Horror games based on the surreal can be super enjoyable. I love Resident Evil, Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s, and everything in between – jumpscares and blood-curdling screams included. With that being said, I\u2019ve long since felt as though the horror sphere could lean more heavily into telling the stories of real events. That\u2019s where Tenebrea steps in, having been announced for the Nintendo Switch among other consoles. The game boasts a variety of cool features, both in its gameplay and narrative, and one of them is that the developer used real witness testimony to construct its horrors.<\/p>\n
In a very cool feature, the aforementioned horrors will be different every time you load up the game. According to the developer Bowl of Tentacles, Tenebrea will procedurally generate the jumpscares based on different aspects of the witness testimony it borrows from. The game overview suggests that these things may range \u201cfrom shadows moving in the halls to objects changing place on their own,\u201d and \u201cfrom loud noises to apparitions that felt too real to ignore\u201d. I\u2019m already scared just imagining it. Promising a mixture of puzzles and investigatory work at the same time as the horror, Tenebrea should be a treat.<\/p>\n
The real-life building that lends Tenebrea its setting has a room permanently sealed shut after a security guard reportedly saw a ghost inside – there was previously an accident leading to a maintenance worker\u2019s death. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it\u2019s genuinely horrifying that residents and staff feel so afraid of the halls, an essence the game hopes to capture when you play as main character Laura. Time will tell if it was successful or not.<\/p>\n