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Tag: Survival Horror

  • Daylight Gets Hit With Last Minute Delay, Will Now Be Out April 29

    Since it was announced last year, Daylight has been one of the more interesting games coming to the PS4. The procedurally generated survival horror game was originally slated to hit the PS4 and PC on April 8, but now the developers have pushed that date back by just a bit.

    Zombie Studios announced today that Daylight will now hit the PS4 and PC on April 29. The three week delay will help the team make sure the game is scary as can be. The game’s publisher – Atlus – said just as much in a statement released to Destructoid:

    “Here’s the thing: the way Daylight is developed is completely different because of its procedural generation. In a lot of ways it really helped the team by streamlining the environment creation, but it’s taken extra time to make sure all the scare cues are properly implemented for maximum player effect.”

    If that made no sense to you, you have obviously not been following Daylight. The game’s environments are procedurally generated so that players will never have the same experience twice, but the developers have to make sure that the scares are frequent enough to not bore the player either. That alone must add extra challenge as most horror games rely on scripted events. When the scares can come at anytime, the development team has to make sure there’s a balance between frequent scares while not overstaying their welcome.

    Perhaps feeling bad about the delay, Zombie Studios has put together a new trailer to make up for it. Check it out:

    If you’re interested in Daylight, the game will be available for $10 until launch. Once it does launch, the price will go up to $12.99 for a time and then it will increase to the full price of $14.99 once the promotional period ends. For PlayStation Plus members, the price will remain at $10.

    Image via AtlusUSA/YouTube

  • The True Terror Of Caffeine Is That We Run Out Of The Stuff

    Caffeine is the most widely consumed drug on the planet. It’s in everything from coffee and tea to chocolate and energy bars. What happens then when caffeine runs out? Do we just stop ingesting the stuff, or do we go out into space to mine it? In a new game slated for released in 2015, the latter scenario is what humanity opts for.

    Dylan Browne took to Indiegogo this week to launch a crowdfunding campaign for Caffeine – a psychological horror title set on board an abandoned space ship. While this scenario has been seen numerous times in games (i.e. Dead Space, Routine), Caffeine is unique in that the player character is a small boy. That makes the player even more defenseless as they explore the spacecraft trying to figure out what happened.

    Here’s the official synopsis:

    The Year is 2097, the Earth is over-populated and is lacking resources.

    The most consumed drug is caffeine and companies have countless outposts among the stars mining the resources required to quench the endless thirst of Earth’s population.

    Caffeine will primarily be a Sci-Fi Horror game, but at the same time employ a strong focus on both adventure and narrative and will include some smart puzzle game play.

    There will be no weapons in Caffeine but you will be able to use the environment around you.

    Scattered around the environment there will be a mass of notes, audio logs and clues to what the employees at the station were up to and what was going on in their lives, hopefully creating a great deal of lore for the world of Caffeine.

    It at least sounds unique, right? If you think so, you’ll definitely want to check out the first trailer for the game:

    Browne is asking for $80,000 on Indiegogo so he can work on Caffeine full-time. If he doesn’t reach the goal, he will still continue developing the game in his free time. He notes that this will likely make the final product suffer. If you don’t care whether the game is completed sooner or later, you might want to support the project to get a t-shirt, mug or even a speaking role in the game.

    Image via Dylan Browne/YouTube

  • Draugen Will Drag You Into The Depths Of Survival Horror In 2015

    Draugen Will Drag You Into The Depths Of Survival Horror In 2015

    Survival horror has seen a renaissance in recent year with games like Amnesia and Outlast. It’s fair to assume that interest in survival horror would wane after they all started to look and play the same, but it looks like developers still have a few scares left in them. The most recent comes from our friends in Norway and it’s steeped in local folklore.

    Red Thread Games announced today that they’re working on a new first person survival horror game called Draugen. The title is in reference to the Draugen – a Norwegian undead monster that drags people into the water. It’s unknown if a Draugen will actually stalk the player, but it’s certainly already creepy enough without one.

    Here’s the official synopsis:

    Inspired by Scandinavian literature, legends and fairytales, as well as Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas — is set in the early 1920s, and delves into the deepest, darkest secrets of a remote fishing community where every single soul has mysteriously vanished.

    As the player explores the tiny settlement, gathering clues and memories, and unearthing the truth behind a terrible tragedy, they will learn more about the history of the village and its inhabitants. And they will come to see that behind even the most innocent of facades lurks the potential for malice.

    But there is more to this place than meets the eye.

    From time to time, a woman in black can be spotted in the distance. Who is she, and what is her connection to this place? Who is the little girl singing broken lullabies as the sky begins to darken? And when night falls, and those last few, precious drops of kerosene in the lamp feed a fragile, flickering flame, what hides out there in the darkness and in the cold, black sea?

    The debut trailer is suitably creepy and looks like what we’ve come to expect from survival horror games:

    Draugen will launch in 2015 presumably on PC and maybe the PS4 and Xbox One.

    Image via GamersPrey/YouTube

  • ‘Alien: Isolation’ Release Date: October 7

    When Alien: Isolation was announced early this year, gamers held their breath for yet another terrible game based around the Alien brand. With last year’s disastrous Aliens: Colonial Marines still fresh in the minds of players burned by over-hyped pre-launch marketing, another Alien game coming so soon after seemed almost unwelcome.

    That is, until developer Creative Assembly (the British development studio behind the Total War franchise) began saying all the right things that Alien fans want to hear. Instead of making another action-packed Alien-branded game in the vein of James Cameron’s Aliens, Alien: Isolation is being marketed as a true survival horror game that digs deep into the roots of the original Alien movie.

    Today publisher SEGA announced that Alien: Isolation will released on October 7, 2014. The game will be coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

    “We couldn’t be happier to finally announce a date for Alien: Isolation,” said Alistair Hope, creative lead at Creative Assembly. “The reaction we have seen so far has been simply incredible, from the screams and shrieks to the cold sweats and racing hearts. It’s the Alien game that we’ve always wanted to play and we can’t wait to let everyone get their hands on it this fall.”

    Alien: Isolation will put players into the first-person persepective of Amanda Ripley, daughter of Alien heroine Ellen Ripley. Finding herself on a derelict space station, Amanda will have to search the station for for the whereabouts of her mother while avoiding a xenomorph presence.

    Like recent indie survival horror hits such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Outlast, Alien: Isolation will give players few, if any, tools to deal directly with the xenomorph. Instead of using guns and explosives, the game will use atmosphere and darkness to make players feel uneasy and vulnerable. A recent developer diary released by Creative Assembly shows just how dedicated the developer seem to be to creating an experience that mirrors the fear audiences felt when seeing Alien for the first time.

  • PS4 Horror Game Soma Gets New Trailer

    PS4 Horror Game Soma Gets New Trailer

    The PS4 is quickly becoming a console for survival-horror fans. Just last month, PC indie horror title Outlast launched on the console, and Daylight will be coming out in April. Next year, the guys who took indie horror mainstream will be bringing their game to the console.

    Frictional Games, the team behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, shared a new trailer for their next game – Soma – today. The sci-fi horror title is said to explore the idea of consciousness in a world that looks to be inspired somewhat by the likes of Alien and its ilk.

    In its latest update, Frictional Games says that Soma is nearing alpha. They currently have 5 hours of playable content, but says the final game will be about 8 hours in length. The team also reveals that the game will not just be all hiding and running away. There will be puzzles to solve and notes to find as they make their way through the game. Of course, there won’t be any combat so you will be running away from whatever dangers lurk in the world.

    For more on Soma, check out this morning’s PlayStation Blog post. The team has posted the five goals it hopes to accomplish in the development of Soma. If it nails this, we may have ourselves another modern horror classic on our hands.

    Image via PlayStation/YouTube

  • ‘Outlast’ DLC is Coming in April

    ‘Outlast’ DLC is Coming in April

    Last fall developer Red Barrels unleashed Outlast on PC gamers. The non-combat survival horror game was generally well-received and took its place among classic horror games with a mix of helpless running and disgusting/terrifying art. More recently Outlast made its way to PlayStation 4 where PlayStation Plus subscribers got to play the game for free.

    Though Outlast would have been perfectly fine as a one-off horror game, perhaps with a few sequels, the game will be getting some DLC to flesh out the story of the Mount Massive Asylum. Red Barrels this week announced that the game’s first DLC will be out sometime in April for both the PC and PS4 versions of the game.

    The new content, titled Outlast: Whistleblower, will put players into the shoes of a new protagonist. As software engineer Waylon Park players will play the part of a prisoner at the asylum before the events seen in the main game. Players will get to see more of the unethical experiments the doctors at the facility are performing before sending off the message that sparks the story in Outlast. In addition, Red Barrels promises that the new add-on will tell a story that continues on after the ending of the main game and, according to the studio, shows the “final chapter” in the Mount Massive Asylum story.

    Post by Outlast.
  • ‘Daylight’ Coming to PS4, PC on April 8

    ‘Daylight’ Coming to PS4, PC on April 8

    Leave it to the indie market to pick up the slack from larger publishers. The Amnesia series has proven that the survival horror genre is not dead, spawning a new trend with games such as Outlast and Slender.

    Zombie Studios today announced that the next entry into the non-combat survival horror genre is set to scare gamers this spring. Daylight will be released for PlayStation 4 and PC on April 8 and will cost only $15.

    Daylight is a new game from the studio behind Blacklight: Retribution and Blackwater. The horror game throws players into the shoes of a young woman who wakes up in an abandoned hospital. From there, players must navigate procedurally-generated levels in an effort to escape, dodging the unknown terrors that are also procedurally generated.

    In addition to the release date announcement, Zombie released a few more details about features coming to Daylight. The game can be played in 3D through compatible 3DTVs or monitors, though playing it on an Oculus Rift (with which it is also compatible) would certainly make it even more immersive.

    Daylight will also use the PS4’s Twitch streaming capabilities in a very unique way. While players are streaming the game through Twitch, people using Twitch chat can enter commands to make events (such as noises) occur in the players’ game. The functionality operates on a timer to prevent spam. Zombies will not be releasing a list of commands, preferring instead for players and viewers to discover them for themselves.

  • ‘The Evil Within’ Launches on August 26

    ‘The Evil Within’ Launches on August 26

    Though the indie market has propped up the survival horror genre in recent years, large publishers have all but abandoned scares in favor of action. Survival horror will get another shot at the mainstream this year, though, through Bethesda’s The Evil Within.

    Bethesda today announced that The Evil Within will hit stores in North America on August 26 (August 29 in Europe). The game will be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC.

    The Evil Within is being developed under the leadership of Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series. As one might expect, The Evil Within is closer in tone to the early Resident Evil games than the series’ more modern incarnation. Judging from the long gameplay preview released late last year, players may be spending just as much time running from horrible things as they will be shooting them in the face:

  • Daylight Conjures Up New Scares Each Time You Play

    Games that offer up procedurally generated content are nothing new. In fact, roguelikes and dungeon crawlers have been doing it for years. The games have received more attention lately thanks to games like Minecraft though. Now Zombie Studios is trying their luck at making a procedurally generated horror game.

    Daylight, a new game from Zombie Studios and Atlus, attempts to reinvent the survival horror genre by making the game different with each playthrough. The basics will remain the same, however, as players attempt to navigate their way through an abandoned hospital with only a smartphone as their sole light source and weapon. Think of it as Fatal Frame, but without knowing what’s going to happen on each playthrough.

    The first trailer will give you an idea of what to expect when the game launches in early 2014 for PS4 and PC:

    Image via AtlusUSA/YouTube

  • New ‘Soma’ Teaser Previews Dark Atmosphere

    New ‘Soma’ Teaser Previews Dark Atmosphere

    Back in October, indie horror studio Frictional Games officially announced its next survival horror title, Soma. In contrast to the developer’s past Amnesia games, Soma has a sci-fi setting and a decidedly different feel about it.

    The game’s reveal didn’t show much in the way of story, though creative director Thomas Grip did throw out some themes he was focusing on for the project, including the interplay between free will and consciousness. Today Frictional further previewed Soma with a look at the game’s environment and a rundown of the developers’ philosophy for the game.

    According to a new post on the Frictional Games blog, the team developing Soma is holding to five “pillars” of design for the game. These pillars are “everything is story,” “take the world seriously,” “the player is in charge,” “trust the player,” and “thematics emerge through play.”

    The post explains that what Frictional is shooting for with Soma is to immerse players in a “flowing narrative” that combines story, gameplay, and puzzle-solving. To accomplish this, the developers hope to integrate the environment heavily into the story, making details in the player’s surroundings into possible clues. All this without exerting too much control over player actions and allowing them to piece together the game’s themes themselves.

    Obviously, this is a tall task for any developer and Frictional will have its work cut out for it in the months leading up to Soma‘s 2015 release. However, the studio has almost single-handedly revived the survival horror genre in recent years, and already seems to have gotten the dark atmosphere of the game down, if this latest teaser is anything to go by:

  • Horror Game ‘Soma’ Announced for PlayStation 4 and PC

    This week and last, Frictional Games began teasing a new sci-fi game. Two trailers were released, each showing unsettling footage of robots acting strangely. It seemed, based on the teaser site, that Frictional was set to tease the game for weeks. Today, however, the developer has officially unveiled Soma.

    Soma will be another horror game from Frictional, which is best-known as the developer behind the popular Amnesia indie horror games. It will be coming to PlayStation 4 and PC sometime in 2015.

    Players will take on the role of a normal person trapped in a “nightmarish” sci-fi world. Like previous Frictional games, gamers will have to use their wits to survive, rather than shoot everything in sight.

    Thomas Grip, the creative director at Frictional, revealed a bit more about the game over at Sony’s PlayStation blog. He calls Soma a “proper” sci-fi game in which the themes of consciousness and free will are explored through strange creatures and settings, as well as unsettling machines. From the blog post:

    The subject that SOMA will discuss is consciousness. Personally, I find it the most profound questions that it is possible to ask. “How can the feeling of subjective experience arise from a chunk of flesh?” Exploring this further takes us to questions such as “Can machines be conscious?” and “Do we have free will?” It quickly gets very disturbing, and is ideal for a futuristic horror setting. It is the kind of sci-fi that we want to make.

    The first trailer for the game shows exactly what Grip is referring to. Technology, brains, blood, death, and unfeeling machines combine to make the game feel very unsettling:

  • ‘Amnesia’ Creators Reveal New ‘Soma’ Project, Trailer

    After a countdown on the “nextfrictionalgame” website, Frictional Games has revealed its next project, Soma. The project has not been fully revealed, however, and all the information about the game comes from the cryptic website somasystems.org. The website appears to be a viral marketing campaign for the game, with a series of “case files” that might be revealed in the near future, or as part of an ARG.

    Only one case file is currently available, titled “Vivarium.” The link on the webpage leads to a description of the Vivarium case, which deals with a strange machine found during a salvage operation. The machine was set to be disassembled, but was accidentally switched on during the process. An examination of the machine is depicted in a live-action teaser trailer also found on the site:

    Judging from the video, the game (presumably titled Soma?) will be another horror game. Frictional is now well-known for Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its sequel, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Those games were set in a more classic, turn-of-the-20th-century horror setting. Soma looks to be bringing the helpless survival horror of the Amnesia games to a science fiction setting – a move that could bring more people into the genre.

  • New ‘Evil Within’ Gameplay Video Shows ‘Resident Evil’-Like Atmosphere

    When Resident Evil 4 debuted, it changed the survival horror genre for years. Though the game received fantastic reviews, fans of the old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill games were greeted with a more action-oriented experience and the introduction of numerous quicktime-event cutscenes – traits that would only intensify in further sequels. Though much of the game was creepy, it was missing the sense of dread and helplessness that hung over early survival horror titles.

    In recent years, titles such as Amnesia and Outlast have brought atmosphere back to the survival horror genre. However, those games swung in an entirely opposite direction than the newer Resident Evil games, giving players no tools or weapons with which to fight off the horrors that surround them.

    Now, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is back to split the difference with the upcoming The Evil Within. With claustrophobic surroundings, disturbing enemies, and the rare ammo box, Mikami is promising the “perfect blend of horror and action.”

    Earlier this week publisher Bethesda streamed live gameplay of The Evil Within from the EuroGamer Expo. Today it released the highlights of that stream in a long 12-minute gameplay video. Without giving much of the story away, the video shows exactly why fans of Resident Evil 4 might be excited about Mikami’s new game:

  • ‘Outlast’ Hits PC, Unsettling Launch Trailer Released

    Last fall, just in time for Halloween, developer Red Barrels teased a new first-person survival horror game called Outlast. The trailer showed that players can expect to have little but their trusty nigh-vision camera to navigate dark hallways and evade some type of humanoid creatures, who can drag them to their deaths.

    It isn’t quite Halloween, but Outlast is now out for PC. For $20 on Steam, players can immerse themselves in the trials of a journalist named Miles Upshur. With nothing but a camcorder, players will have to brave the halls of a former asylum, now a failed medical research facility for a shady corporation. The game’s developers are unapologetic about its extremely graphic content.

    “Outlast contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content, and strong language,” said Philippe Morin, co-founder of Red Barrels. “Please enjoy!”

    The game, obviously, takes inspiration from popular survival horror franchises such as Resident Evil and Amnesia. While the story may be nothing particularly new for the horror genre, the atmosphere should be enough to tide survival horror fans over until the release of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs next week.

    Outlast has also been announced as a PlayStation 4 title, scheduled for release sometime early next year.

  • Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Coming September 10

    After many delays, the sequel to the 2010 indie hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent is finally on the way. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs developer thechineseroom today confirmed the release date through its Twitter account:

    The game had originally been scheduled for release on Halloween 2012, but that date flew by with developers Frictional Games and thechineseroom only asking for people to send in audio clips of themselves squealing. In February the devs finally confirmed that the project had been delayed to sometime in the second quarter of 2013. That deadline also passed, but it now appears that the September 10 date is for certain.

    Pre-orders for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs are now up on both Steam and GOG. Pre-orders are going for $16, and the released title will sell for $20. The description of the game on Steam promises more Amnesia-like exploration and anxiety, as well as a “blood-curdling new story.” From the description:

    Wealthy industrialist Oswald Mandus awakes in his bed, wracked with fever and haunted by dreams of a dark and hellish engine. Tortured by visions of a disastrous expedition to Mexico, broken on the failing dreams of an industrial utopia, wracked with guilt and tropical disease, he wakes into a nightmare. The house is silent, the ground beneath him shaking at the will of some infernal machine: all he knows is that his children are in grave peril, and it is up to him to save them.

    The GOG page also includes a short trailer for the title, which is full of very dark locations and not much else:

    The new trailer is actually more of a teaser than the one released last Halloween, which featured actual gameplay:

  • Routine Is That Spooky Moon Base Simulator You’ve Always Wanted

    The horror genre has seen somewhat of a resurgence in recent years thanks to the efforts of indie developers around the world. One of the more interesting games to come out of this renaissance is Routine.

    For those just joining us, Routine is a “first person horror exploration game set on an abandoned moon base.” The player is charged with finding out exactly what happened on the base that led to the sudden disappearance of everyone living in it.

    What make the game even more interesting is that it’s completely non-linear. You can explore any part of the base and find out its secrets. Players will have to be on their guard, however, as the game practices permadeath. In other words, you only have one life to live. If you die, you’ll have to start over from the beginning.

    Now, after months of teaser trailers, the development team at Lunar Software have released a new trailer comprised entirely of gameplay. It’s atmospheric, frightening and all kinds of amazing:

    Routine has already been cleared for release on Steam through Greenlight so you’ll be able to play it day one on Valve’s digital platform. The team at Lunar Software is also supporting Oculus Rift. That should make you tremble with excitement.

  • Terrifying Gameplay Footage of Outlast Released

    Last fall, on Halloween day, Red Barrels Games released a teaser trailer for Outlast, an indie survival horror game coming this year for the PC and PlayStation 4. The game is set in an asylum, which players will have to infiltrate and survive to uncover whatever mysterious goings-on are causing so much bloodshed.

    This week, more than 10 minutes of Outlast gameplay has hit the internet. Instead of the action gaming that former survival horror franchises such as Dead Space and Resident Evil have been leaning toward in recent years, Outlast seems to live up to its namesake, making players fairly helpless. Running and heavy breathing seem to be the primary skills of the main character, similar to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which has popularized this brand of horror over the past few years.

    The new gameplay footage teases a bit of the game’s story, and shows off some of the jump scares that are sure to populate the game. Between Outlast, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, and The Evil Within, it appears that real survival horror may finally be coming back to the West.


    Outlast PS4 Gameplay Demo by All-Games-Beta

  • Daylight Brings Randomly Generated Horror To The PS4

    It’s rare to see horror games on consoles anymore. Unless it has empowering weapons or a dudebro protagonist, horror games just don’t exactly sell that well. A new game hitting the PS4 next year may change that.

    Zombie Studios have announced Daylight – a procedurally generated horror game for the PS4 and PC. The game features no weapons whatsoever. Instead, the players will only have access to a simple smartphone to combat whatever they encounter.

    This is one of the more interesting games that’s being developed for the PS4, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. We’re likely to see more from its publishers at ATLUS during E3 next week.

    Daylight will launch in early 2014 for the PS4 and PC.

  • Bethesda’s Mystery Game Is The Evil Within

    For the past week, Bethesda has been teasing a new game announcement on Twitter. Some fans speculated that it was Fallout 4, but their hopes were dashed when Bethesda said it was something else entirely. That something else has turned out to be the new horror title from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

    IGN revealed this morning that Besthesda and Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks, are working on The Evil Within. It’s a new survival horror title that Mikami says will provide fans with the “perfect blend of horror and action.”

    Unfortunately, we don’t have any gameplay footage. Instead, the first trailer is entirely live-action, but the monster designs shows incredible promise.

    The Evil Within is scheduled for release in 2014. It’s coming to the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and next-gen consoles.

  • Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Coming Q2 2013

    Amnesia: The Dark Descent revitalized the survival horror genre on PC with its Lovecraftian atmosphere and distinct lack of offensive weaponry. The indie title went on to sell over one million copies.

    The sequel to that game, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, was originally scheduled to be out in time for Halloween 2012. Instead, gamers on last year’s Halloween got a teaser trailer full of darkness and eerie sounds.

    Today, Frictional Games has finally announced that A Machine for Pigs is nearing completion. The developer has updated its website with a message stating that the “final version” of the game has been received from indie developer thechineseroom. It is now undergoing testing and optimization, and is expected to be ready for release “around Q2 2013.”

    From the update:

    How come a game meant for Halloween 2012 has been delayed for so long? Originally we thought it would be a short, experimental game set in the universe of Amnesia, but thechineseroom had a vision that was bigger than that. As their work progressed, the potential for a much greater project emerged. What we ended up with is no longer what we had first imagined, but a fully fledged Amnesia game. A different kind of Amnesia, but definitely not a short experiment.

    Frictional stated that pricing, PC requirements, and “more information on the game” will be coming soon.

  • Slender: The Arrival Beta Begins, Pre-Orders Available

    Last year a small indie game called Slender: The Eight Pages terrified gamers and inspired countless YouTube play-through videos. Since then, the developers of Slender have been working to expand upon the game and give it the attention it deserves.

    Today, Blue Isle Studios announced that Slender: The Arrival will be released on March 26. The game is now available for pre-order. The price for pre-orders is only $5 – half the price of what the finished retail game will cost – and all pre-orders come with instant access to the beta version of the game. The game’s developers have some Kickstarter-like pricing options available as well. A $15 version of the game also comes with a soundtrack, and a $25 version throws in downloadable paintings. The $60 “Producer’s Edition” includes a thank-you in the game’s credits.

    The Arrival is similar to the first game, but includes more levels and content not seen in The Eight Pages. Players will complete objectives while doing their best not to look at the slender man lurking right behind them.