Daemonical, the debut game of developer Fearem, who (will) specialize in horror games will soon be released on Steam, and the developers have heralded its arrival with a trailer showing off the basic premise - and monster - of the title. As an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, it will have some competition with a saturated market, but Daemonical is bringing with it a fundamental mechanical change that might help it stand out of the crowd.
The basic premise is that 5 people find themselves stranded on an island, were a demonic summoning ritual was cut off halfway through. One of the five become possessed by the demonic spirit, and become the monster that will then hunt the other players. In most games like this, roles are assigned in the lobby already, so this added bit of uncertainty will help increase tension, which is something multiplayer horror games struggle with by default by virtue of them being multiplayer.
It is unclear whether the transformation of the possessed player will be gradual or instantaneous, however if it is the former, it will allow said player to mess with their comrades a bit until the physical signs of possession arise - because, as the screenshots and trailer show, grotesque disfigurement is part of the package. Human characters will be controlled from first-person view, while the demon will be controlled from the third-person.
Death isn’t the end of gameplay in Daemonical either - when human characters get offed by the beastie, their souls become flying balls of light which can act a light-sources or scouts for those still living. Daemonical also uses a proximity voice-chat, meaning you need to be within realistic earshot to actually hear one another (unless you cheat with some third-party voice chat), but the demon will hear you too.
Daemonical will be released on PC via Steam sometime in 2018.
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