Frédérick Raynal—AKA the creator of early 3D survival horror Alone in the Dark—has announced a new game. And it’s not a game about a man with a nice coat and a handsome moustache fending off monsters. It’s a game about a man with a nice coat and no moustache saving children from monsters. Also it’s top-down and kind of ugly, in an interesting way.
It’s called 2Dark, which is just about the worst name possible, but the premise is intriguing. Playing as ‘Mr Smith’, your goal is to save children from the clutches of serial killers, by creeping into the killers’ dens and and leading them to safety. Children tend to be left out of horror games, for obvious reasons, and 2Dark’s chirpily ugly art style makes the game seem even more sinister somehow than the premise would suggest.
“2Dark is a delightful but fear inducing stealth horror adventure game that sees you playing the part of the hero, Mr Smith. Set in a twisted and quirky universe, 2Dark asks you to infiltrate mansions and save the kidnapped children, all the while avoiding the ever present threat of their captors: a group of disturbed serial killers who are lurking in the dark, waiting for their next victim. There is really only one objective to this surreal horror adventure game and that is…don’t let the kids die.”
2Dark is releasing next year, developed by Raynal’s new studio Gloomywood, and you can pre-order the game from the site if you want early access, and a few other benefits.