Crypto is Dead Intended to Launch Today

When I first learned of the so-called “Papers, Please-like” known as Crypto is Dead, my mind immediately jumped to the main character of Destroy All Humans! having met with a terrible fate. Alas, this upcoming title has nothing to do with Cryptosporidium-137, but I think its premise is significantly interesting despite that. That’s the primary reason I wish to tell you a bit about the game today.

Coming to us from French studio The Moon Pirates, Crypto is Dead takes place in a world where cryptocurrencies, presumably those such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, though none are mentioned by name, are the dominant force in the global economy. Then, one day, you read in the newspaper that an attack which exploited a shortcoming of cybersecurity surrounding these currencies has (at least temporarily) rendered them useless.

That’s obviously bad news for the state of world trade and anyone who had a stake in these in-game currencies, so an entity known as the Central Bank has decided to step in and begin recirculating “old” currency. I can only imagine that they’re referring to things like coins, bills, and perhaps even debit cards with that idea. That’s where you come in, and that’s also where Crypto is Dead’s similarities to Papers, Please really kick in.

Your job after the cryptocurrency crash is to evaluate bank notes with the ultimate goal of ensuring that no one is trying to counterfeit them until the Central Bank can get things back on track. From what I can tell from screenshots of Crypto is Dead that are present on its Steam store page, it appears that checking each note for signs of tampering is quite an involved process.

Speaking of the game’s Steam store page, there’s a bit of an odd disclaimer I feel I should pass along if you’re looking to purchase this title. According to its page on the Steam store, Crypto is Dead was originally scheduled to release exactly a month ago. That date was then updated to today, but the Steam store still reports that the game is “coming soon” at the time of writing.

There’s no readily-apparent indication that its release is imminent, such as a message which states something along the lines of “this game will unlock in approximately X hours.” I can’t help but wonder what might be going on with this title in that department. Even so, I’m quite intrigued by its premise, so I may very well cover it here on Phenixx Gaming in some capacity whenever it actually releases.