Palworld studio is releasing a psychological horror game so terrifying, even Pocketpair's own publishing manager has been "too scared to play it"

Palworld developer Pocketpair is getting scarier than its proprietary blend of cute monsters with assault rifles and releasing a first-person psychological horror game this year through its new publishing arm. Actually, the game is apparently so freaky, even Pocketpair's own publishing manager won't touch it.

"Very excited to reveal DEAD TAKE!" writes Pocketpair communications director and publishing manager John "Bucky" Buckley in a June 3 post on Twitter. "A psychological horror from Surgent Studios and published by us! Pocketpair Publishing! Every time [actor and Surgent founder Abubakar Salim] would send me builds, I was too scared to play it, so I just watched others play." Bucky concludes his sentence with an absolutely hopeless crying emoji.

I'm intrigued (imagine a thinking emoji here). Dead Take is certainly a pivot for both Pocketpair and Surgent Studios, neither of which have worked on any outright horror games until now. But Surgent's debut title, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a radiant Metroidvania about challenging the God of Death, contemplated grief and afterlife in a tender way I think is complementary to the horror genre.

Surgent's experience is at least relevant to Dead Take, whose Steam description explains it to be a first-person hunting mission to find your missing friend in "a luxurious and haunting mansion."

"Set out on a haunting single-player story shaped by real experiences in the entertainment industry," it says. "Discover the monstrous cost of creation for yourself." Based on this and screenshots of what look like empty, wax-shined rooms, I'm reminded of Bloober's 2019 game Layers of Fear 2, another first-person horror game about an actor. It made my skin crawl for a week after I played it, so I'm guessing Bucky is justified in his hesitation here.

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