I cannot decide if The Hum is a very silly or very ominous title for a horror game. It’s vague and innocuous, but it heralds an apocalyptic alien invasion, which makes it suddenly a lot more menacing. The Hum is a first-person horror game, set after humanity vanishes and aliens prowl the streets of dilapidated, nearly empty cities.
Players are thrust into the role of a survivor, who hides in a barn until new memories and abilities begin to surface. The trailers are certainly setting an uncomfortable tone, with appropriately wild strings and bellowing horns accompanying panicked movement and stealth.
The Hum’s been greenlit on Steam, and Argentinian developer Thot Wise has teased a bit of the ambiguous story in a new trailer, which you can watch with your very own eyes right now.
There’s a distinct War of the Worlds vibe, and it’s somewhat evocative of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist. The trailers, which generally restrict the alien presence to silhouette and shadows inspires a bit of faith this this will be a proper horror mystery rather than something more mundane like just running away from big ol’ aliens.
While the trailer has a bit of a jump scare, the developer emphasises that these cheap – but undeniably effective – tactics aren’t really what the game is about. The survivor is the victim of frequent abductions, changing the way he thinks and throwing him into “strange situations”.
“One, as human being, faces its fears and hopes both consciously and non- consciously, and it is my goal that The Hum will symbolize the totality of human fear, fears not only as individuals but as a species,” the developer explained in a blog post.
Certainly not short of ambition, then.
The Hum has been built on the Unreal engine 4, with a “strong focus” on VR. With SEGA and Creative Assembly breaking hearts by announcing that Alien: Isolation isn’t being developed for the Oculus Rift, we need some solid horror games if we’re ever going to live out our dreams of VR-induced heart attacks.
Cheers, RPS.