Strange Scaffold announces Gods With Badges, a tactics game where you decide when to switch off your bodycam

Strange Scaffold, the studio behind I Am Your Beast and El Paso, Elsewhere, has announced Gods With Badges, a narrative tactics game about the power police hold over life and death.

It was unveiled during the Triple-I Initiative showcase on 8th October and is due out on Steam for PC in 2027. You can check out a trailer below:

You play as Harrow McClellan, a disgraced police officer transferred back to her original post after the scandal that drove her out has become law enforcement legend. Every dialogue choice and turn-based encounter is a decision to play into that reputation or try to rise above it.

You'll patrol the open hubs of Scarhelm, a dystopian city of the future, seizing contraband, investigating complaints, and searching back alleys for evidence. Your dialogue choices, arrests, and uses of force shape Harrow's relationships with her fellow officers, the public, and the institutions around her.

Interestingly, when a situation escalates, the game shifts to isometric turn-based combat. Here you can take cover, rescue hostages, and decide how much force to use. You can also temporarily disable Harrow's body camera, unlocking new tactical and dialogue options but removing the public record of what happens next.

Gods With Badges began life as Hard Justice, an unrealised project from strategy studio Artificer. Strange Scaffold has built on its foundations and development materials, reinterpreting them in its own style.

It's also the latest entry in Project Share, an initiative Strange Scaffold pioneered last year that encourages developers to exchange technology and explore more sustainable ways to make games. The first resulted in Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 1: Re-Raptored.

"With its unique production circumstances and desire for cultural impact, Gods with Badges is among the most ambitious things Strange Scaffold has ever undertaken," said Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr.

"I'm deeply grateful to the original developers at Artificer for trusting us with their project, and can't wait for people to see what we've built on this complex, exciting foundation. We're taking it seriously - and doing something that is both intentional and striking."

The soundtrack comes from composer Kris Kirk, who also scored Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator.

I was deeply impressed by I Am Your Beast, a prior Strange Scaffold offering. "Despite a schlocky - and shocking - presentation, [I Am Your Beast] is exactly what I needed it to be, which is a delightfully bombastic experience that neither outstays its welcome nor feels unjustly punishing," I wrote awarding it four out of five stars. "Stapled to a blisteringly powerful soundtrack, this is a trim, frenetic, thoughtful shooter that stayed with me far longer than its truncated playtime".