Free Guy Sees the Metaverse Through Rose-Colored Glasses

But the first and most prevalent gimmick is the sunglasses. In Free City, the fictitious shooter game at the center of the story, sunglasses are what signify a player: someone who can shoot up a bank, steal a car, face-punch a stranger. They are, Guy (Reynolds) says, the "heroes." Similar to the shades in the movie They Live, the players' eyewear works like in-game augmented reality specs, showing scores, power-ups, loot, etc. Sunglasses are the lens through which players are meant to experience Free City's metaverse and decode its mysteries. Guy, the audience eventually learns, is more than just an NPC in Free City--he's actually an artificially intelligent bit of code left there by the game's original developers, and he is just starting to gain sentience.