Video Games
Escape a Dystopian Lab in Upcoming Survival Horror Title ‘ANIMAL USE PROTOCOL’ [Trailer]
The Brotherhood, the studio behind STASIS and its sequel, 2023’s STASIS: Bone Totem, are diving into the Survival Horror realm with their upcoming title ANIMAL USE PROTOCOL. Set for a 2026 release on Steam (with console releases to follow), The Brotherhood has released a trailer introducing the game’s protagonist: Penn, a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee, and his rat companion, Trip.
Seriously.
In ANIMAL USE PROTOCOL, Penn is trapped in the nightmarish Anchorage Station, and must lead a desperate escape of lab animals. Armed only with your wits and a gravity manipulation tool, you’ll need to stealthily navigate the dystopian facility, relentlessly stalked by a monstrous chimera of experiments gone wrong.
Along the way, Penn must uncover the truth behind what happened at Anchorage Station. But he must be quick and quiet about it, as time is running out.
The trailer for ANIMAL USE PROTOCOL also serves the purpose of establishing the creepy Anchorage Station and its inhabitants. Which, when set to a disturbing rendition of “Ring Around the Rosie,” is pretty effective. The game is powered by the Unreal Engine 5, so you can expect more eye candy to show up as the game’s development continues.
Video Games
Bloody Body Horror Revealed in ‘Stellar Blade: Blood Rain’, Currently in Development [Trailer]
Shift Up has shifted things dramatically from 2024’s action-adventure game Stellar Blade, offering up a body horror bonanza in the newly announced sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The sequel is currently early in development, but if the trailer is any indication, players will be in for plenty of body horror.
Continuing the story from the original Stellar Blade, Blood Rain will star a new protagonist named Eve. Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of humanity has fled to a Colony in outer space.
Shift Up had mentioned during a Q&A following its latest earnings presentation last month that development on Blood Rain (which was still unannounced at the time) was progressing smoothly, and was on track to meet their targeted quality standards.
Shift Up stated that with this new title it would be transitioning to a first-party service model, effectively moving away from the restrictions the game experienced with original publisher Sony, which had the game under an exclusivity agreement for the PlayStation 5. “This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellar Blade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.”
Whether this means that Xbox Players will finally be able to play the original game (or its sequel) is still not clear. Meanwhile, Stellar Blade is reportedly being ported to the Nintendo Switch 2, but no official confirmation has been made.