There’ve been a ton of nice horror video games launched not too long ago, between main titles just like the Silent Hill 2 remake, the indie survival horror sport Hollowbody, and horror-themed DLC like Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. One title followers of survival horror video games ought to take note of amongst all these large releases is Tenebris Somnia, an upcoming survival horror journey sport that has a brand new demo on PC this week as a part of this 12 months’s Steam Subsequent Fest. Right here’s the pitch: It’s a retro-inspired horror sport that options Famicom-style graphics interspersed with bone-chilling live-action cutscenes, and the mixed result’s as novel and entertaining as it’s jarring and terrifying.
Developed by Argentinian filmmaker Andrés Borghi in collaboration with Saibot Video games and printed by New Blood Interactive, Tenebris Somnia facilities on Julia, a movie pupil who has not too long ago damaged up along with her school boyfriend Ivan. Upon returning to Ivan’s house to return her copy of his key, Julia rapidly realizes that one thing isn’t fairly proper. From there, she’s thrust right into a darkish supernatural story brimming with alternate dimensions, occult sacrifices, and chthonic entities and horrors that seem like they stepped straight out of Clive Barker’s creativeness.
After taking part in by way of 2022’s Religion: The Unholy Trinity, Airdorf Video games’ 8-bit impressed horror sport — which New Blood additionally printed — Borghi was impressed to strive his hand at making a sport of his personal, one which drew on his love of basic point-and-click horror titles, à la Clock Tower, in addition to his expertise as a filmmaker and visible results artist. The result’s a side-scroller, with the participant navigating by way of pre-rendered, low-detail environments evocative of basic titles of the Amiga, Famicom, and NES eras of gaming.
The demo consists of the participant biking by way of the standard touchstones of thriller sport tropes: gathering and mixing gadgets they discover round Ivan’s house constructing, interacting with and fixing puzzles to advance the story, scrutinizing merchandise descriptions for clues as to what to do subsequent, and combating off malicious otherworldly creatures. Interjected between all these moments are the live-action cutscenes — filmed and directed by Borghi himself — that includes ghastly monstrosities dropped at life by way of chilling sensible results and ghoulish costume designs.
The impact in-game is a surprisingly cohesive expertise that leans into the respective strengths of video games and cinematic horror, combining the interactive gratifications of the previous with the terrifying spectacle of the latter. Eat your coronary heart out, Hideo Kojima.
The newest demo clocks in at roughly a half-hour of playtime and doesn’t permit for the power to avoid wasting, so that you’ll should play by way of to the top if you wish to see the demo’s stunning cliffhanger ending.
Whereas Tenebris Somnia doesn’t have a launch date but, the demo is offered to play all all through this 12 months’s Steam Subsequent Fest, which is about to finish on Oct. 21.
