Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight is a strict local-multiplayer party game for two to four players, with no single-player and no online — every session needs a room, controllers and other humans. Each mode drops the players into a crowd of identical AI characters and gives them both a task to complete and the means to eliminate each other. The whole game is about doing your job without acting different enough from the NPCs for the other players to notice and shoot you first.

The simplest mode, Death Race, illustrates the design clearly. Players and NPCs sprint toward a finish line; every player has a gun with exactly one bullet. Sprint and you'll probably win — if nobody picks you out of the crowd in time. Hang back and you blend in, but you also might lose to the player who took the risk. Other modes apply the same tension to different tasks, all of them sitting on the same core friction between accomplishing a goal and surviving the players watching you do it.

Rounds are short, loud and end in laughter or accusations more often than not. The studio recommends the game for non-gamers and players with no controller experience — there's almost nothing to learn beyond move, look and shoot, and the social dimension does most of the heavy lifting. Xbox-compatible controllers (or emulations thereof) are required, since it's built explicitly around couch play.