Gameplay Overview

Movement and Progression

Open areas: The player can freely move within the current area and return to previously unlocked areas for deeper exploration.

Tutorial guidance: Transition Aides (TAs) initially provide Aer with critical information needed to navigate Lumiir. They serve this same role for the player, introducing them to people and places in Lumiir while explaining how to interact with mirrors, the Babeler, bows and arrows, and more. This is dispersed organically in early gameplay through situationally relevant moments.

Progress: As Aer learns to move with more independence, so does the player. They soon find that TAs only provide information through the royal family’s approved lens. To fully understand the situation, they must navigate Lumiir and make choices on their own while seeing the consequences of those choices come to life around them.

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Atmosphere and Design

Visual Design Mood Board

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Replayability

Each primary story quest serves as a chapter with its own save file. Upon completing a primary quest, the player’s current progress, customizations, and alliance scores are saved to that chapter, and the next chapter begins from there. This allows players to return to previous chapters to explore different paths if desired.

Players can also replay from the beginning with cleared settings and alliance scores, allowing them to play in a completely different style with different ethics and alliances of their choosing.

In multiple playthroughs, the player can unlock new achievements for reaching alternate endings, earning/destroying alliances, collecting rare disguises, using an alliance to uncover hidden lore, and more.

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Combat and Stealth

Quests will occasionally involve stealth tactics or archery combat triggered by specific locations or actions (such as approaching a Soundless or sneaking out of the Citadel).

Upon either defeat by a Soundless or capture by an enemy faction member, the player will respawn at the last save point.

Fighting Soundless

Soundless are massive, hostile Lovecraftian creatures which attack on site by thrashing violently. They spawn through sudden teleportation at predetermined points. They can only be defeated with special Wiro-tipped arrows.

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Evading Enemy Factions

As Aer is ascendant to the throne, the people of Lumiir will capture or remove her instead of attacking. They only consider the player an enemy if the alliance score for their faction is below a specified threshold. The player must sneak past these enemies.

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Other Mechanics and Features

Faction Alliances

See the branching endings page for a full breakdown of alliances and scoring.

The game's core mechanic involves building points in the five alliance scores, each corresponding to one of the five possible endings. Each choice the player makes increases or decreases the total points allotted to their alliances, taking them on the path toward their most aligned ending and away from their least aligned endings.

The primary way players will know their current alliance status is by observing the environmental changes happening around Aer. Posters, graffiti, news headlines, sacred lights, and NPC behavior and dialogue will adjust based on her scores, reflecting the status of the empire around her.

The Babeler

Based on the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, MurAlde has created an in-ear device to help Aer understand written and spoken Lumiiryan language. After what she's learned about MurAlde though, she's not sure it can be trusted.

The Babeler will play an integral part of many plot points within Safe Haven. Aer will need Amari's help if she wants to clear it of MurAlde's and the royal family’s censoring.

Mirrors and Disguises

Throughout the game, Aer will collect clothing and hairstyle items which players can equip at mirrors. Mirrors appear commonly in realistic places, allowing Aer to strategically change her appearance.

Clothing stats can impact interactions with NPCs. For example, a normal citizen might ignore her when disguised in plain clothes or allow her to have an item for free when dressed in royal garb. If a MurAlde scientist gives her a branded lab coat, she might wear it to gain access to a secured building, but a former test subject might refuse to speak to her.

Heads-Up Display (HUD)

The HUD shows the player’s current quest(s) and Aer’s current disguise status.

Inventory and Collection

Safe Haven prioritizes Aer's adventure and exploration of lore. As a result, players won't need to maintain a complex inventory. Some important story items, such as discovered lore or transit cards, are kept in an inventory for reference. As a member of the Royal Family, Aer has no need for money since she can rely on her choices and connections.

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