Frictional Games is teasing a new game through a series of short videos in a found footage style, along with mysterious audio clips.
As the studio known for horror games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Soma, and Penumbra: Black Plague, all of the strange teasers for this mysterious new game certainly gives off some very unsettling vibes. Each video and audio file appears to provide some clues about this new game, and most excitingly of all, in a press release from Evolve PR featuring morse code, it states that:
"We have a secret to reveal soon", followed by another line of morse code our very own James Jarvis worked out translates to "I am Tasi".
"I am Tasi"
The reference to "I am Tasi" appears to point to the first teaser the studio posted with the very same name. The teaser shows the perspective of someone who calls themselves "Tasi", and it sounds as though they're losing their grip on reality and perhaps their own identity. With the sound of a thumping heart beat and obscured vision, they cry out: "I need to find him, he must understand!" Who "he" is exactly, we don't know, but clearly he plays an important role in this scenario. Eventually, the blinking stops and we see a view of a desert-like area with a naked tree and sand darting through the air.
"Box 7 Reel 2, Partial Success"
We then have an incredibly disturbing audio file titled "Box 7 Reel 2, Partial Success" and the video description reads: "Artefact 1/7/115, marked "Triple Crown". Video unrecoverable, Audio track fragment, denoised." What is this Triple Crown artefact it mentions? It does seem to suggest that perhaps a group of people excavating an area stumble upon something that affects them in some kind of horrifying way. As you can plainly see, the video was unrecoverable and from the sounds you can hear, I'm pretty sure you don't want to see whatever's making that noise. It's pretty darn harrowing to say the least. You can even make out a sinister laugh and wailing.
"Box 12, Recent Acquisitions"
Perhaps the most menacing and disturbing video posted shows someone finding a bloodstained letter under a pile of rubble in a metal box. The bloodstain at the bottom is already pretty alarming, but that's nothing compared to what's actually written on the page.
The letter reads:
'There is an itching behind my eyes. As if a beetle burrows there, in the folds of my brain, boring its way in, mandibles tearing at grey matter. As if a gnarled finger has been pushed into my skill, a broken fingernail working into my thoughts. I want to reach in with a needle to scratch it. Or perhaps a piece of wire. Through the tear-duct, threading through the lacrimal canal.
Thread-like black worms swim in my eyes. When I think about them they are agitated and start to thrash around. They know I am scared. And it makes them worse. If I hold myself still. If I ease my mind, if I empty my head and try not to be afraid of… Then the itching fades to the tickling of a feather. I've tried to filled myself with the notes of a song, or the colours of a beautiful picture, but it doesn't work.'
The final line is partially covered in blood, but you can make out 'Only emptiness gives me any-' before the sign off states: 'I wish I had a gun'... Yeah, that's never a good sign. The visceral description of a feeling akin to a beetle burrowing behind the eyes is truly harrowing. Someone or something is clearly plaguing this person in an incredibly alarming way, and it sounds like something right out of a psychological horror movie. It's all very ominous
"Box 52, Tape 16"
This teaser shows a pile of rocks, with gusts of wind blowing. As you can see the camera appears to focus on some kind of symbol on one of the rocks, but it's hard to make out what it is exactly. It does kind of look like a skull, but it's hard to say for sure. It's interesting to see an outdoor setting here, and organic elements such as stones, caves, dirt, and sand seem to run throughout the teasers. Again it does seem to give to suggest that perhaps it follows a group of archaeologists, or maybe just explorers who's trip goes wrong when they uncover some kind of source of evil.
"Box 17, Card 9"
And finally, the most recent video to surface shows two people in an underground cave or tunnel that appear to encounter something that's not in the least bit friendly. The video opens with the face of the person filming, which is very Blair Witch-esque. As the camera follows behind a person very cautiously moving forward. You hear a blood-curdling roar before the camera finally cuts out and all your left with is the sound of some heavy-set footsteps, that almost sound like they're dragging along the ground or pulling at something.
The teasers certainly raise some very interesting questions about the direction of the new title from Frictional Games. Just what on earth is in that cave? And what is plaguing the poor person who wrote that letter? With a secret soon to be revealed, maybe we'll get some answers.
Looking for more scares? Here's our list of the best horror games.
