Get ready for a few sharp jabs to the gut, because that’s exactly what developer Pentacle delivers in the first gameplay video for their first-person psychological thriller The Works of Mercy.
This footage immediately brings to mind the growing number of P.T.-inspired indie horror games that have surfaced since the cancellation of Silent Hills, but the similarities begin and end with the camera perspective and clean, white interiors. There’s nothing supernatural about the monster we’ll meet in this game. He’s flesh and bone, and that makes him exponentially more terrifying.
The Works of Mercy takes the impossible decisions from a game like Telltale’s The Walking Dead and gives them a Saw-like twist, all out of an eagerness to make you feel something. Its developer seems willing to explore the full spectrum of things I’d rather not feel — grief, hatred, helplessness — with its tale of “personal tragedy and wrecked psyche.”
A handful of games have ventured into similar territory, like Heavy Rain, in which a grieving father is forced to do horrific things by his son’s kidnapper. Quantic Dream reminded me to cherish every one of my digits with that game, and they achieved it without ever getting too dark.
Now, Pentacle is going to show us how dark and twisty that premise can get.
This Unreal Engine 4-powered rollercoaster ride of psychological torment will come first to PC with support for virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, followed by Mac, Linux and consoles. If and where it releases depends on where its Kickstarter campaign is in about a month.
And if you’d like to support Works of Mercy without giving it your precious cash monies, you can totally do that by voting for it on Steam Greenlight.
