A while back Rock, Paper, Shotgun did a few articles on the game “Pathologic”, which was a very strange first person adventure/survival/
RPG/horror game from a small Russian developer. It was a very flawed gem, suffering from a horrible translation and some other issues. But the game did some things very, very well.
RPS did a little write-up of the Russian version of their next game, which you can find here:
And they’re doing an interview with the developers next week.
The new game seems to be a first person adventure/survival/RPG/horror/whatever set in the afterlife, where the player has to collect/grow colour (the main resource of the world) to sustain his life and be able to survive the dangers of the world. To use the colour, the game has a gesture/painting system kind of like Black & White.
The game will reportedly be called “The Void” when Atari brings it over this year.
The art direction is a-fucking-mazing, and the game looks atmospheric as hell. Here is a trailer, then some gameplay stuff as well (keep in mind most of the videos are probably NSFW, as some contain nudity):
Oddly enough, from some gameplay videos I’ve seen it seems like most of the nudity is covered up with colors/sparkling lights floating around them.
Also, tinypic deleted a screenshot I took of the game showing the inventory/character status screen where you grow colour in your ethereal, see-through, non-genitalia housing body. Really, tinypic? Really?
Nudity in art can have all sorts of connotations of comfort, vulnerability, intimacy, weakness, and so on, and it would be a refreshing change if games were to use it more effectively. Hard to tell from these clips so far (I haven’t watched all 40 minutes of the gameplay sample though), but they do seem to be going for “artsy”.
The interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun is up, but unfortunately it’s not really about the game itself. Instead, it’s about the studio and its influences and motivations etc.
A small update. Some sites are reporting that it’s coming out on May 28th, with a developer seemingly confirming it.
But then there’s some bad news. It seems that Atari is (at least initially) only bringing the english version to Europe, so if Americans want to play it they’ll have to import it. Though, I imagine you could get it from places like gamersgate.
Also, if you want to see more of the game and get a better idea of what it is, someone is doing a video playthrough of the Russian version over here:
ps. there’s reportedly a new trailer out there somewhere from Atari, and it’s apparently got horrible music and presentation. edit: having seen it now, it makes the game seem infinitely more light-hearted and upbeat than it is.
in the game you pick up the resource colour from the ground and then you have to house it in your ethereal body for a time to then be able to use it for traveling or fighting or making a garden or giving it to the sisters for information or gifts
except, in the game you put it in your heart and the usable resource grows out of capillaries
