Today we have the pleasure of presenting the review of The Electric State. First of all, we would like to thank Free League for sending us a physical copy of the manual. A mention must also go to Simon Stålenhag, author and lead artist of the game. Like his other works (Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood), it originates from his artwork. A very strong and specific imagination, which alone creates a setting and which also inspired the Netflix film of the same name.
Those who find this review interesting can purchase the manual on Free League’s digital store; the price is 537 Swedish kronor for the physical version, a little over 48 euros. Accessories for the game are also available on the store, including the gamemaster screen and a dedicated set of six-sided dice.
The Electric State: Review of the Manual
The strong imprint of Simon’s artwork dictates the entire aesthetic of the manual. A clear, almost bare layout, extremely readable and orderly is the perfect counterbalance to the illustrations. They appear visionary and futuristic, but with a 1990s touch that characterises the entire game, like the muted colours of something abandoned.
This is because some games are about heroes, others about survival. The Electric State speaks of that grey area between nostalgia and apathy, between a can of Jolt and emotional blackout. It is the end of the world, but with a 1990s soundtrack.
Which Game We Play
The Electric State is a narrative, melancholic, and disturbing roleplaying game, set in an alternate version of the United States in 1997, after a long civil war and in the midst of a creeping technological apocalypse. This game mixes road movie, neural horror, and toxic nostalgia into a single long journey: that of the Travellers, disillusioned voyagers seeking something. Each character has their own goal to pursue in the Journey, the structure of the game.
The Electric State is expressly designed for short and self-contained chronicles, perfectly supported by its game engine, the Year Zero Engine. If you expect cyberpunk with guns and sunglasses, you are mistaken. Here you travel in broken-down station wagons, among the carcasses of war drones, burnt neural helmets, and the certainty that no one will come to save you.
Review of the Setting of The Electric State
The game is set in Pacifica, formerly known as California, now an independent nation. Cities survive in an illusion of normality while reality collapses all around. Deserts overrun by sand, digital cults worshipping neural deities, and children raised inside overly saturated neuroscapes. Sentre, the megacorporation that controls the global neuronic network, has effectively replaced the government. Humans? Either they get lost in the digital neurons of “Mode 6” or wander among the rusting remains of the physical world.
We see a fallen America not by catastrophic event, but by voluntary consumption and oblivion. A heterogeneous mix indeed difficult to hold together, but the author’s strong imagination and the excellent and precise writing work, to which Free League has accustomed us, make it extremely coherent.
A Year Zero Engine for Every Season
This game system is an evolution of Free League’s Year Zero Engine. The search for a 6 on the dice pool rolled by the character, combined with the ability to “push” the roll at the risk of losing Hope. The character, called the Traveller, is defined by a few traits: Empathy, Strength, Logic, and faithfully follows their Dream. There is also a Tension mechanic between characters, simulating end-of-the-world interpersonal dynamics.
It is an extremely functional mechanism: the most memorable conflicts will not be with cyborg cults, but with the friend who did not cover you when needed. Encounters are fast and, as tradition for the Swedish game, brutal. Horror is constant but never predictable, never visual: The Electric State is based on the sense of inner emptiness. The goal is to survive, but to do so while keeping oneself emotionally intact.
Review of The Electric State: the Journey
The game is structured as a journey in stages. The Journey, as such, is itself a classic metaphor but no less powerful. Each session is a Stop: an abandoned area, a haunted settlement, a fragment of reality where something happens. Each Stop has a map and a narrative countdown. The narrator populates it with openly unsettling or subtly disturbing NPCs, and almost always there is a need to enter The Electric State, the virtual space, to resolve the situation.
It is a game that works very well with small groups, allowing a certain intimacy in narrative development. The Electric State also has a solo mode, which, incredibly, holds up. The need to manage an entire gaming group alone does not make it the only most fluid RPG in the world, but it still manages to convey the moods that the traditional mode allows to experience.
Conclusions of the Review of The Electric State
The Electric State, as mentioned, draws very closely from other Free League works, such as Tales from the Loop. And in some ways, it presses the same buttons, but does so in an adult, desperate, and dirty version. It is decidedly not a game for lovers of optimisation and heroic plots: it offers an intense and intimate narrative experience, almost a sort of spiritual diary.
It is a powerful and melancholic roleplaying game, combining speculative fiction, visionary art, and light but effective mechanics. A game that addresses the fear of losing something important, what remains when the rest of the world shuts down. Welcome to The Electric State, behind the wheel of a car heading towards a future that no longer exists.
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