Upcoming psychological thriller Area of Darkness: Sentinel from Rematch Studios is looking really impressive for a first-time effort from a small indie studio. You take on the role of Dr. Anne Evans in 1978 as you play through three days of exploration and intrigue on the timeless Sentinel Islands.
With full voice acting and a branching narrative it’s certainly promising a whole lot in a similar vein to The Gallery, Obduction, and other immersive VR narrative adventures — although with a heavy focus on the supernatural.
Steam is flooded with shovelware in the VR space, there’s no other way of describing it. Of the literally thousands of VR apps that have released over the last two and a half or so years it’s tough to recommend even a small percentage of them. (We did it anyway with our list of 100 VR games you should play — shameless plug over.) Hopefully this one can buck the trend a bit.
The trailer gives us some very Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider vibes with a focus on archaeology and delving deep into ancient tombs. Rematch is building up the fact that they’ve designed the game from the ground up for VR which is certainly a good sign.
In the trailer above you can see moments like reaching into a pot to reveal a snake wrapped around your arm (something that I’d imagine feels quite wild in VR) and lots of in-your-face style action and puzzle solving.
As of now we don’t know much else, but Steam lists a “February 2019” release date so hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
