American Fugitive

American Fugitive is an open-world action-adventure video game developed by Fallen Tree Games and published by Curve Games. It is a Grand Theft Auto clone, though it mimics the earlier entries, which had a top-down perspective.

WWW Official Site

Gameplay

Players control Will Riley, who was falsely convicted for his father's murder. Riley escapes jail and seeks answers about his father's murder in a fictional Southern town in the 1980s. Players can do jobs for underworld crime bosses to learn more about the murder of Riley's father or engage in a crime spree in the open world environment. Committing crimes raises Riley's infamy and draws more police. Breaking into houses and businesses allows the player to find useful items but alerts the police to Riley's location. Dying during a story mission returns the character to the last checkpoint; otherwise, players lose all items in their inventory while retaining other progress.
American Fugitive is a modern take on sandbox games.

Development

The developers created a video game where the protagonist is on the run because they had not seen many of those recently. Various films and television shows from the 1980s and 1990s inspired them, including A Perfect World, The Fugitive, The A-Team, and The Dukes of Hazzard. American Fugitive was released for the PC and PlayStation 4 on May 21; the Switch on May 23; and the Xbox One on May 24, 2019.

Reception

American Fugitive received "mixed or average" reviews on Metacritic across all platforms. The Guardian criticized the writing and atmosphere but said that it "successfully pays homage to a fondly remembered old game while adding something meaningful". Push Square and Nintendo Life praised the open world elements while criticizing the other gameplay. Push Square said the mission design consists of tedious and repetitive fetch quests, and Nintendo Life likened the gameplay to "death by a thousand cuts" because of a multitude of small, questionable design decisions.