In the indie scene, one of the best ways to make a game stand out is to go against the grain. Do something completely unexpected. Maybe formulate a meta-narrative, put hidden secrets in every corner, or maybe even just make your game look really visually unappealing. You know, to rope in the ironic enjoyment crowd. There aren’t any bad ideas, just bad ways to execute those ideas.
I mention this solely because of a brand-new offering found during the ongoing Steam Next Fest. A friend introduced me to the latest game by New Blood Interactive, Tenebris Somnia. On the surface, it’s a typical 2D horror game with some light action and puzzle-solving elements. When you start playing it, however, you get a strange mix of retro gameplay and high-quality live-action footage that collide in a blunt but fascinating way.
Let’s talk about it.
A Strange (But Effective) Mix
Tenebris Somnia has a fairly straightforward setup. You play as a woman who is plagued by nightmares of her ex-boyfriend, Ivan, being killed in a multitude of gruesome ways. Upon visiting Ivan’s apartment, she makes a strange discovery. The apartment has seemingly been ransacked and desecrated, with pools of blood, bits of broken glass, and shattered amenities lining the floor. After investigating further, you’ll find a journey full of supernatural horrors and colorful characters alike as you’re plunged into a nightmare of your own creation.
The game takes place from a 2D perspective, incorporating the many familiar design tropes you’d find in most survival horror games. Aside from an inventory containing weapons and healing items alike, you also have the ability to interact with just about anything in the environment. Beyond giving you flavor text tied to the game’s story, you’ll also have to do this to find items, combine items to form new tools and solve puzzles to progress forward.
Being a survival horror game, there are also enemies to fight. While there are more creatures to come in the full game, the demo restricts you to a total of one ghoulish baddie to fight: a monstrous woman whose goiter hides a long, spiked tongue. It’s fairly easy to avoid, but should you feel compelled to fight it, you can trade blows without too much trouble.
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Otherwise, the real meat and potatoes here is anything that doesn’t revolve around fighting stuff.
The few puzzles in the demo are fairly engaging. It’s the typical adventure game fare—find items, put them in the right places, occasionally stitch them together, and all that. It’s inherently satisfying, and given the relatively few places you can go, it doesn’t require a herculean effort to figure out what goes where. Just be sure to check every single thing in every single room, as is tradition.
As for what’ll keep you playing, there are a handful of things to look forward to. A strange book full of missing passages, a cast of enigmatic characters, simplistic yet beautiful character animations, and an overall sense of creativity permeates every room you explore. The retro graphics convey a careful balance of modern sensibilities and fun color choices as well. In so many words, it’s fantastic to look at.
However, the biggest selling point of Tenebris Somnia is its cutscenes. No, seriously. Though this game screams “yet another indie retro throwback,” you’ll be surprised by what exactly you’ll see whenever control is wrested away from you.
All of the game’s cutscenes are in live-action. One moment, you’re approaching an elevator in a delightfully limited, sprite-driven world. The next, you’re immediately thrust into reality as an actress who closely resembles the lead protagonist and interacts with recreations of the game’s environment. We’re talking professional-grade footage, too. Moody lighting, expressive faces, gorgeous practical effects, everything.
It’s. . . jarring at first. But it’s something I gradually accustomed myself to as it went on.
I can’t help but feel reminded of how Remedy tackled a similar presentation style in Alan Wake II. For a game that looks as beautiful as it does, its purposeful integration of mixed-media elements came together in a way that felt natural and even engrossing, compared to the more direct approach felt here. Granted, they also had tens of millions of dollars to work with.
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Here, the startling cuts between retro gameplay and professional footage feel evocative of the same kinds of games that Tenebris Somnia is attempting to replicate. Games like The 7th Guest and Crusader: No Remorse made an honest attempt to blend computer graphics with real actors in 1993 and 1995, respectively, and while it certainly looked good for the time, the fun contrast between the two mediums in Tenebris Somnia feels—surprisingly—more cohesive in comparison.
It certainly helps that the production values for what’s found in Tenebris Somnia blow the cheesy direction of its predecessors out of the water. Per Andrés Borghi’s developer diary on IGN, Borghi is actually a film director as well, and their level of talent is beautifully exuded in the brief but impressive real-life diversions the game provides. Borghi would additionally attribute some of the game’s inspirations to the beloved FAITH: The Unholy Trinity series of games, which were developed by New Blood’s Airdorf.
Should You Buy Tenebris Somnia?
Yes. Admittedly, the demo is only a taste of what’s to come. But New Blood Interactive is a publisher whose track record is fairly consistent. Barring one or two subjective misses, their output has been nothing short of universally praised. Airdorf is now attached to the project as a producer, per an official announcement on Steam. This inspires a lot of confidence in how the project will ultimately turn out.
Even though the demo is fairly limited, what you’ll find in it really gives a great idea of what to expect from Tenebris Somnia. It’s a game whose fun melding of live-action footage and retro gameplay forms something legitimately memorable, if not fascinating. It’s a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeves, though it does so in a way that reinvigorates what came before. It’s a fun experiment to see how far you can push the incorporation of mixed-media elements in a setting that can really benefit from it.
In so many words, you ought to give Tenebris Somnia a shot.
The demo for Tenebris Somnia is available on Steam as part of Steam Next Fest.
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