Silent Hill Townfall

Silent Hill has made a grand comeback as of late, and Townfall takes the iconic franchise in a more experimental direction – focusing heavily on psychological storytelling and building atmospheric tension. Early teasers suggest a strongly narrative-driven experience that leans into surreal horror and several plot twists, and that will be coupled with thrilling exploration and mind-bending puzzles – and it’s definitely one of the hottest games of the near future.

State of Decay 3

Undead Labs has been hard at work on the next entry in the State of Decay franchise, and we haven’t seen much of the game except a short cinematic teaser that just gives brief hints about what to expect. It’s obviously going to be a brutal survival game where players will be clearing out waves upon waves of zombies with scant resources, and fans are here for it. It’s being developed using Unreal Engine 5 as well, so fans can be sure that the game will be a looker. It will be released for Xbox Series X/S and PC sometime in the future.

Little Nightmares 3

Little Nightmares 2 is one of the best horror games of recent memory, thanks to its excellent jumpscares and consistently ominous atmosphere. Little Nightmares 3 is looking to knock those strengths up to eleven with an even better atmosphere, gargantuan enemies waiting to maul you at every turn, and a wide variety of cryptic environments housing these threats. It’s set to release sometime this year for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Echoes of the Living

Currently in development at MoonGlint, Echoes of the Living feels like the perfect homage to the classic Resident Evil games complete with an isometric perspective and tank-style controls. It’s a brutal horror game where players will have to go for long stretches with little to no resources, solve brain-tackling puzzles, and engage in boss fights. If Echoes of the Living manages to nail the element of nostalgia while avoiding the inherent frustrations with the previous designs, Echoes of the Living could turn out to be a big hit. It’s set to release sometime in Q1 2024 for PC.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is making a return with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, an ambitious post-apocalyptic sequel that seems to have a great understanding of what made the originals so great in the first place. Everything from the gameplay to the atmosphere and the graphics are looking really promising, and we can’t wait to dive into the Exclusion Zone once again and scour every inch of this carefully curated map. It’s set to release sometime in Q1 2024 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a game that takes inspiration from a bunch of action horror films of the 80s and uses those elements to craft a thrilling co-op experience. Little is known about the game at the moment, but the cinematic trailer has given some hints including but not limited to large groups of enemies and vehicular combat being in the game among others. Toxic Commando doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for this ye

Hideo Kojima OD

A collaboration between Xbox Game Studios and Kojima Productions, OD is being touted as the video game auteur’s most experimental game to date. And that’s saying something since Death Stranding in itself was a game that went against the current gaming trends and open-world conventions. The game’s announcement trailer was about as cryptic as you would expect, with actors muttering out seemingly random words that don’t make any sense. OD will also be utilizing Xbox’s cloud technology to power its mechanics, and we can’t wait to learn more about the game itself. It’s set to release sometime in the near future for Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Siltterhead

Slitterhead is the latest game from Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, and the game revolves around the player trying to fend off against a host of deadly parasites. The gameplay showcases the protagonist using melee and ranged weapons along with some magical elements, which seems to make for a fresh gameplay experience. Slitterhead will be releasing for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 sometime in the near future.

Blight Survival

Blight Survival thrusts players into a brutal medieval setting and tasks them to slaughter waves upon waves of undead enemy soldiers with nothing but primal weapons like swords and shields. It looks really beautiful with realistic environments and smooth animations accompanying each moment of the gameplay, and the added benefit of experiencing it all with a friend through co-op also makes it an even sweeter deal. Blight Survival will be released for PC at some point in the future.

Still Wakes The Deep

Set against the backdrop of the ever-mysterious sea, Still Wakes The Deep tells the story of a sailor trying to find his crew all while he comes to grips with the many paranormal activities going on around him. It looks like a highly atmospheric game that pays a ton of attention on its visuals and audio design, and the developer The Chinese Room is known for its work on games like Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs – so there’s a good chance that it might just be great.

Paranormal Tales

Digital Cybercherries Paranormal Tales is all about getting through well, paranormal tales experienced by a bunch of survivors in different places. The game is presented in a bodycam perspective with different types of filters like a fish eye lens, a digital camera, or a phone camera which combined with the myriad of different settings should make for a consistently entertaining experience. Paranormal Tales is being built using Unreal Engine 5, and it does not have a release date at the moment.

Tormented Souls 2

Tormented Souls 2 is currently in development at developer Dual Effect, and it looks to be a worthy sequel to the original. The gameplay here revolves around carefully plotting your way through cramped corridors, solving puzzles, and overcoming tough obstacles – which remains fun despite its familiar nature. Between this and tank controls reminiscent of the original Resident Evil games, Tormented Souls 2 should be a rather unique experience that sounds really promising.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Silent Hill 2 is one of the most revered survival horror games of all time, and a lot of that could be attributed to the amazing atmosphere and the constantly twisting story about the town of Silent Hill. Bloober Team is hard at work on a full-fledged remake that not only brings the game’s visuals up to a modern standard but also changes the gameplay in significant ways to better serve a modern audience.

Silent Hill F

Set against the backdrop of an unnamed Japanese town, Silent Hill F is one of the more interesting projects from the array of Silent Hill announcements. The trailer doesn’t show much information about the game, but we have seen some wonderfully ominous atmosphere, a schoolgirl holding a metal pipe, and all kinds of weird imagery that has us excited for what’s in store.

Silent Hill Townfall

Yet another Silent Hill project in the works, Silent Hill Townfall is developer No Code’s take on this legendary horror franchise. The announcement trailer hints at the story revolving around the protagonist being trapped in a hellish nightmare as a punishment for his evil deeds, but it’s too vague and disjointed to make any concrete conclusions from what we know. Hopefully, Konami will shed some light on the game in the coming months. Currently, Silent Hill Townfall doesn’t have confirmed platforms and neither a release date, but hopefully we should know more this year.

Killing Floor 3

Much like prior entries in the franchise, Killing Floor 3 is all about shooting your way through hordes of different zombie types along with a group of friends. Killing Floor 3 thrusts players into a futuristic setting with high-tech weaponry and bioengineered monsters, so returning fans can expect plenty of new features and mechanics jumping into this game. The game will be released for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in the near future.

The Casting of Frank Stone

Supermassive Games is known for its signature brand of narrative-based horror, and the developer is currently hard at work on its next project The Casting of Frank Stone. The game is set in the Dead By Daylight universe, and the story follows a group of young friends facing the horrifying mystery of Frank Stone and his deadly legacy. It’s obviously a story where you make critical decisions at every turn which dictates the ultimate outcome, so it’s not uncharted territory for the developer – but it’s definitely worth a look.

ILL

Currently in development at Clout Games, ILL is an ambitious survival horror game that’s being built using Unreal Engine 5. Featuring stunning visuals and superb-looking gameplay, ILL seems to be punching well above its weight class and might just put up some fierce competition against its AAA competitors if it manages to stand true to its promises. It will be released for PC sometime in the near future.

Death Stranding 2

Death Stranding wasn’t a pure horror game by any means, but there were plenty of horror sequences that would snugly fit in the box of such games. Death Stranding 2 is set to build upon these foundations with a story that features both new and returning faces, new mechanics, and a convoluted story. Its release date isn’t set in stone, but it will be releasing for PS5 in the future.

Signalis

A grainy, psychologically traumatic dread-fest, Signalis incorporates all classic Resident Evil’s ingredients and remixes them into a cosmic exploration through the psyche of Elster, herself a humanoid android awaken on a derelict ghost ship. Forging carefully through darkness to uncover the mysteries behind the vessel’s abandoned populace, Elster confronts her fears in the face of strange horrors all whilst utilising ammunition and repair resources sparingly and figuring out how to repair the ship’s technical infrastructure. Signalis is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

But not a lot of fans know about the many upcoming indie and AA horror games that are shaping up to be something truly special, and this feature series is dedicated to highlighting games of this ilk. Developer MoonGlint’s upcoming Echoes of The Living finds itself in this very category, and it looks like the perfect throwback to the classic horror games that paved the way for the modern blockbuster experiences that we love so dearly.

Echoes of The Living takes place in the year 1996 in a small town in North Europe, where a mysterious fog has enveloped the entire area – turning the citizens into mindless zombies who will aggressively attack anyone foolish enough to stand in their way. The player character finds themselves stuck amidst all of this chaos, and the narrative will take you to the bottom of what caused this outbreak in the first place as you try to make an escape against all odds. Players get to choose between two different protagonists – Laurel who is a survivor with a goal of escaping this hellhole and Liam who is a spec ops officer on a quest to find his long lost fiance. Almost immediately, the game seems to make it clear that the early Resident Evil games are a big influence on the narrative – though the similarities don’t just end here.

Coming over to the gameplay front, Echoes of The Living’s gameplay takes place through fixed camera angles reminiscent of the PS1 Resident Evil games, and we get the same tank controls found in Capcom’s survival horror original. As such, players will have to be mindful of their surroundings at all times because it’s very likely that dangerous horrors would be lurking just outside the camera frame. Sure, the fixed camera angles and tank controls might not sound all that exciting to the larger audience who grew up on modern games like Dead Space, but it’s a dream come true for those who absolutely love the original Resident Evil games.

Thus, it makes complete sense for the developer to make a game that would satisfy the desires and requirements of that niche audience instead of watering down the gameplay to appeal to the masses – and Echoes of the Living seems to be doing just that. Apart from the aforementioned mechanics, the game will also feature an inventory management system and have a greater focus on puzzles than set-piece driven combat popularized by modern blockbusters. As can be seen from the gameplay footage, players will only have 3 weapon slots and 5 item slots in their inventory which would obviously require them to make judicial decisions about what to carry and what to leave behind in a safe storage box. And unlike most modern games that use similar inventory systems, Echoes of the Living will most likely use the same item slots for key items and other ammunition and resources – which will further limit your ability to carry essential supplies that would save you in a pinch.

But the brutality doesn’t just stop there. Save games will only be limited to save rooms, so players will have to be extremely mindful of their steps – since one too many wrong moves will easily set you back more than a few minutes worth of progress. Furthermore, you will also have to backtrack through environments at several points during the game – so familiarizing yourself with the environment will also be equally important.

Echoes of the Living also seems to pay homage to the games that inspired it by creating scenarios and levels that are reminiscent of survival horror classics. Just take a look at the start of the demo where we see our player character making their way through a zombie infested road into a back alley and then proceed indoors. Those who are familiar with Resident Evil 2 would instantly recognize this reference, and those who aren’t familiar with that game – well, now you know. In a similar vein, players will be facing all kinds of horrors in recognizable environments like hospitals, police stations, libraries, and schools which will most likely bring back memories of exploring similar locations in games that came before.

Nostalgia can be a very powerful tool, but only when used in a wise manner. As is customary with human memory, we tend to remember the better parts of an experience while the many frustrations of those experiences usually get smoothened out by the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia as time passes on. What this means for Echoes of The Past is that it will have to modernize objectively dated aspects like graphics and overtly obtuse puzzles and improve them to placate a brand new set of audience while retaining the elements that worked.

Thankfully, Echoes of the Past seems to have succeeded in this department – and the game looks really beautiful to say the least. The environments look fantastic with high quality assets and dim lighting which sets up the perfect ambiance for an unsettling experience. Obviously, it’s not as graphically impressive as say, Resident Evil: Village, but they are good enough so as to not be put off from the gameplay. As for the puzzles and how they fare in the modern gaming landscape, we’ll have to wait for the final release to make a reasonable judgment on the matter.

Furthermore, the developers have also done a great job of mimicking the environmental storytelling that was pioneered by survival horror classics like Resident Evil. The fixed camera angles allow the developer to perfectly frame the action according to them, and when done correctly – the environment itself becomes a part of the narrative. You can see tons of props, dead bodies, and signs littered throughout each room that when observed closely, tell their own little vignettes about what exactly went down before your arrival. This results in a thick atmosphere which should hopefully, really immerse players into the experience.

MoonGlint is an interesting developer because it’s the same person that previously announced Residence of Evil: VIGIL, yet another survival horror game with fixed camera angles. A demo version of the game was released, but that project was subsequently canned. It’s also the same team that recently teased an unofficial remake of the original Resident Evil in Unreal Engine 4. Considering the mixed track record of the developer and the fact that it is yet to release its first full game, it seems best to keep expectations in check for now. That said, the developer has already released a free playable demo for its upcoming project on Steam – so not all hope is lost.

In conclusion, Echoes of the Living is looking like the perfect throwback to the survival horror classics of the 90s. The love and respect for the games that inspired it shines through in every aspect of the experience, and the developer seems to have done a great job of modernizing these old mechanics without losing that olden charm in the process. The end result is nothing short of extraordinary, and we are really excited to see how it all unfolds when the game finally releases sometime in Q3 2023.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.