Gods With Badges

Gods With Badges is a narrative turn-based tactics game by Strange Scaffold. It centers on a police officer whose patrols in the dystopian future city of Scarhelm are linked with conversations, investigations and isometric battles.

The game asks how institutional expectations and personal decisions shape the actions of a law enforcement officer. The story is told in single-player mode.

Strange Scaffold announced Gods With Badges at the Triple-i Initiative Showcase on Oct 8, 2026. The release year is planned as 2027, but the Steam store does not yet give an exact date. An Early Access launch or console versions have not been confirmed so far.

So far, a native PC version has been confirmed via Steam. There the studio lists Windows as the system, single-player and partial controller support. The store page lists English menus and subtitles. Other platforms and a German localization are currently not announced.

In open districts of Scarhelm, Harrow McClellan responds to incidents, investigates clues and makes decisions in conversations. Missions can turn into isometric turn-based combat. Cover, hostage rescue and dealing with suspects are, according to the game description, among the tactical tasks.

The developers promise that dialogue and combat work together. Which consequences a decision will actually have later is not yet fully documented before launch.

Steam lists the provisional minimum requirements as Windows 10, an Intel Core i5-7400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600, 8 GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 960 with 4 GB or Radeon RX 570 with 4 GB. The details come from the preview phase; their suitability for specific resolutions or frame rates has not yet been independently tested.

The officer can temporarily turn off her bodycam. According to the developer, this opens additional dialogue and tactical options, but also means her decisions are not recorded. The camera is therefore not just a visual prop, but part of the game system.

The contrast between short-term gains and long-term accountability forms one of the central narrative conflicts. The exact implementation and reach of individual consequences remain open.

Harrow McClellan returns as a battered police officer to her former posting. A scandal has shaped her reputation, so encounters are also influenced by her past. Players can live up to this image or try to change it.

The game world is a dystopian future city. Patrols and encounters are set to take place across several open city districts. Strange Scaffold announces a narrative campaign with an episodic structure.

Missions can be prepared with different equipment. According to Strange Scaffold, the loadout affects which tactical options open up in a fight. Turn-based combat relies on positioning and cover rather than free real-time control.

Composer Kris Kirk is responsible for the music, having worked on Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, among others.

The project's roots go back to Artificer. There, an unfinished tactics idea with the working title Hard Justice was created. According to Strange Scaffold, it took over parts of the earlier groundwork and reinterpreted them. Gods With Badges is therefore a standalone project, not a mere renaming of the earlier concept.

The collaboration runs under the name Project Share. The initiative aims to let developers reuse technical foundations and production work with other studios.