding Cells, where he is being kept.

Holding Cells

Go to the cell next to the wolf boys, where Reverend Jeb is being held. Talk to him, and you will jab him in the wrist with your syringe and suck out some of his blood. Take the blood filled syringe to the Lab.

The Lab

Take the sample of J. Immaculatus blood to the microcentrifuge and turn it into J. Immaculatus DNA, then sequence that DNA in the Gene Sequencer to get the Light Sphere Gene, along with an Angel Wings gene, an X chromosome and a Y chromosome. You can use the Thermocycler to copy those genes so that you have multiples of them to work with, in case you want to use them to make more mods. The rule of thumb is to always keep one of every gene handy so that you can copy it and make mods with the copies. If you don’t have enough supplies, use the computer to buy more. Use the Mod Crafting station to create a Light Sphere mod, then take it back to Director Gena’s office. I would recommend equipping it, as it is a powerful ability.

Director Gena’s Office

Director Gena will congratulate you for reverse engineering your first Power Mod, and then assign you to set up an ambush for the Legion of Other and the Cult of Lilith. She will tell you to go to Main City, and wait in an alleyway for nightfall so that you will be attacked by werewolves and succubi.

Main City

Once back in Main City, head for the alleyway between the second and third buildings. There will be a sparkling mote of light marking the spot where you are to set up the ambush. Interact with it and you will trigger a cutscene where you wait for nightfall.

Main City (Night)

Immediately, you will be attacked by two werewolves and a werewolf alpha.

Battle: Werewolves and Werewolf Alpha

The werewolves are as strong as rednecks, and the Werewolf Alpha is slightly stronger. They have all the same abilities as Wolf Boys. Losing to them means being brought back to the Legion of Other’s castle and transformed into werewolves yourselves, triggering a Bad End.

Once you win against the Werewolves, a lady will approach you and ask you if everything is alright. When you tell her yes, and she doesn’t leave you alone, you will deduce that she is a succubus in disguise, and she will reveal her true form and attack you. The foes in this battle consist of two succubi and a Succubus Captain.

Battle: Succubi and Succubus Captain

This battle is very similar to the fight against the werewolves and werewolf Alpha. The Succubi have the claw ability, and in addition, they have a new ability:

-Fireball: The user throws a fireball that does the same damage as a Light Sphere and has a 25% chance of burning the opponent.

In addition to all the abilities the Succubi have, the Succubus Captain has an additional one:

-Shadow Sphere: The user throws a mote of pure shadow that does the same damage as Light Sphere and Fireball and has a 25% chance of causing blindness.

Losing to the succubi means a Bad End where you are dragged to the lair of the Cult of Lilith and slowly brainwashed and transformed into a succubus, and Luna is turned into a Hellhound. If you manage to beat both the succubi and the werewolves, the minions will run off, leaving their leaders to be arrested. Return to Gena’s Office.

Gena’s Office

Director Gena will rejoice that now, the citizens of Main City can enjoy what passes for peace. This concludes the demo.