The following launch from the New Blood indie collective, the Thief-inspired first particular person survival horror recreation Gloomwood (opens in new tab), is ready to enter early entry September 6. It has been an extended wait since we first acquired to attempt Gloomwood’s demo again in 2020, however the number of new mechanics and locales creator Dillon Rogers has been teasing on Twitter make it seem to be the wait was value it.
Gloomwood sees you tackle the position of an expert murderer, merely known as the Physician, who finds himself trapped on project within the metropolis of Gloomwood. It is at present wracked by the type of ongoing disaster you simply gotta piece along with cryptic notes. In a trailer for the PC Gaming Show (opens in new tab) this 12 months, New Blood revealed that Terri Brosius, the voice of Viktoria in Thief and Shodan in System Shock, has joined the project (opens in new tab) within the position of the Countess of Gloomwood.
Whereas Thief is Gloomwood’s main inspiration, it additionally takes cues from Bloodborne and Resident Evil, and is rather more permissive of some good quaint violence than Garrett’s adventures. Gloomwood positively has a little bit of a Yharnam factor occurring, and the Physician’s arsenal of nineteenth century firearms suits neatly right into a killer 3D attache case stock, the Resident Evil 4 mechanic I want each recreation on the Xbox 360 had chosen to repeat as a substitute of fast time occasions. Inventory tetris (opens in new tab) is lastly getting the eye it deserves, nowadays.
Once you’re caught out in Gloomwood, the dearth of fast saves encourages you to roll with errors and make full use of that quirky Victorian arsenal as a substitute of timidly tapping F9 to present it one other go. It helps that the enemies of Gloomwood are a bit extra monstrous and unsettling than the charmingly dopey guards of Thief or the misguided youths whose dad and mom you possibly can meet in Deus Ex.
I am fairly keen on the shockingly historically accurate folding shotgun (opens in new tab), however the spotlight of Gloomwood’s arsenal for me is its trusty default melee weapon, a trendy sword cane. It may be used for the prerequisite one-hit stealth kills, in addition to a extra fast-paced and fascinating tackle Thief’s underutilized first-person fencing.
Gloomwood’s large early entry debut comes on September sixth, however till then you possibly can whet your urge for food with that free demo I discussed. It represents a a lot earlier level in growth, however Gloomwood’s stealth-action-horror cocktail was already well-realized. For additional New Blood motion, Gloomwood’s stablemate, Ultrakill (opens in new tab), not too long ago acquired a nautical second act (opens in new tab).
