Monstrum: Lose Yourself in a Labyrinth of Horror

Another day, another Twitter success story. After seeing a tweet about IGM, Team Junkfish, a Scotland-based studio, tweeted me asking for contact details. Fast-forward to the next morning and I’m lucky enough to have an email with all of the information I’d ever need on their survival-horror game, Monstrum (along with a code for the Alpha – eek!).

Within this email was one question: are you interested? Anyone who knows me knows that horror is one of my favourite things, ever, so… short answer: yes.

Monstrum, currently in Alpha and slated for a January, 2015 release on PC – with Oculus Rift support, no less – is a first person survival horror game in which the player finds themselves trapped aboard a “vast, derelict ship”. Of course, they are not alone, and a beast roams the halls with only one goal; to hunt and kill.

As is the way with my own personal favourite horror games (e.g. Amnesia, Outlast), there is no way to attack this constant threat, and the only methods of surviving are to run and hide, or lure the beast away with a distraction before referring back to the first option of running and hiding.

If at some point you don’t do any of the above actions well enough, Monstrum’s permadeath will see to it that you improve, or die trying, again. And, each time you die, the procedurally-generated environment around you will change its layout, providing new and nasty scares to keep you entertained and/or shaking in your urine-filled boots. Not only this, but there are a variety of different beasties available, so each time you find yourself searching for an exit aboard the ship, you may be greeted with a different creature trying to hunt you down.

The aim here is to survive long enough to find a way of escaping the nightmare of this ship, and do so in an environment that is constantly changing around you. This looks to be something beautiful for horror fans.

Monstrum is currently in Alpha, and as I said before, IGM is blessed enough to be able to try it out. As a result, there are plans for a preview in December’s issue of the IGM digital magazine. In the meantime, keep up with all the Monstrum happenings on the studios’ Twitter, Facebook, Steam Greenlight campaign or at your favourite place for indie-gaming news, IGM!