You may see the ex-CD Projekt Red developers making the vampire RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker and think that's an obvious fit for the people who made The Witcher 3. However, a PS1-style horror game in line with Silent Hill and Resident Evil is probably at the opposite end of what I'd expect from them.
However, that's exactly what the team at Spina Studio is going for. The studio is a small Polish studio made up of ex-Techland, CD Projekt Red, and Superhot Team developers and has shown off its debut title, Phase Zero. The game was revealed on the Spina Studio Twitter account, with the team describing it as "a modern take on survival horror’s golden era, told in a chapter-based, dual-hero story." And that players should "expect prerendered backgrounds, fixed cameras, and PSX-era DNA."
One look at the game's trailer, and you can feel the classic Resident Evil oozing out of it (and I mean that literally; these environments look disgusting at times). While we only got a 50-second look at the game, it already seems very promising and is nailing the vibe. While the majority of it looks very reminiscent of Capcom's classics, there's a healthy dose of Silent Hill in there too, with meaty-looking hallways and flashes of some gross-looking enemies.
In a press kit found on the game's website, Spina Studio revealed a few more details of the horrors that await us. The game is set in the harbor town of Flint Peak, where "a mysterious illness is spreading rapidly, leaving most of the town's residents grotesquely changed." We're also introduced to our duo of protagonists, "Mary, a reporter new to Flint Peak, and Guy, an injured engineer." And that Silent Hill vibe from the trailer is only furthered by the devs saying, "Grotesque, cancerous monsters crawl through the alleys of Flint Peak. Tissue overgrows walls of buildings, and meat bursts through the pipes. Empty husks of human skin fill the streets."
Currently the game is only confirmed for a PC (via Steam) release, with the trailer promising a demo is on the way "soon." However, there's no release date given, so players may be waiting a while before witnessing the horrors of Flint Peak.
In other spooky game news, Silent Hill f has been banned in Australia in its current state, with no reason given for its 'refused classification' rating.
