Kickstarter for Official Apocalypse Now Game Announced

Francis Ford Coppola’s classic 1979 war film Apocalypse Now is getting a videogame adaptation.

Billed as a “psychological horror game,” the title is to be (potentially) funded by a Kickstarter campaign that launched this morning. The project is officially endorsed by Coppola and his film studio American Zoetrope, and he’s enlisted a number of RPG veterans to develop the game. This team includes writer Rob Auten (Gears of War, Battlefield), executive producer Lawrence Liberty (Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher), director Montgomery Markland (Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera), and Design Director at Obsidian Entertainment, Josh Sawyer (who is serving as “external counsel to the team”).

Coppola said of the project in a statement:

Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come. Today, I’m joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of Apocalypse Now, where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War. I’ve been watching videogames grow into a meaningful way to tell stories, and I’m excited to explore the possibilities for Apocalypse Now for a new platform and a new generation.

The official Kickstarter page describes the game as a new take on the familiar tale:

The game is an interactive recreation of Willard’s journey, as seen through a survival horror lens in which players with limited resources face unspeakable terrors.

By choosing how to react to these situations, each player molds a unique version of Willard within the loose confines of the film story. You are Willard and your actions will determine his fate …

Unlike a traditional RPG, the emphasis is not choosing dialogue, but rather actions and postures. Combat draws from survival horror to emphasize combat avoidance and stealth. This is not Call of Duty in Vietnam.

Famously based on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now’s videogame adaptation will be the second high-profile game in recent history to be based on the short story, after 2012’s Spec Ops: The Line.

For more on the newly announced game, check out its Kickstarter page, where they have 29 remaining days to reach their funding goal of $900,000. If successful, the game is estimated to launch in 2020, with early access planned for 2019 to correspond with the 40th anniversary of the film’s original release.