While Ken Levine has been slowly teasing his next project via interviews and job listings, a group of ex-Irrational Games developers have combined to form Deep End Games, headed by BioShock Infinite design director Bill Gardner.
Deep End’s first game – a first-person horror “narrative adventure” called Perception – was successfully crowdfunded last year, but has only now poked its head above its cobweb-laden parapet. It’s got a striking art style that makes it look not only unique but also rather terrifying.
If horror’s your (body) bag, then you might want to stop by our best zombie games on PC.
Playing as a young woman named Cassie, months of research have led you to investigate an abandoned mansion. Cassie is blind thus relies on echolocation to see but quickly discovers all is not well in this old, and evidently haunted, house. A series of as yet unexplained events sees her travel through time to uncover the mystery of Echo Bluff – the estate upon which the house is built.
Here’s Gardner putting Perception through its paces via a walkthrough with the folks at IGN:
Using echolocation as an exploration mechanic is a neat way of forcing jump scares upon players, but Gardner also points to a main antagonistic force that stalks the decrepit abode.
“As much as the mansion is abandoned,” says Gardner. “There is a creature in Echo Bluff known as ‘the presence’ who is the stuff of legend and urban myth that’s essentially a malevolent being that roams the halls.
“The house gets angry, it moans and groans. If you create too much noise it’ll come and get you.”
Perception is expected to release at some point in 2016.